Brands no longer need to debate whether to invest online. What matters now is how much of their effort and budget belongs there. Gen Z, the generation now entering its peak spending years, is the clearest reason why.
The scale of online life
About 6.12 billion people, or 73.8 percent of the world, were online by April 2026. The typical user spends about 6 hours and 38 minutes online each day, roughly 40 percent of their waking hours. Around two hours and 21 minutes of that goes to social media.
Time online has not kept climbing. It peaked during the pandemic and has since levelled off slightly. But a daily habit of that size means online is where most brands can reach people most often.
Where Gen Z finds products
Gen Z behaves differently from older shoppers. In a September 2026 survey of more than 6,000 US adults, online search was still the top way Gen Z found new products, at 37 percent. Creator posts were close behind at 33 percent.
Separate consumer data points the same way. About 41 percent of Gen Z in the US discover products through influencers or bloggers, almost level with the 42 percent who use search. Across all US consumers, only 27 percent discover products that way.
For brands, creators now work as a discovery layer that competes directly with search.
Influence turns into purchases
In the same survey, 67 percent of Gen Z said they had bought something in the past year because an influencer endorsed it. Smaller creators converted about as well as famous ones.
Estimates of how many Gen Z shoppers buy directly inside social apps range from under half to nearly three quarters, depending on the study. The direction is clear even if the exact number is not. Discovery and checkout increasingly happen in the same place.
Trust is the catch
Reach does not guarantee belief. Most adults in the survey agreed that endorsers only praise products because they are paid. Even so, over half of Gen Z and millennials said an endorsement makes them more willing to try a new brand.
Authenticity therefore matters more than volume. Real reviews, honest creators and consistent engagement carry more weight than a polished advert. Gen Z also stayed warier of AI-generated influencers than the novelty might suggest.
What brands should do?
- Treat creators as core infrastructure. Plan them into the media mix from the start, not as an afterthought.
- Be easy to find in both places. Gen Z splits discovery between search and social, so brands need a presence in each.
- Shorten the path to purchase. Make it simple to move from a post to a product page or in-app checkout.
- Earn trust first. Use genuine reviews and customer content over heavy promotion.
The bottom line
Offline channels still matter, and plenty of online discovery ends with a purchase in a shop. But the brands that win Gen Z will be the ones that show up where this generation already spends much of its day.
