2026：技术加速与成本压力碰撞下的消费新趋势
The consumer is changing fast. Four trends—the tech-driven pathto purchase, the health revolution, the experience economy, and theresourceful consumer—will redefine the sector. Will brands keep up?
Contents
decide is changing rapidly3
influencing consumer goals8
The experience economy:Consumers prioritize meaningand memories12
The resourceful consumer:Sustained price pressure leads tosavvier spending15
In today’s complexand fast-changing consumer landscape, two forces—the rapid advancement oftechnology and sustained cost consciousness—stand out for their breadth and persistence in shaping
Already, we are seeing that consumers’ path to purchase is increasingly complicated, brand influenceis more diffuse, and the priority consumers place on value now cuts across income segmentsand categories. Scale within established channels is less powerful than it once was. Brands must
These shifts are beginning to crystallize into broader behavioral patterns. Together, advances intechnology and rising price sensitivity underpin four global trends that we believe will define the sectorin the years ahead: the new tech-driven path to purchase, the health revolution, the experience economy,
Each trend is significant on its own; collectively, they are profoundly changing how consumers discover,decide, and spend. For instance, consumers are turning to wearable devices, AI, and DIY influencers forinspiration on how to live well and get more from their budgets. Companies need to understand each
Drawing on our ongoing consumer sentiment research and survey data1across five markets, as well asinsights from our global client work, we outline the strength and nature of these trends, examine howthese trends are accelerating, and explore what they mean for consumer-facing business models.
The new tech-driven path to purchase: Howpeople discover and decide is changing rapidly
For years, digital tools have been changing the consumer purchase journey. According to our consumersurvey, social media is now increasingly relevant across all stages of that journey and has become themost important channel for Gen Z. More recently, rapidly evolving AI models have begun to shape how
Younger consumers are leading the shift. Twenty-eight percent of Gen Zers say they are already usinggen AI tools for shopping (versus 16 percent of baby boomers), while 60 percent say they regularly usethe “AI overview” at the top of traditional search platforms (versus 29 percent of baby boomers) (Exhibit 1).And 23 percent of Gen Zers (compared with only 7 percent of boomers) say they discovered new brandson social media—less than the share who say they did so through a physical store (28 percent) but
Social media’s role in the consumer decision journey could continue to gain importance, particularlyif social media platforms develop their own AI shopping agents. Another factor that will influence theuptake of social media and gen AI for shopping is consumer trust. Notably, across most channels usedfor product research, Gen Zers report lower levels of trust compared with baby boomers. And despite
Meanwhile, innovations in search and AI are reshaping how consumers gather information online. Since2023, overall open web traffic2is down 8 percent. But this data only tells part of the story: Traditionalsearch remains highly relevant, and overall search activity continues to grow, even if the number ofsearches per user declines. As AI-generated summaries and conversational interfaces evolve, the
Gen AI use is more than twice as high for Gen Zers than baby boomers,while about a quarter of all consumers say they use gen AI for shopping.
Gen AI use, by age cohort and use case,2% of respondentsManaging health
McKinsey & Company
For consumers, this often means finding answers directly within AI-generated results and, subsequently,completing fewer clicks through to brand websites, retailer sites, and publishers. For brands, thisreduces opportunities to influence decisions through traditional organic and paid search strategies.Historically, search has often served as a high-intent stage of the consumer journey—when consumersactively evaluate brands and options. As AI-generated results increasingly answer those questions
As a result, brands may need to place greater emphasis on shaping consumer perceptions upstream ofpurchase decisions. They also need to help shape the first- and third-party content that large language
As AI-generated summaries andconversational interfaces evolve,the experience of using a search
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