Financial Feels: How Gen Z are changing retail

For a generation more fluent in their feelings than any who came before them, Gen Z’s attitude to money is no different. Amid the instability of a global pandemic, they are re-assessing what financial wellness means to them, changing how we save, pay and play.

Produced by The Future Laboratory in partnership with Afterpay, the Financial Feels report takes a detailed look at Gen Z’s attitudes to finance, lifestyle, commerce and fashion.

As a brand whose DNA began as distinctly Millennial, Afterpay wanted to look ahead to the next generation of consumers, and assess how their attitudes to finances differ from those of their older counterparts. Gen Z are turning away from credit, like Millennials did before them, and are assessing new ways of saving, spending and shopping.

We spoke to early adopters, experts and cultural navigators in three markets – Afterpay’s native Australia, the US and the UK – to paint a portrait of this next generation. We found that Gen Z are looking for budget-focused, short-term alternatives to credit. Raised on cancel-any time subscriptions and in the age of neo-banks, Gen Z don’t want to be locked into lengthy financial contracts, a flexibility that ultimately matches their own lifestyles.