Four Forces Reshaping How We Buy
What the new McKinsey report shows, and what thirty years in e-commerce and investing have taught me.
Shopping has changed more in the past few years than it appears at first glance.
Customers no longer move in a straight line from ad to purchase. They scroll through social media, ask AI, read reviews, and only then, maybe, open an online store. I have been watching this journey break apart for thirty years, but this year it is breaking faster than ever before.
The new McKinsey State of the Consumer 2026 report confirms it. Published on 22 June 2026, it draws on a survey of nearly five thousand consumers across five countries: Brazil, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. It describes four forces that, according to the authors, will define the consumer sector for several years to come: a new technology-driven path to purchase, a health revolution, an experience economy, and the thrifty consumer.
I will go through each one and add what I see from my own business.
1. The Path to Purchase No Longer Belongs to the Brand
The first force interests me most, because it is one I have been betting on for a long time in my e-commerce projects.
According to McKinsey, 28% of Generation Z already shop with the help of generative AI, compared to 16% of baby boomers. Sixty percent of the younger generation regularly use AI overviews above search results, versus 29% of baby boomers. And perhaps the most important number in the entire report: a brand’s own website accounts for just 1 to 2 percent of the sources from which AI models draw when answering questions about that brand. Even among the ten most cited sources, brand websites make up no more than 10 percent of citations.
When we built VIVnetworks.com, the entire business rested on one certainty: whoever controls search and affiliate links controls the path to the customer. Today that certainty is falling apart.
Customers increasingly ask an AI assistant instead of Google, and AI draws from forums, reviews and videos, not from brand websites. This is precisely why I invested in Testuj.to, now Mylou Company, years ago. A credible review from a real customer gets cited more today than any marketing text on a website. McKinsey calls this signal dissonance: inconsistency across sources that causes AI models to skip or distort a brand. I call it what I have always told clients: create content that deserves to be cited, not just paid for.
The report also describes the so-called dual front door: buying either directly from a retailer, or straight within an AI environment. Shopify, Amazon and Walmart are reportedly beginning to align on shared standards for AI transactions. This is exactly what I am watching at Targito. The personalisation it has been doing for years in newsletters and on websites will need to work inside AI interfaces within a few years, not just on client websites.
2. Health as Data, Not Just a Feeling
The second force, the health revolution, is one I relate to personally. McKinsey reports that fewer than half of consumers feel they are actually achieving their health goals, even though health matters to them more and more.
According to the report, the main driver is access to data. Seventy-five percent of Generation Z and 73% of millennials regularly use wearable electronics: smart watches, glucose sensors, fitness trackers, compared to 55% of Generation X and just 32% of baby boomers. When someone sees their sleep score after an evening out with friends, they behave differently the next time.
I see it in myself: I track my sleep, monitor my nutrition, and think more about movement.
3. Experience as the Entry Ticket to the Product
The third force, the experience economy, shows that people still pay for time that means something, even in an era of rising prices. According to the report, the experience market grew by 2.6% annually between 2023 and 2025, while ordinary discretionary goods grew by just 0.8%. Travel and things that can be lived, not just owned, are growing fastest. Things that raise the quality of life.
I see the same pattern in the brands I have invested in, such as Tokyobike and Dreamy. People are not just buying a bike or a mattress. They are buying a morning routine, more movement, or better sleep. The product is just the entry ticket to the experience.
4. The Thrifty Consumer and Why Trust Wins
The fourth force interests me most from an investor’s perspective. McKinsey describes the so-called thrifty consumer: someone who buys less not out of necessity, but by choice. Eighty-two percent of people worldwide use things longer before replacing them. Sixty-nine percent repair products rather than throw them away. And according to the report, this behaviour is not limited to lower-income groups. Wealthier customers are increasingly doing the same, simply because they want to spend more intelligently.
What surprised me most about this point was one particular finding. Thriftiness today is not a question of income. This behaviour is being adopted more and more by affluent customers as well, and not out of necessity but by choice. They try DIY, find inspiration on social media, buy refurbished items even when they could easily afford new ones. The same logic is entering luxury fashion. Recommerce, meaning the buying and selling of second-hand goods, is becoming a standard part of that business and attracting both aspirational customers and established luxury clients. A luxury brand that today only offers new pieces is voluntarily walking away from half the market.
This confirms why I invested in Testuj.to. When consumers think more carefully, they need more than a price. They need proof that the decision makes sense. Reviews, credibility and transparency are the thrifty consumer’s compass today, just as much as a discount code.
In Closing
The four forces in this report are closely connected. Technology is changing how people discover and decide. Health, experience and thriftiness are changing what they buy and why.
For me, one main conclusion follows: investing in e-commerce today means investing in credibility, not reach. Reach is something almost anyone can buy today. Credibility is not.
