Gen Alpha Is Rewriting the Holiday Shopping Playbook

This holiday season, Gen Alpha (roughly ages 7 to 14) is emerging as an influential — and lucrative — consumer group with shopping behaviors that look nothing like those of those of previous generations. These consumers are navigating retail entirely on their own terms: discovering brands through TikTok and YouTube, engaging with live streams on platforms like Twitch (which just launched its Amazon-powered live-shopping feature), hunting for deals and secondhand finds online, and often making purchase decisions of their own, or influencing those of their family members.

Gen Alpha and Gen Z will account for 40% of fashion spending in the next decade, according to a new BCG study. For now, most of their spending power is indirect: the oldest Gen Alphas are 14, and need their parents to drive them to Sephora. “They’re so young that many of them still rely on their parents to holiday shop,” says Casey Lewis, a journalist and cultural analyst who writes “After School”, a daily newsletter about youth consumer habits. “They don’t really have their own spending money, and they don’t have access to stores unless their parents take them.”

Yet, Gen Alphas already wield enormous economic influence, driving nearly half of their household’s spending and $101 billion in annual direct spending in the US, according to a recent DKC report. Emily Sunderland, a partner at BCG who assisted the research, explains that social platforms aren’t just a media channel for Gen Alpha. “It’s the mall,” she says. Social commerce businesses like TikTok Shop, Instagram Shop, Amazon Stores, YouTube commerce and live-shopping streams have closed the gap between inspiration and checkout, dramatically shifting the sources of influence for younger generations.

This shift becomes particularly pronounced during the holiday period, when these platforms witness surges in gift-focused content, holiday hauls and last-minute shopping streams. TikTok Shop has leaned into this behavior with dedicated holiday shopping events and creator-led gift guides, while Instagram has enhanced its Shopping tab with holiday collections and countdown features; YouTube, too, has expanded its live-shopping capabilities with extended holiday streams featuring influencer-curated gift selections. These platforms are also implementing faster checkout processes to capitalize on Gen Alpha’s expectation for immediacy — recognizing that for this generation, the distance between “I want this” and “I bought this” should be measured in seconds, not days.

Sunderland’s research found that 40% of young consumers already use AI as a co-shopper for styling advice, trend discovery and price comparison. Influencer content is just as prominent. Per BCG, Gen Alpha is twice as likely to purchase based on micro-influencers who have fewer than 100,000 followers, than creators with a million-plus.

“Their exposure to products is unlike that of any other generation,” says Lewis. “For brands, that means the center of gravity has shifted away from the store or their own channels. Kids are judging products based on how they look in the hands of real people, not in campaigns.”

This reality reshapes holiday marketing fundamentally, as brands realize traditional seasonal advertising campaigns matter less than influencer unboxings or authentic product reviews during peak gifting season. The holiday period intensifies this dynamic: brands are now racing to seed products with micro-influencers and everyday users weeks before Black Friday, knowing that a single viral holiday gift guide video from a trusted creator can outperform millions in traditional ad spend.

Burberry's holiday campaign.

Photo: Courtesy of Burberry

This shift is forcing brands to rethink their entire holiday strategies, moving budgets from polished seasonal commercials to creator partnerships, focusing on getting products into the right hands at the right time, and optimizing packaging for the unboxing moment that will be captured and shared across social platforms during the critical November-December shopping window.

What brands should know

This holiday season, the categories dominating Gen Alpha wish lists span beauty, fashion, tech and collectibles. Beauty and skincare products — particularly from brands like Laneige, Drunk Elephant and Sol de Janeiro — are consistently topping gift guides, as Gen Alpha continues to embrace the clean girl aesthetic of many influencers. In fashion, Lululemon’s sportswear and Ugg’s Classic Ultra Mini boots remain perennial favorites. The hottest items for 2025 include viral collectibles like Jellycat plush toys, Labubu dolls from Pop Mart, and Squishmallows. What unites these disparate categories is their shareability; each item is optimized not just for use, but for display on social media, where Gen Alphas curate their identities and influence their peers’ purchasing decisions.

Labubu dolls were among the hottest items for 2025.

Photo: Claudio Lavenia

“They’re extremely wise consumers, even at very young ages,” says Lewis. “They understand when they’re being marketed to, so any sort of manufactured holiday urgency simply won’t work on them.”

Instead, Gen Alpha responds to honesty — to seeing real kids use products, and to brands that actually explain the “why” behind what they’re selling, especially during the holidays. “They want transparency,” Lewis explains. “And they like weird! The quirkier something feels, the more it reads as real to them.”

This strategy is playing out in real time this holiday season through partnerships like 16-year-old Harper Zilmer’s collaboration with GoWish, a wish list and shopping app that’s surged to over 13.6 million registered users and recently hit No. 2 on the US App Store. Zilmer, who has amassed nearly eight million TikTok followers through her GRWM clips and candid takes on teen life, has become a go-to for brands targeting Gen Alpha. Her campaign kick-off video for GoWish has racked up 21.8 million views — proof that when Gen Alpha sees someone who feels like them using a product authentically, they don’t just watch, they engage and convert.

Gen Alpha is exposed to so much information that it naturally questions what’s real and what isn’t, says Vidyuth Srinivasan, CEO and co-founder of AI-powered luxury authenticator Entrupy. The best thing brands can do, he adds, is be transparent about what they make, how they make it and why it holds value. “Education resonates with this generation,” says Srinivasan. “If you’re clear, honest and consistent, they will trust you. If you aren’t, they’ll move on.”

This principle explains why, per Beano Brain’s Coolest Brands 2025 report, Nike has leapfrogged Netflix to claim second spot among Gen Alpha’s favorite brands, following YouTube in first place. Rather than relying solely on celebrity endorsements, Nike has succeeded by helping kids both understand their product range and find their personal style within it. By offering an extensive choice and educating consumers on its different product lines — from high-performance athletic gear to cultural collaborations — Nike has built trust through transparency. In beauty, brands like Drunk Elephant have won Gen Alpha loyalty by being upfront about ingredients and what their products actually do. The contrast is stark: brands that educate and explain thrive, while those relying purely on influencer hype without substance see their appeal quickly fade.

Guardrails for the future

So what happens when Gen Alpha matures into real purchasing power? “We’re going to see consumers who are unusually self-aware for their young age,” says Lewis. As Gen Alpha demands proof — of authenticity, sustainability, value — brands will need to meet higher standards or lose them entirely.

BCG projects that the winners will be those agile enough to stay ahead of the trend, culture and technology cycles. Lewis puts it more bluntly: Gen Alpha has grown up watching creators debunk products in real time. “They’re going to have zero tolerance for stuff that isn’t worthwhile,” she says.

“They also really, really value in-person experiences, particularly when it comes to retail,” Lewis continues. “The mall is the novelty. They want to go inside stores, touch fabrics and be immersed in brand worlds — which means brands do need to create worlds.”

Despite economic headwinds, the National Retail Federation (NRF) forecasts holiday sales will climb as much as 4.2% this year, potentially topping $1 trillion for the first time. The Gen Alpha effect?

According to DKC’s study, Gen Alpha impacts nearly half (49%) of all household spending, with 92% of parents reporting their children regularly introduce them to products, services and brands. This has earned them their “gateway generation” moniker — a cohort that serves as a direct pipeline between brands and the wallets of economically powerful millennial parents. When you capture Gen Alpha’s attention, you’re not just winning over kids with allowance money; you’re tapping into the combined spending power of an entire household, making their influence on holiday retail forecasts considerable.