Generation Z: minimal consumption and (surprisingly) little green awareness

Foods that promote wellbeing and help take care of oneself, but are also easy to prepare and perfect for new forms of domestic conviviality, such as aperitifs at home. This is the evolution experienced by the Italians' shopping trolley over the last five years, in which certain products have experienced a veritable boom. Such as avocado (+317%), vegetable ready meals (+120%), energy drinks (+119%), gin (+80%) and portioned coffee (+100%). This was revealed by an analysis conducted by NielsenIQ's new NIQ Discover service, which, by integrating the retail and consumer data of a large panel of consumers (16,000) into a single platform, offers a fresh insight into the purchasing and consumption behaviour of Italians. For example, by analysing receipts on the basis of the type and purpose of the expenditure made, Discover also focused on the 'shopping mission' of Italians. It emerged that emergency spending and refills have grown at the expense of traditional household storage, confirming the profile of a consumer careful to manage the household budget and avoid waste and unnecessary spending, who goes to shops more often but for smaller purchases than in the past. Although profiling by household type, age group and territory reveals quite a few differences.

In the rest of the world, it is theGen Z (i.e. 12-27 year olds), who drive consumption, representing 25% of the world's population but who, on the other hand, stop at 17% in Italy. Not only are there fewer young people in Italy, but they are concentrated in families with low purchasing power (73%) and who, when they have to go shopping, prefer products that provide immediate gratification, simplify daily life and satisfy the need for escapism and lightness. A 'presentification' of consumption in which there is no room for the theme of sustainability: sensitivity to environmental issues, which characterises Gen Z globally, is not among the priorities driving the consumption of young people in Italy, reveals Niq.

Geomarketing analyses showed that households residing in centres with less than 20,000 inhabitants develop 42% of total grocery purchases and in 2024 increased them at a rate more than double the national average (+2.3% and +1.0%, respectively), preferring to buy certain product categories, such as flour, brewer's yeast and hygiene and baby care items. On the contrary, in large urban agglomerations people mainly buy ready-to-eat products, (such as sauces, meal replacement bars and ready-to-eat vegetable dishes) also due to the higher concentration of singles and elderly people.

On the other hand, it is people aged 55 years and over who drive consumption: in 2024 they increased the value of their shopping trolley by +2.3% compared to the population average (with peaks of +4.1% in singles) also because two out of three mature families are high-income. They are the ones who lead the purchases of healthy products (such as fruit and vegetables, fresh ready-to-eat soups and dried fruit,) and of excellent local products (such as DOC or IGP wines and extra virgin olive oil), as they are attentive to the needs of the community, the environment and health. If seniors are already important for mass consumption today, they will be even more so in the coming years, because by 2033 we will have two million more mature families without children at home.