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Cotton Incorporated Lifestyle Monitor™

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Home > North America > Here’s What to Know About Gen Alpha – Today’s Youngest Shoppers

Here’s What to Know About Gen Alpha – Today’s Youngest Shoppers

December 3, 2025

Catherine Salfino

Shopping

Now that marketers have their heads wrapped around Gen Z and what they’re all about, it’s time to give a warm welcome to Generation Alpha, the youngest crop of consumers who are just coming into their own as a shopping cohort.

Gen Alpha is everyone born between 2010 and 2024 and, at roughly 2 billion globally, are the largest generation in history, according to McCrindle Research, whose founder, Mark McCrindle, coined the term Generation Alpha. Their parents are Gen Xers and Millennials. And these young consumers aren’t just shoppers, they’re decision makers within their households.

When we have surveyed this generation and asked them what their cause of concern is from environmental to resource scarcity and racism and poverty alleviation, it’s all of them all at the same time.

Mark McCrindle, Founder, McCrindle Research

Matt Higgins, head of strategy, at Blue Hour Studios, a social and influencer agency, says this new attitude isn’t just a generational shift, but more a preview of where things will move.

 “Alpha-Millennial households are living inside a new consumption model and signal what’s ahead for all consumers: multi-platform, interest-driven and accelerated,” Higgins said upon the agency’s release of its generational report, “The New Media Multiverse.” “Brands that understand and adapt to these new realities now will have a significant competitive advantage in the next decade.”

Analysts at WGSN agree, and state that by 2027, Generation Alpha will have a greater influence on family purchasing decisions, especially in categories such as fashion, beauty, and digital entertainment. According to WGSN forecasts, one in three online purchases will be influenced by this emerging audience.

That may not be surprising considering that when shopping for Back-to-School (BTS) clothes this year, 95 percent of parents said their child/children influence their purchases, with 60 percent saying they have “a lot” of influence on what they wear to school, according to the Cotton Incorporated Back-to-School Survey (n=484).

In a recent “Lives of Tomorrow” podcast, WGSN’s Erin Rechner, head of kids wear, said comfort is increasingly important, particularly for the Gen Z parent that is shifting toward a more active lifestyle and trying to help kids move away from screens.

That sentiment is echoed by the Cotton Incorporated Back-to-School research (n=498), which found the majority of parents (65 percent) say comfort is among the top three attributes their children seek in BTS clothing. Trendy styles (54 percent) and quality (35 percent) also top the list. Further, 57 percent of shoppers aged 13-to-34 say clothes with more cotton than other fibers are more comfortable, softer (49 percent) and better quality (53 percent).

Rechner said the types of clothing that will matter to these young shoppers and their parents are those that are more sustainable and circular in design. “Anything that can be repurposed, resold, handed down – that will only increase as we see people more attuned to what’s happening in fashion in general, and just the overconsumption overall.”

This is consistent with a conversation SAP had with McCrindle, in which McCrindle said Gen Alpha is a very altruistic generation.

“When we have surveyed this generation and asked them what their cause of concern is from environmental to resource scarcity and racism and poverty alleviation, it’s all of them all at the same time,” McCrindle stated.

This means marketers need to highlight their brand’s ethical and altruistic values if they want to resonate with these young shoppers, McCrindle said. And, he said, since they’re tech savvy and have been exposed to marketing early and often, Gen Alpha is better at detecting inauthentic messaging.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the best place to reach young shoppers is online. More than half (57 percent) of Gen Alpha shoppers aged 13-to-15 say they get their clothing ideas from social media, according to the Cotton Incorporated 2025 Lifestyle Monitor™ research. That compares to 54 percent of Gen Z, 43 percent for Millennials, 23 percent for Gen X and 11 percent of Boomers.

Nearly 32 percent of 13-to-15 year old consumers say they get their apparel ideas from TV shows (including streaming services and YouTube content), according to Monitor™ research. A modest share of Gen Z (28 percent) and Millennial shoppers (25 percent) also get their fashion ideas from TV.

Social media is also huge with the young set – as much for fashion influence as anything else. Among shoppers aged 13-to-15 who get their clothing ideas from social media, many turn to TikTok (72 percent), Instagram (71 percent), YouTube (60 percent) and – plot twist – Facebook (41 percent) the most when looking for fashion ideas, according to the Monitor™ research.

That compares to Gen Z consumer influenced by social media, who gets their clothing ideas from Instagram the most (76 percent), followed by TikTok (69 percent), Pinterest (44 percent), and YouTube (43 percent), according to the Monitor™ research. Millennials also turn to Instagram the most (75 percent), followed by TikTok (55 percent), Facebook (51 percent), YouTube (43 percent), and Pinterest (42 percent). Gen X looks to Facebook the most (62 percent), followed by Instagram (60 percent), TikTok (41 percent), and YouTube (40 percent).

The Social Shepherd’s Natasha Everett, paid social director at the social media marketing agency, pointed out in the agency’s podcast, “Have You Herd,” that marketers can reach Gen Alpha in video games, because they are immersed in gaming culture and it’s also a social platform for them.

“Burberry and Minecraft had a collaboration where they had exclusive offerings in the game,” Everett said. “That’s the kind of stuff brands need to be doing to prime Gen Alpha.”

Sophia de Souza, social creative at the Social Shepard, says she sees in-game marketing as an interesting way to reach consumers. “It’s almost subconscious,” she said. “You’re not even paying attention to it. So, I think that side of things – including Discord or Twitch – has such untapped social potential. We’ll slowly get to grips with it, the more it happens. But I think that’s definitely a Gen Alpha vibe.”