Gen Z’s consumer behavior is collapsing the traditional funnel.
Brieane Olson
Traditional marketing centers on the funnel: at the top, awareness; in the middle, consideration; at the bottom, purchase. It’s a linear, predictable, and controllable approach. You build the funnel, fill it with consumers, and then optimize for conversions. However, this approach no longer works with today’s younger consumers. Gen Z’s consumer behavior (and, increasingly, Gen Alpha’s) is collapsing the traditional funnel, with discovery, validation, and purchase happening nearly simultaneously, often in the same place at the same moment. And it’s not brands that are driving the funnel, but others in their generation.
Gen Z Consumer Behavior as a System Rather Than a Segment
Gen Z consumers are not passive. They create the content that drives discovery, validate what’s worth buying, and determine what scales and what disappears. According to Vogue Business, Gen Z increasingly uses social media as a search engine to research products they’ve seen online or in real life, with TikTok search volume increasing dramatically over the last two years. Instead of behaving like a consumer segment, they are behaving like a dynamic system, shaping demand in real time.
As a result, what used to take weeks now takes minutes. A product appears in a video, gets validated in comments, is remixed and reinterpreted, and is purchased, often without ever leaving the platform. The journey is not a step-by-step funnel but a layered system in which conversion looks like belonging, and it’s not brands or companies that define “who belongs” but young consumers themselves.
Now, it seems that Gen Alpha is following suit. PwC’s 2026 Alpha Survey found that 97% of kids ages 7-14 make purchasing decisions independently at least some of the time, with 61% pointing to social media as the main driver of their buying decisions, outpacing peer influence and significantly surpassing traditional channels like TV advertising. Brands no longer generate culture and distribute it outward. Culture is generated externally, and brands are pulled into it.
Keeping Up with Young Consumers Demands a New Philosophy
Companies struggling with Gen Z’s consumer behavior often face a speed issue. They tend to see culture as an internal set of values rather than the dynamic operating system it really is, and thus aren’t built to operate at the speed Gen Z demands. Trends now emerge, peak, and disappear before traditional systems can respond. Merchandising cycles, approval layers, and campaign planning timelines were all designed for an era when demand moved slowly. Today, demand moves faster than most organizations can process, resulting in cultural lag and missed opportunities.
Kecia Steelman, CEO of Ulta Beauty, spoke on the need to keep up by connecting with consumers where they are: “You have to be where the social activity is happening, especially with the younger consumer. You want to be a part of the conversation, and you have to really lean into social to be able to do that.” Ulta responded to the change by launching on TikTok Shop, recognizing that discovery, commerce, and culture now converge in a single seamless moment.
You can’t control something that is inherently participatory, and the more tightly a brand tries to manage the message, the more it disconnects from the culture shaping demand. Neil Saunders, Managing Director of Retail at GlobalData, captured this shift: “Instead of gatekeeping insights, companies are choosing collaboration—a future-first approach that benefits not only the entirety of the industry, but the young people this industry serves too.”
Building Within the System that Gen Z Created
Gen Z and Gen Alpha are the first generations to grow up inside systems where creation is constant, distribution is immediate, and influence is decentralized. They don’t distinguish between audience/creator, product/content, or brand/community. In their world, these traditional dichotomies merge, and it’s up to brands to reshape their approach if they want to keep up.
Gen Z’s consumer behavior has already shown that this generation refuses to fit into the traditional marketing funnel, siphoning neatly from awareness to consideration to purchase. To keep up, organizations must figure out how to build with Gen Z, within the system they’ve created, and that requires rethinking how organizations themselves function. Faster decision-making loops, closer proximity to community signals, and empowered teams that are enabled to respond in real time are all assets.
Above all, brands need to open up to the idea that consumers are no longer static segments to be marketed to but active participants in the cultural conversation. They shape everything from what goes viral to what’s discovered, what’s trusted, and what’s bought, often all at once. Instead of treating them like the end of a strategy, it’s time to start treating them like the shapers of the environment brands operate in.