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Gen Z shopping habits case studies: five brands and the sources behind them
Five brand cases on Gen Z shopping habits, each with a dated source that reports Gen Z or younger-shopper figures, plus the limit that stops you copying it.
What to take away
- Five brands appear in the tableShein, Temu, e.l.f. Beauty, Depop and ThredUp. Each has a named, dated source that reports Gen Z or younger-shopper figures.
- Two sources are brand-sideEtsy's 2021 Depop announcement and ThredUp's own 2025 report. Treat both as company claims.
- The Gen Z definitions differ. Omnisend counts ages 18 to 24, Etsy counts users under 26 and ThredUp groups Gen Z with millennials.
- Copy the condition, not the headline. The condition is the part that travels.
- Ask for the denominator before a percentage enters a budget.
The five cases at a glance
The table gives the Gen Z evidence, its source and the limit for each case. The sources use different age bands, so the figures are not comparable with one another.
| Case | Company | Gen Z evidence and period | Source | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shein | 44% of Gen Z aged 18 to 24 buy at least monthly, against 23% for older generations; April 2024 fieldwork | Omnisend survey, released August 6, 2024 | Self-reported purchases; sample size stated two ways |
| 2 | Temu | 41% of Gen Z buy at least monthly; rated 6.4 out of 10 on experience | Same Omnisend survey | Self-reported; says little about repeat spend |
| 3 | e.l.f. Beauty | Net sales up 77% to $1.02bn in fiscal 2024; 49% of Gen Z have bought a dupe, against 31% of all adults | Earnings release dated May 22, 2024; Morning Consult poll, October 2023 | The release has no age split; the poll is not about e.l.f. |
| 4 | Depop | About 90% of active users under 26 | Etsy deal announcement, June 2, 2021 | Company figure from 2021 |
| 5 | ThredUp | Younger generations plan 46% of apparel budgets on secondhand, against 34% for all consumers | ThredUp 2025 Resale Report, March 19, 2025 | Stated plans, not purchases |
For the wider numbers, Gen Z shopping habits statistics lists four checks to run on a percentage before you trust it.
Case 1: Shein and the monthly Gen Z habit
Omnisend, an email-marketing firm, released a survey on August 6, 2024, with fieldwork in April 2024 and a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent. It defines Gen Z as ages 18 to 24. Among them, 44% bought from Shein at least monthly, almost double the 23% for older generations.
The release also reports that 73% of Gen Z shopped at Temu, Shein, TikTok Shop or AliExpress in the past year, and 24% shop at these marketplaces weekly. The limit: purchases are self-reported, and the release states the sample as 1,000 US respondents in one place and 4,000 across four countries in another.
The condition is price. Omnisend's respondents named low prices as Shein's top advantage, at 49%. That condition does not transfer to a higher price point.
Case 2: Temu and the cheap first impression
The same survey puts Temu at 41% of Gen Z buying at least monthly. Low prices were Temu's top advantage at 58%. Respondents rated the Temu experience 6.4 out of 10, against 7.1 for Shein and 8 for Amazon.
The gap is the lesson. Frequent buying and a good experience are separate measures, so a brand that wins on price alone should not read monthly purchases as loyalty. The survey does not measure repeat spend or returns, which is the limit on this case. Gen Z brand loyalty case studies put the same condition-first method to repeat purchase.
Case 3: e.l.f. Beauty and the dupe habit
Reported result: net sales of $1,023.9 million for the year ended March 31, 2024, up 77%, in the company's fiscal 2024 results release dated May 22, 2024. This is the one result here that comes from a company earnings release.
e.l.f. net sales growth
- Fiscal 2023$578.8 million
- Fiscal 2024$1.02 billion
- Reported rise48%
- Reported rise77%
The Gen Z evidence comes from elsewhere. A Morning Consult poll of 2,216 US adults, reported by CNBC on October 31, 2023, found that 49% of Gen Z had intentionally bought a dupe of a premium product, against 44% of millennials and 31% of all adults. The poll is not about e.l.f., and the release does not split sales by age, so the link is a condition to test, not proof.
Copy the low price that makes trial cheap, and a short gap from trend to shelf. Gen Z shopping habits examples breaks similar patterns into single buying decisions you can map onto your own traffic.
Case 4: Depop and the under-26 marketplace
When Etsy announced its purchase of Depop on June 2, 2021, it said about 90% of Depop's active users were under 26. The price was about $1.625 billion, and Depop's 2020 gross merchandise sales were about $650 million, as reported by TechCrunch.
Etsy described Depop as the resale home for Gen Z. The limit is age and origin: this is a company statement at deal time, from 2021, with no definition of an active user. Check current figures before you quote it as today's audience.
Case 5: ThredUp and the secondhand budget
ThredUp's 2025 Resale Report, released March 19, 2025, draws on a survey of 3,034 US consumers aged 18 and over, run in January and February 2025. Younger generations, which ThredUp counts as Gen Z and millennials, plan to spend 46% of their apparel budget on secondhand, against 34% for all consumers.
Also, 39% of the younger group bought secondhand apparel through a social commerce platform in the past 12 months, against 28% of all consumers. The limit: the 46% is a stated plan, not a record of purchases, and the report comes from a resale company.
Platform shifts that set the terms
TikTok Shop opened to US sellers in September 2023, which let checkout happen in the same app where the attention was already spent, as described in the TikTok Shop live shopping guide.
Amazon launched Haul on November 13, 2024, according to launch coverage. At launch, every item was priced at $20 or less, free shipping applied to orders of $25 or more, and smaller orders paid $3.99. These are launch-period reports, so check Amazon's current terms, as they may have changed.
Those shifts changed where a purchase could finish. They did not change why a buyer turned up.
How to test a case before you copy it
Run these five questions and stop at the first mismatch.
Test a case before copying
- Who reported the result?
- What is the denominator?
- Do you have the condition?
- What did the case leave out?
- What is your 90-day stop rule?
- Name the cohort. If the case measured 18 to 24 and your buyers are 30 to 45, stop.
- Name the stage. Discovery and repeat purchase are not interchangeable.
- Name the price point and the return friction. A habit built on a $12 basket says little about a $90 one.
- Name the subsidy. If the first order sold below cost, your unit economics are not the case's.
- Name the denominator. If the source gives none, call the figure a direction.
Gen Z shopping habits research methods matches each method to the question it can answer, which is where a small test starts.
