Consumers use generative AI for product searching, don’t want to pay more for sustainable products, and are switching to private-label brands to save money, plus more consumer shopping trends from a new Capgemini survey.
At 24%, nearly a quarter of consumers have used generative AI in shopping, according to a new report, “What matters to today’s consumer 2025” from Capgemini. The technology consulting firm surveyed 12,000 consumers in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific in November 2024 on consumer shopping trends.
This use of generative AI for shopping is an increase from 20% in Capegemini’s survey in November 2023. Of consumers who have used it in shopping, a whopping 58% said that they are now using generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, as their go-to tool for product or service recommendations. This is up substantially from a year ago, when 25% of consumers who have used generative AI in shopping said this.
Overall, the most popular way (at 68% of consumers) shoppers want to use generative AI in shopping is for a tool to aggregate searches across all online search engines, social media platforms and retailer sites to provide purchase options.
How shoppers make their dollar go further
Because of increased cost of living, more consumers are turning to private-label brands or cheaper over name brands to reduce costs, according to the survey.
The most common product categories where shoppers switch to private labels were apparel, meal kits and groceries. Shoppers are least likely to switch for personal care and cosmetic products, according to the survey.
How shoppers find products
More than half of consumers say they occasionally use enhanced tools, such as voice and visual search tools to find products online. For voice, 56% say they use a voice assistant occasionally (three to seven times per year) and 10% say they use voice search frequently at eight or more times per year. This is even higher for visual search, with 52% of consumers using this occasionally and 28% using it frequently.
Another way shoppers find and buy products is via social media. At 32%, nearly a third of shoppers have purchased products via a social media platform. The most popular platforms where consumers said they like to purchase was Instagram (50%), YouTube (49%), Facebook (41%) and TikTok (32%).
What’s more, of consumers who frequently switch brands, 46% of consumers say they have switched to a new brand when they’ve heard a positive product review from a social media influencer.
Shoppers don’t want to pay more for sustainability
More than a third of shoppers would pay a small premium for a sustainable product, but few are willing to pay more than 5% more, according to the survey:
- 38% of consumers would pay 5% or less for a more sustainable product
- 39% would pay between 5%-10% more
- 23% would pay more than 10%
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