Teen shoppers rank YouTube and Instagram as their top social sources of inspiration for holiday shopping, a new survey found.
The survey, part of PwC’s Holiday Outlook study, found that 13- to 16-year-olds were considerably more likely to look to Instagram and YouTube than older shoppers. While respondents ages 17 to 21 also favored Instagram, Facebook consistently ranked as the most influential social platform for holiday shopping among those 22 and up.
(But it’s worth noting that the top response among those older than 50 was “none of these.”)

All told, PwC said, social platforms “dominate digital product discovery for Gen Z (75%), with traditional TV in second place (66%), followed by word-of-mouth (45%).”
Having grown up with the phenomenon of unboxing videos, and coming of age in a world where it is effortless to interact with fashion bloggers on a variety of platforms, the preferences of these young shoppers are not too surprising.