Sentiment trends
Trend 1: Young people feel positive!
Compared to Boomers, Gen Z are more than twice as likely to say they’re feeling “very positive” (35.8% versus 15.8%). Millennials are also keeping their chins up: 32.4% feel very positive right now.
Overall, inflation hasn’t impacted positivity as much as you might imagine; positive sentiment has only declined by two points from a year ago, standing at 64.1%.
Trend 2: Food insecurity a big issue
Nearly a quarter of consumers are worried about being able to afford groceries, making it the issue Americans are most concerned about heading into 2023.
But fears vary across demographics; 23.7% of Gen Z are fretting about gas prices. Boomers, on the other hand, are more likely to be worried about political upheaval (24.0%).
Trend 3: Funny messaging out of favor
Last year, American consumers wanted brands to make them laugh but appetite for humorous messaging has fallen 5.4 points to 50.7%. Younger consumers in particular show less interest in funny ads.
What Gen Z and Millennials most want to hear are motivational messages. In addition, Gen Z are twice as likely to respond to ‘inclusive’ messaging than older consumers.
Trend 4: Brands must “be political”
There’s a growing desire for brands to take a stand on political and social issues, like the overturning of Roe v. Wade. We see this in the 6.2 point increase in people wanting brands to represent women’s rights (29.5%).
Overall, poverty and inequality is the biggest topic for brands to address (35.9%), followed by racism – although this has declined in importance by 4.5 points to 30.8%. Meanwhile, gun violence is deemed as important as climate change (both 29%).
Marketing trends
Trend 5: Millennials ❤️ email marketing
Millennials are significantly more likely than other demographics to welcome daily marketing emails from brands they’re interested in: 23.8% versus 14.7% of Gen Z and 9.7% of Boomers.
But email remains a valuable channel for brands to reach all age groups, with ‘once a week’ being the preferred cadence for mailings. The percentage of consumers who don’t want to receive marketing emails is just 12.4%.
Trend 6: TikTok taking off for brands
The number of consumers who engage with brands on TikTok has increased by 10 points since last year, to 35.0% – the highest growth of all the social platforms.
Gen X and Millennials are especially likely to interact with brands on TikTok: 60.8% and 42.3% respectively. Overall engagement with brands on social media has increased by 4.7 points to 88.0%.
Trend 7: VR marketing is an opportunity
Ownership of virtual reality headsets is growing; more than a quarter of US households have one. Millennials are the biggest adopters of VR, 36.6% have a headset (including 9.9% who own more than one).
A further 28.9% of Americans who don’t have a VR headset state they plan to get one. Boomers are least likely to adopt VR technology, with 68.9% saying they have no plans to use it.
Trend 8: Millennials populate metaverse
Millennials have the highest awareness of metaverse platforms. Twice as many are familiar with Meta Horizon Worlds (Mark Zuckerberg’s offering) than other demographics (23.7%), suggesting they will be first to populate it.
Overall, Roblox – a virtual world for kids – has the strongest awareness among metaverse platforms, recognized by 50.7% of Americans, rising to 61.1% of Millennials, and 75.4% of Gen Z.
Shopping & spending trends
Trend 9: Consumers spend cautiously
It’s no surprise that inflation is having an impact on consumer spending, but our data highlights the change on last year: we see a 5.4 point increase in “fairly cautious” spending and a 4.7 point increase in “very cautious” spending.
Older consumers are twice as likely to be keeping a tight hold of the purse strings: 77.9% of Boomers are spending cautiously versus 39.2% of Gen Z.
Trend 10: Older shoppers favor stores
The pandemic increased adoption of online shopping among older consumers, but Gen X and Boomers are returning to Main Street. Nearly 41% of Gen X say they now “mostly or always” shop in-store, as do 44% of Boomers.
Younger shoppers, on the other hand, still favor online: 36.3% of Gen Z and 39.5% of Millennials “mostly or always” shop online.
Attest is a nimble and robust enough platform to gather insights for our domestic and international business, allowing us to measure, grow, and innovate.
Trend 11: Amazon gains market share
Just when you thought Amazon’s profits couldn’t get any bigger, our data shows a net +11.1% of consumers plan to increase their shopping on the marketplace in 2023.
The growth will be driven by Gen Z, a net +23.8% of whom say they’ll shop on Amazon more. Although they’re not giving up on local businesses: a net +15.0% say they will shop locally more too.
Trend 12: Fast fashion faces a reckoning
The environmental impact of fast fashion has been in the spotlight lately and it seems to have had an impact. A net -10.4% of consumers say they will buy fewer fast fashion items in 2023.
Consumers aged 40+ are especially likely to make this commitment, with a net -19.1% of Gen X shoppers planning to buy less. But fast fashion’s biggest consumers (Gen Z) will also cut back: -4.9% net.
Trend 13: Streaming services chopped
Subscriptions are a casualty of the rising cost of living, with 68.9% of consumers canceling one. A third have axed a TV streaming service to cut costs and 20.9% have canceled a music streaming service.
Younger consumers are more likely to cancel: a quarter of Millennials have stopped their Amazon Prime subscription and 17.8% have canceled a product subscription, while 20.4% of Gen Z have canceled a physical gym subscription.
Lifestyle trends
Trend 14: Socializing is back
Despite the roll out of the Covid-19 vaccination campaign, many Americans were keeping their social circles small last year. This year, though, socializing has rebounded.
We see a 10.5 point increase in the percentage of people socializing with friends at least once a week (63.3%). Doing sport weekly has also grown in popularity by 7.4 points (36.6%), with Gen Z the most active.
Trend 15: Diets changing (for the worse)
More than a third of consumers say the rising cost of food is having a “big” impact on their diets, while a further 34.6% say it’s having a “medium” impact.
The biggest issue is being able to afford fresh quality foods like meat, fruit and vegetables (40.9%), while 33.8% can no longer afford their preferred brands and 39.1% struggle to eat out.
Trend 16: WFH here to stay
Elon Musk might be trying to put a stop to it at Twitter, but the WFH movement shows no signs of abating. Our data evidences no significant decline since last year.
Over 27% of people split work between home and the office, while 15.6% work from home five days a week. Only a quarter of workers never work from home.
Trend 17: Second hand losing its stigma
Thrift shopping will be a big pastime in 2023, with 38.0% of consumers saying they’ll be hunting for second hand bargains to combat the rising costs of inflation.
In turn, nearly 38% of consumers will be selling their unwanted goods – especially Gen Z and Millennials – meaning the pre-loved market will be booming.
Trend 18: Rampant consumerism is out
Frugality is cool; 43.3% of consumers say they are buying fewer things and consuming less – that’s a 9.6 point increase on last year.
This trend is seen most strongly among shoppers aged 40+. Another environmental trend sees Americans cutting down on their car usage, with a 10.4 point increase in the number of people ditching their cars, to 33.9%.