Gen Z spending in US falls 13% amid value shift: PwC

And in PwC’s 2025 Holiday Outlook survey, they reported plan to slash holiday spending by 23 per cent this year, after expecting to boost spend by 37 per cent in 2024.

Gen Z still plans to spend an average of $1,357 this season. While Gen Z’s pullback may look like a simple case of belt-tightening at first glance, it actually reveals something more complex, an article on consumer behaviour tends on PwC website remarked. It is a generational shift in how value is defined and where money feels worth spending.

US Gen Z isn’t just price-conscious, it is value-conscious as well, with an emphasis on emotional and social value, not just discounts.

PwC's five-year view of Gen Z in the United States indicates that more than 79 per cent wait for products to go on sale, and only 21 per cent regularly pay full price. Deal hunting is rising—searching for discount codes is up by 14 per cent, browsing up 17 per cent—but this is less about frugality than intentionality.

Increasingly, as Gen Z also turns to artificial intelligence (AI) tools for help finding deals, their path to purchase could become more algorithmically curated. To stay ahead, retailers need to start thinking about optimising discoverability within AI-driven environments now, PwC noted.

Gen Z’s selectivity doesn’t stop at products; it extends to brands themselves. “This generation isn’t inherently brand loyal. They’re brand agnostic until given a reason to commit,” the consultancy firm observed.

PwC’s analysis shows that 61 per cent of Gen Z now prefers to discover new products in stores, a reversal that speaks volumes about what this generation wants: experience.

At the same time, Gen Z’s digital behaviours remain intense, but the path to purchase is no longer linear, it added.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (DS)