Gen-Z Walks In: What the Most Online Generation Means for Your Screens

The path to purchase used to be simple. Now it starts on a phone, winds through a dozen platforms, and still, more often than not, ends in a physical store. What happens inside that store has never mattered more.

Every few years, a narrative takes hold in retail: “Physical stores are dying. The internet killed them. Now it's the new generation’s turn to finish the job, a generation born into technology, addicted to TikTok, and allergic to anything that can't be ordered with two taps.”

The data tells a different story. And for retailers with brick-and-mortar locations, it's one of the most commercially important stories right now.

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The Paradox That Isn't

Gen Z is the most digitally native generation in history. They spend nearly seven hours a day with media, with TikTok and Instagram serving as their primary product discovery engines. And yet when it comes time to actually commit to a purchase, they walk into your store.

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PwC's analysis of nearly a million consumer transactions found that 61% of Gen Z now prefers to discover new products in-store. This is a reversal that surprised even the researchers. Their 2025 Holiday Outlook survey recorded a 10-point jump in the share of Gen Z planning to shop in-store more frequently, rising from 27% in 2024 to 37% in a single year. The top reasons: to touch and feel products (41%), to experience store atmospheres, and to engage with displays.

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YouGov's U.S. research reinforces this: 46% of Gen Z find new items while browsing physical retail. EMARKETER reports that in-store browsing is tied with social media as the top discovery channel for U.S. Gen Z beauty shoppers, each at 40.1%. And 68% of Gen Z say they want to try products in person before purchasing; this figure climbs even higher in beauty and fashion.

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What's driving this? Partly, the experience economy. Gen Z grew up watching every moment of their lives become shareable content. Physical stores have become stages for TikTok hauls, "shop with me" videos, the kind of tactile validation that no algorithm can replicate. Hashtags like #mallhaul and #instorefinds generate millions of views, effectively turning retail floors into content studios.

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But there's also something more practical at work. Gen Z approaches purchases cautiously. They research extensively across multiple platforms, cross-reference reviews, compare prices, and seek peer validation. The store is where that process concludes — where the product becomes real and the decision becomes final. 92% of Gen Z shoppers cite the ability to see, touch, and try products as a primary reason to visit physical stores.

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"Shopping isn't a transaction for this generation. It's content, community, and validation — all wrapped in a physical space that either earns their attention or loses them permanently."

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The Six-Second Window

Here's where it gets urgent for anyone running a store. A NielsenIQ report found that consumers make in-store selection decisions in less than six seconds. Six seconds. That's the window brands have to intercept a Gen Z shopper who walked in primed by what they saw online, navigating an aisle that may or may not reflect what they expected.

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Static signage fails this test. A printed poster updated quarterly can't speak to a shopper who checked your competitor's price this morning. But dynamic digital signage can.

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Digital Signage as the Bridge

Despite representing the largest e-commerce market in the world, the U.S. still runs 85% of its retail transactions through physical stores. That number hasn't moved as dramatically as the "retail apocalypse" narrative suggested, because the store serves functions that a website cannot: sensory confirmation, community experience, immediate gratification.

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The opportunity for digital signage lies precisely in that gap — bridging what Gen Z discovered digitally with what they're now evaluating physically. Research shows that 64% of shoppers are more engaged with brands that use digital signage strategically. For Gen Z specifically, the number is higher: 51% say in-store digital displays actively influence their purchase decisions, compared to just 26% of Gen X.

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Nearly half of Gen Z consumers say that incorporating social media elements via digital displays or shelf signage would enhance their in-store experience. And 42% say that inspirational displays are "highly important" to their visit.

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What does that look like in practice? The store isn't playing catch-up to what happened online, just extending the conversation. A Gen Z shopper who saw a product on TikTok walks past a screen showing that same product, same aesthetic, same energy. That consistency triggers recognition and accelerates the final step. The screen that shows generic brand content loses the moment. The screen that mirrors the digital world they just came from earns the sale.

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The Personalization Imperative

Gen Z's relationship with personalization is not optional. 65% of Gen Z shoppers say they want highly curated, personalized advertisements from the retailers they already shop with; compared to 50% of the general shopping population. This is a generation that has never experienced a digital interface that didn't learn their preferences. They expect the physical world to begin doing the same.

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Modern digital signage platforms can meet this expectation through contextual data: time of day, local events, weather, current inventory levels, foot traffic patterns, even anonymized demographic data from in-store sensors. The result is content that feels relevant rather than broadcast: a snack ad in the afternoon rush, a hydration product when the forecast hits 90°F, a promotion on items that are trending regionally.

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Execution gaps like outdated signage, mismatched marketing materials, and half-stocked displays erode brand credibility with Gen Z shoppers faster than with any other demographic. They came in knowing what to expect. When the store doesn't match that expectation, the brand loses trust it may not recover.

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The Market Tailwind

Retailers investing in digital signage aren't making a bet against the market — they're riding a structural shift. The global digital signage market was valued at approximately $28 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach between $41 billion and $46 billion by 2030, reflecting compound annual growth rates between 6% and 8.4%. The fastest-growing segment is interactive signage like touchscreens, gesture-responsive displays, and mobile-integrated kiosks are projected to reach $86 billion in market value by 2030.

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60% of businesses already plan to deploy or expand digital signage within the next two years, with retail, quick-service restaurants, and hospitality leading adoption. Over 40% of new installations now use 4K resolution as a baseline standard.

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The category Gen Z is accelerating most is programmatic digital out-of-home — dynamic content that responds to audience signals in real time. That market generated $7.5 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $45.8 billion by 2034. The infrastructure is being built. The question is which retailers will be in position to use it when Gen Z's spending power peaks.

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To put that in context: NielsenIQ and GfK project Gen Z's collective spending power will reach $12 trillion by 2030. They are not a niche segment. They are the primary commercial audience for the next decade, and they are already telling you what they want from a store visit.

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What Retailers Should Do Now

The urgency isn't hypothetical. Gen Z is the largest generational cohort in U.S. history. Many are in or entering their peak spending years. A Colliers survey found that 57% of Gen Z shoppers ranked a seamless omnichannel experience as "super important" to their shopping journey. They will reward the retailers who get the in-store experience right.

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The stores that win with Gen Z will be the ones that treat digital signage not as a static advertising medium but as a dynamic layer of the retail environment — one that extends what was seen online, responds to context in real time, and creates the kind of atmosphere that shows up in their content. Static is out. Dynamic, data-connected, experience-first is the standard they're arriving with.

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The screens in your store are either working for you or working against you. For Gen Z, there's no neutral.

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Sources: YouGov U.S. Gen Z Shopping Study · EMARKETER Gen Z Retail Behavior Report · PwC 2025 Holiday Outlook Survey · Vogue Business · NielsenIQ · IAB Canada · Grand View Research · Mordor Intelligence · Colliers Gen Z Consumer Pulse · Retail TouchPoints · Vibenomics Retail Media Report

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Ready to see how digital menu boards can lift your average ticket and cut your menu management overhead? Book a demo with Skoop — we'll walk through your specific setup and show you exactly what's possible.