How consumers find and choose CPG products today

The path to purchase is much more fragmented and far less controlled by brands than it used to be.  

Consumers discover products across multiple channels, evaluate far more options and make more deliberate decisions about what ends up in their cart (physically or digitally).

And consumers aren’t just choosing differently, they’re discovering and evaluating their purchase decisions in entirely new ways.

To better understand these shifts in consumer purchasing decisions, we surveyed 2,000 US consumers and compiled learnings from Bain & Company, McKinsey, Deloitte, PwC, Infosys and more. 

Read on for the four key takeaways we uncovered. 

TL;DR: Discovery has fragmented — and AI will fragment it further

• Word of mouth and in-store still lead overall — but TikTok dominates Gen Z at 45% (Zappi)

• Digital video ad spend surpassed TV for the first time in 2024: $64B and growing 14% YoY (Infosys)

• Social media commerce is a proven conversion channel: Kraft Heinz saw 103% higher engagement through influencers vs. owned channels (Infosys)

• Retail media is a $50B+ market, fundamentally changing the CPG-retailer power dynamic (eMarketer/GroupM)

• AI tools are used by 8% for discovery today — 11% among under-35s. Growing fast (Zappi)

Social media commerce has moved into the mainstream of CPG marketing. 

Today, around 15% of marketing budgets are allocated to influencer marketing — a clear signal that this is no longer experimental territory, but a core growth channel.

For instance, brands like Pillsbury, Kraft Heinz and Ghirardelli are working with TikTok creators to bring simple, everyday recipes to life, from quick desserts to weeknight meal ideas. And it’s working. Kraft Heinz, for example, saw a 5.7% engagement rate from influencer activity, more than double what they typically see on their own brand channels.

But there’s an interesting tension underneath it all.

Consumers often say social media is one of the least trusted sources when it comes to buying decisions. At the same time, it’s where they’re most connected to people they do trust — friends, family and creators they follow closely.

The platform itself may not be trusted, but the people on it absolutely are. 

Influencers play an important role here, introducing brands to 12% of consumers overall and 18% of those ages 18–25. But success isn’t just about reach. In many cases, smaller creators outperform larger ones because they feel more authentic and relatable, which ultimately drives more trust and engagement.

💡Takeaway: For brands, that means shifting the focus away from polished ads and toward genuine word-of-mouth.

Once you move beyond friends and family, it becomes clear that brand discovery is anything but uniform, changing quite a bit depending on age and context.

Across the board, friends and family remain the top influence at 32%. In-store discovery is still highly relevant too, sitting at 29%, but it skews older, rising to 36% among consumers ages 46 and above.

Younger audiences, meanwhile, are discovering brands very differently.

TikTok now drives 26% of discovery overall, but that jumps sharply to 45% among 18–25-year-olds, making it the most powerful discovery channel for Gen Z. YouTube sits at 24% overall, with a peak among 26–35-year-olds, while TV (23%) still plays a strong role for older consumers, reaching about 30% in the 46–55 age group.

💡Takeaway: There’s no single path to discovery anymore. It’s fragmented and it changes depending on who you’re talking to.

Advertising for CPG is shifting quickly, and the center of gravity is moving toward digital and retail ecosystems.

In 2024, digital video advertising overtook traditional TV advertising in the U.S., reaching $64B and continuing to grow. That momentum is being driven by connected TV, social video and online video, all of which offer something linear TV can’t: precise targeting and measurable outcomes.

And CPG brands are clearly leaning in, with digital video spend expected to grow around 13% this year.

At the same time, retail media has become one of the most important advertising ecosystems in the industry, now valued at over $50B. 

Platforms like Amazon Ads, Walmart Connect, Kroger Precision and Instacart Ads are no longer just “add-ons,” they’re central to how brands reach shoppers at the point of purchase.

This has changed the dynamic between retailers and brands. In many cases, CPGs are now paying to reach their own customers inside retailer-owned environments, where the retailer controls both the data and the media inventory.

And consumers themselves have fully shifted into omnichannel behavior, with more than 90% now shopping across both physical and digital channels. 

💡Takeaway: For brands, thinking in silos (online vs. offline) no longer really reflects reality.

Today, only about 8% of consumers use tools like ChatGPT for product discovery, but that number is already higher among younger audiences (around 11%). And while those figures may feel small, they’re moving quickly.

The bigger question is what happens as AI becomes a default layer in the shopping journey.

If AI systems begin recommending products directly, brands that aren’t optimized for those systems risk becoming invisible. Not because they’re irrelevant, but because they’re not being surfaced.

Retailers and brands are already preparing for this shift. Around 68% of retail executives expect to deploy agentic AI within the next 24 months, and many expect AI to become a mainstream part of shopping journeys before 2028. Investment is also accelerating, with companies using AI to improve forecasting and pricing planning.

💡Takeaway: For CPG brands, the key question is whether they’re building visibility in these systems now, or waiting until they’re already behind.

The way consumers discover and choose CPG brands has fundamentally changed, and it’s still changing.

Trust is shifting toward people rather than platforms. Discovery paths vary significantly by generation. Retail media has become a major force in purchase influence. And AI is beginning to introduce a new layer between consumers and brands.

In this environment, success isn’t about being everywhere. It’s about being relevant in the right places and understanding how those places differ depending on who the consumer is and how they’re making decisions.