Over the past year, TikTok shopping in the west has been compared to its soar in the east. Finally, it seems that TikTok’s influence on shopping is growing among young people, according to new data from two reports;

Influencer-marketing company IZEA found in a 2022 survey that Gen-Z and millennial consumers viewed TikTok as the best platform to promote a product through an influencer, ahead of Instagram and YouTube. In a November survey of 1,000 US TikTok users by coupon-code site CouponFollow, more respondents also said they trusted influencers on TikTok most, compared with those on other platforms.

Part of the reason may be because, according to IZEA’s second annual influencer-marketing survey, which polled in December 2022 over 1,200 US consumers, Gen Z and millennials think TikTok is better at showcasing products. 31% of respondents aged 18 to 29 said TikTok was the best platform for influencers to promote products. That was a jump from the 19% of respondents who felt that way in 2021. About half of the respondents in the 2022 survey said they had purchased a product after seeing it used by a social-media influencer.

In comparison, Instagram and YouTube, which were the young cohort’s preferred platforms for influencing in 2021, fell out of favour year over year, with 24% of respondents selecting Instagram and 26% choosing YouTube.

Having said that, in regard to social media use, TikTok came in third as the most regularly used platform among the 18-to-29-year-old respondents. Instagram came in second and YouTube was first.

Another interesting piece of insight for brands is that when it comes to these younger consumers, TikTok’s word tends to go further than word of mouth. 25% of the young respondents to IZEA’s survey said they would ask family and friends about a product before making a big purchase, 42% percent said they’d search TikTok, and 40% said they’d use YouTube. Researching products on TikTok was not as popular among the other age groups, but YouTube was a consistent resource for respondents across the board, according to the IZEA survey.

Apparently YouTube, which has also introduced shopping features into its short-video product shorts, could challenge TikTok in influencer marketing, but would need to get creators on its side. YouTube recently shutdown a shopping program it was testing with influencers, which had been an incentive for them to promote products on the platform.

To finish with a whopping statistic, CouponFollow reported that 88% of respondents, who were all US based and used TikTok, felt more connected with brands they discovered on TikTok than those found elsewhere. In the last year, the respondents bought an average of four items after seeing them on TikTok and spent an average of $150.