As Gen Z shows an inclination for shopping from retailers’ own brands, major players are tailoring their private-label offerings to these young consumers’ desires and preferences.
Walmart, for instance, recently relaunched its $2 billion No Boundaries fashion brand with an eye toward attracting new Gen Z shoppers.
“There’s a huge opportunity for Walmart to reach a Gen Z customer with a brand that has both incredible style and unbelievable prices,” Jen Jackson Brown, senior vice president of Walmart U.S. fashion brands, said in a statement. “We have 145 million U.S. customers shopping with us in stores and online each week, and the new No Boundaries brand is designed and marketed with intention to reach this young adult audience by focusing on fit, quality, style and fabrics that resonate with them.”
Given this goal, the brand puts an emphasis on self-expression, which younger consumers tend to prioritize, as well as on modern trends such as baggier jeans and crop tops.
Indeed, Gen Z private-label customers seem to pose a valuable opportunity for retailers, according to findings from the Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA). The group’s research reveals that 67% of Gen Z shoppers are highly aware of store brands, and 64% frequently purchase them. Additionally, 56% are likely to experiment with store brands to find the best value, and 51% consistently choose their shopping destination based on the availability of store brands.
“To succeed with Gen Z, retailers must establish a foundation of store brand suppliers who meet their customers’ quality expectations,” Sara Williamson, Ph.D., assistant professor of marketing at SUNY Old Westbury, said in a statement accompanying the report.
As such, major retailers are tailoring their private-label offerings to the demands of Gen Z consumers. Take, for instance, environmental concerns. H&M has for years had its “Conscious Collection,” which uses sustainable materials like organic cotton and recycled polyester. The firm highlights its commitment to ethical practices, which resonate with Gen Z’s eco-conscious mindset. Target, similarly, has its “Everspring” line, featuring household products made from natural and biodegradable ingredients, along with sustainable packaging.
Gen Z also tends to value transparency. Sephora touts its “Clean at Sephora” private-label products that provide greater transparency about product ingredients. Amazon has its “Amazon Aware” providing detailed product information and sourcing details to ensure that products meet certain third-party certifications.
Notably, PYMNTS Intelligence data show that Gen Z consumers are less likely than millennials to be trading down to lower-cost products such as private-label brands amid inflation, though this could be because they were already buying them. Supplemental findings from last year’s “Consumer Inflation Sentiment Report: Consumers Cut Back by Trading Down” found that 37% of Gen Z consumers had been purchasing lower quality grocery products due to price increases, and 33% said the same of retailers. Conversely, a significantly greater 45% and 42%, respectively, said the same. In fact, these findings could indicate, if anything, that Gen Z shoppers tend to be more loyal to their favorite brands than their older counterparts.
As Gen Z continues to prioritize values such as self-expression, eco-consciousness and authenticity, retailers who align their private-label brands with these ideals are likely to thrive. The significant purchasing power and brand loyalty of Gen Z consumers make them a crucial market segment, driving innovation and reshaping retailers’ own-brand strategies to meet their evolving demands.
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Work marketplace Upwork earned record revenue in 2024 and attributed its gains in part to artificial intelligence (AI).
In an earnings release and other materials issued Wednesday (Feb. 12), the company highlighted AI innovations it added to its marketplace platform and AI talent the platform connects with its clients.
“We’ve rapidly unlocked demand for AI-related work on our platform,” Upwork President and CEO Hayden Brown said in prepared remarks for the company’s quarterly earnings call.
Upwork reported full-year revenue of $769.3 million, which marked a 12% year-over-year gain and an all-time high, according to the earnings release.
The company achieved this gain during a year in which the broader staffing industry saw a 9% decline in revenue, Brown said in her prepared remarks.
During the year, the gross services volume (GSV) from AI-related work grew 60% and the number of clients engaging in AI-related projects grew 42%.
In addition, in 2024, the hourly earnings of freelancers engaged in AI-related work were 44% higher than those of other freelancers, per the release.
AI has been the fastest growing major category on the Upwork platform for several quarters, with clients seeking talent in prompt engineering, AI integration, generative AI modeling, and data labeling and annotation, according to an investor presentation released Wednesday.
During the Q&A portion of the earnings call, Brown said Upwork has grown and “shape-shifted” to meet the emerging demand for AI talent just as it did in the past, when there was newly created demand for social media managers and mobile developers.
“We are also leveraging AI on our platform to underpin the evolution of predictive and delightful conversational customer experiences,” Brown said in her prepared remarks.
Upwork enhanced its platform in April by adding an AI assistant called Uma that performs tasks like creating tailored proposal drafts for freelancers, evaluating candidates for clients, and scoping projects and designing optimal teams of experts for larger clients, according to the earnings release and the presentation.
The firm also acquired AI-native search-as-a-service company Objective, a move it said allowed Upwork to enhance the search and match performance of its platform, strengthen the company’s AI and machine learning teams, and continue to develop new capabilities for Uma.
“As the AI work tide builds, organizations of all sizes are seeking out more flexible talent models that match their needs for new and emerging skills, with partners who integrate cutting edge AI technology and valued human workers seamlessly and at scale to rapidly deliver on their priorities,” Brown said in her remarks.
“At the same time, professionals across geographies, specialties and industries want digitally powered ways of working that give them easy access to more autonomy, flexibility and earning power.”