Why young people are increasingly listening to influencers when shopping online
A new study shows that 54 percent of young people have purchased at least one product in the past six months that was presented to them by relevant brand ambassadors.
The importance of influencers in e-commerce continues to grow: 54% of young people have bought at least one product presented to them by influencers in the past six months. This figure has been rising steadily since 2020, from 41% at the time to 50% in the previous year. This trend has now reached the majority of 16 to 18-year-olds. These are the findings of Postbank's representative Digital Youth Study 2024.
According to the study, girls in particular are influenced by product suggestions on blogs, Instagram and the like when shopping. 62% of them have followed influencer recommendations in the past six months, compared to only 47% of the boys surveyed. In addition, older respondents are more likely to be influenced than younger respondents: 59% of 18-year-olds and 49% of 16-year-olds buy products that they have seen on their social media icons.
Young people spend significantly more online
Presumably also because the influencers' product presentations whet the appetite for consumption, spending by 16 to 18-year-olds on online consumption has risen significantly compared to the previous year, namely by 43% to EUR 167 per month. In the previous year, young Germans spent an average of 117 euros per month on online purchases. At an average of EUR 217, boys spend significantly more than girls at EUR 116.
Not only do male teenagers spend more money, they also use direct clicks on YouTube, Instagram and the like more frequently than the female respondents: around one in two boys but only around one in three girls buy products directly via a social network. Overall, 44% of all young people surveyed have already done this at least once and a further 30% can imagine doing so in the future. This trend is therefore also an important driver of sales in online retail. Almost three quarters of those with social shopping experience would like to do it just as often as before or even more often in the future. Incentives include discount campaigns, particularly well-matched or new products and convenience, as young people spend time on social media anyway.
WhatsApp loses market share to other apps
In line with the trend, Whatsapp has also added a shopping button to its chat function, thus enabling social shopping. Together with the video service YouTube, the instant messaging service remains at the top of the list of most frequently used channels in 2024 - 73% of respondents stated that they use both to obtain information or exchange information. In 2020, however, both apps were still used by 86% - a drop of 13 percentage points in four years. Instagram (69%), Tiktok (66%), Snapchat (57%) and Pinterest (29%) all increased slightly compared to the previous year. The big winners in particular are also used especially frequently for social shopping. Instagram is in first place by a wide margin, with 56% of 16 to 18-year-olds with a preference for social shopping using it for direct purchases. Tiktok also appears to have integrated the trendy function well, as 41% of those who can at least imagine social shopping have already used the platform for this purpose. In contrast, only 22% have used Whatsapp.
