The news: Shoppers are doing more product research and digging deeper for value and deals, but younger consumers are willing to bypass those research steps if a trusted creator gives them enough confidence to buy.

A majority (82%) of consumers in the US, the UK, France, and Germany have changed their shopping behavior over rising prices and an overwhelming volume of product options, per Arwin’s “Influencing Retail” report on a survey conducted by Obsurvant. Arwin is owned by Axel Springer, our parent company.

• More than one-third are taking more time to research and compare (34%) and emphasizing focus on price and discounts (38%).
• However, just over half of consumers ages 18 to 34 will buy something immediately if they see it from a creator, without conducting further research. That drops to 8% of consumers over 65.

What it means: Creators are valuable at the decision stage, not just for discovery. They can convert shoppers into buyers without the need for long, price-sensitive shopping journeys, though this effect is strongly generational and depends on trust, giving brands’ creator investments a stronger rationale.

The gap in creator influence between 18- to 34-year-olds and those over 65 shows that brands shouldn’t see partnerships as an across-the-board strategy. Brands are already focusing on depth of impact versus breadth of partnerships to target audiences: 60% now work with fewer than 100 creators per year, per Arwin.

Recommendations for marketers: Influencer marketing should be a priority spend alongside performance media, social branding, affiliate marketing, retail media, and even traditional search.

• Teams need to analyze positive impacts of creator-driven awareness while monitoring factors that could interrupt the user journey. These include consumers’ price sensitivity, weak product pages, poor SEO efforts, and inconsistent experiences between creator content and the point of sale.
• Treat creators as a way to remove friction from the purchase journey while narrowing partnerships and platforms to cater to the Gen Z and younger millennial audiences who are most swayed by influencers.

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