Mind your health
The biggest – and growing – concern for young shoppers is health, especially mental health, which falls behind that of their older peers. Interestingly enough, a majority of both Gen Z and boomers feels alike when it comes to their physical health.
“I’m doing well mentally”
Age <34
Age >56
Source: WCWD Health EU-15
The shortage of skilled workers in a lot of industries and the social media pressure – the fear of missing out – has moved aspects such as long working hours and exhaustion into focus. As a result, the No. 1 health concern of Gen Z is to suffer a burnout.
Young shoppers consider stress by far as the biggest danger to their overall health, followed by lack of sleep. Being digital natives, only 22% of Gen Z actually contemplate the limitation of screen time as a means to improve their health.
Feel good in your own skin
Daily routines and self-care practices of the younger generation consist of a mix of physical and mental health exercises, healthy nutrition and supplements, digital health tools – and skin care.
Not surprisingly – and surely influenced by social media – Gen Z explores and applies multiple skin care solutions from everyday care to body optimization. Protecting the own skin is an important element of “personal healthcare” and lifestyle, extending from everyday care such as moisturizers and – notably – sunscreen, to special products and a wide range of beauty treatments, including Botox, hyaluronic acid or laser. Anti-aging is also part of the skin health routine, with 1 in 4 applying related products regularly.
The ‘fit’ angle
For many young shoppers in Europe, maintaining a healthy weight is important to support both physical health and personal well-being. Not much different from older generations, key routines include exercise, avoiding sugar, fat and processed foods. But whereas one third of boomers are not convinced that manufactured foods can be healthy, this is less of an issue for Gen Z (only 20%).
However, as the knowledge and public discourse about nutrition has advanced over the past years, young shoppers are much more sensitive to healthy ingredients, such as protein, and fortified foods and drinks. To ensure this “nutrition positivity”, Gen Z tends to spend time searching for healthy recipes and will check nutritional scores more frequently. In that light, it is not surprising that they are most positive about the utility of a scorecard system like the NutriScore.
Also, with a high score on allergies and intolerances, such as air pollen (24%), lactose (15%), and gluten (12%), detailed product labels are of growing importance for young shoppers.
Craft your own health
For Gen Z, staying healthy and fit is not enough. The aspiration is to actively improve – to “craft” – individual health. Hence the success of biohacking to maximize personal productivity, satisfaction and health. Daily routines such as intermittent fasting, cold showers, and focused training are supported by digital gadgets to monitor and optimize body function.
In addition, these top five products are regarded as especially beneficial to mimic this belief: probiotics, supplements and vitamins, meat (sic!), supplements for immunity, and milk – not water!
By contrast, products rated as most harmful by young shoppers are sugared beverages, energy drinks, processed foods, artificial additives and moderate alcohol consumption. Though they share the same top 5 with their aging counterparts, young shoppers are more negative about alcohol and also coffee.
While still a small target group, a comparison of Gen Z with boomers already indicates their potentially huge category impact:
Average yearly spend (15 markets, MAT Q2 ‘24)
Breakfast cereal
Beer
Coffee
Meat
Meat replacers
Gen Z
Boomer
Source: YouGov Shopper Panel, EU-15, MAT Q2 2024
Healthy food can be indulgent
Healthy nutrition is hugely important for Gen Z, but treats are emotional and part of good life. For 64% of young shoppers it is important to treat oneself and half of them uses treats to cheer them up – much more than with older generations. And whereas 29% of Gen Z will treat themselves more than before, this is only true for 9% of boomers.
At the same time, Gen Z wants to live healthy – in every dimension of their lifestyle. In their eyes, health and indulgence do not necessarily contradict each other. Treats are earned, healthy food can be enjoyable and fun.
The deal with meat
Views on the right diet differ considerably: 5% of young shoppers across Europe absolutely refuse animal protein, whereas 9% follow a vegetarian diet – the largest “community” compared to other age groups. Flexitarians – embracing the best of both worlds – account for 38%, which is actually lower than among boomers.
So, it is fair to say that Gen Z is more rigorous in their choices. In the Netherlands, for example, meat replacers show a penetration of 74% with young shoppers versus 58% of boomers (YouGov shopper panel NL, MAT Q2 ’24).
While Gen Z has a more positive stance towards meat replacers in general, they would most welcome a next gen bio-engineered solution: 21% of Gen Z shoppers say, they would for sure integrate lab-cultured meat based on in-vitro cellular agriculture, twice as many as boomers.
The connection between healthy living and a healthy planet is evident: two-thirds follow or would like to follow a planetary health diet – while only a third of boomers would. Many brands popular with Gen Z successfully make the sustainability-health-connection.
Gen Z shoppers would embrace lab-cultured meat