Australia’s shopping habits have never been more fragmented, according to new research from global product intelligence and consumer insights platform, Vypr.
According to its Six Generations, One Shelf: How Australians Shop, Decide and Spend report, our six-generation shopping nation is making traditional mass-market messaging harder than ever.
“Shoppers across every generation are still united by simple expectations: they want value they can see, quality they can trust and reassurance from people they know,’ says Vypr’s International Chief Revenue Officer, Sam Gilding.
“But how they discover products and make decisions looks completely different depending on whether you’re 22 or 72.”
Diverging habits
Based on research conducted in January 2026, the report reveals that while some behaviours (such as first asking a familiar face for a recommendation before making a purchase) unite all Australians, others are splitting sharply by age – from impulse buying to the role social media plays in discovery.
Over half of Australians (52%), for instance, make up their minds about what to buy before they start shopping, but this tends to increase with age – from nearly half (48%) of 18-24s up to two-thirds (67%) of over 65s.
Younger shoppers are far more spontaneous, with not a single respondent in the 18-24 cohort saying they rarely or never make impulse purchases, while older consumers are markedly more intentional and routine-driven. More than four in 10 (43%) 18-24-year-olds decide while browsing in-store or online, compared to just one in 10 (10%) 55-64s.
Digital influence
Where they find information about new products also differs. Social platforms dominate among 18-24s, with over half (52%) saying they found a new product via TikTok or Instagram. In the reverse, roughly one in 15 (7%) 55-64s and no (0%) over 65s answered the same. For these older brackets, recommendations from friends and family (25% for 45-54 and 23% for 65+) proved much more effective.
However, with the new social media restrictions for under-16s, this digital supremacy could diminish as the preferences of future consumers are initially shaped away from these platforms.
The regular shelf still matters
Despite the growing digital-first demographic, regular shelves remain the most likely place for a product to catch a shopper’s eye, with around four in 10 (43%) citing regular shelves ahead of special displays (41%) and end-of-aisle caps (28%).
Special displays proved especially effective among 18-24s, with almost three in four (73%) recalling seeing a new product this way, where only one in five (20%) 55-64s said the same. The effectiveness of special displays returns with an improved 33% of over 65s.
The report also finds that price can break loyalty fast, spending is reserved at both ends of the spectrum, and brand disconnect is evident across generations.
To learn more about Australian shopping habits across the six generations, you can access the full report here.
