Gen X Clicks, Then Commits: How to Win the Store Sale

Name: Gen X Clicks, Then Commits: How to Win the Store Sale
Creator: PYMNTS Intelligence
Published: 2026-10-19T08:00:35+00:00

Gen X consumers are comfortable shopping online, but 56% prefer to visit a physical store, and only 21% of those who researched digitally used ChatGPT to find products. The latest installment of PYMNTS Intelligence’s Gen X consumer report shows that stores and search still drive how this generation shops, with AI in a supporting role.

Generation X consumers made the first big shopping shift from the mall to the browser. They opened the first Amazon accounts and printed the first online coupons. Now they are watching the next shift, toward mobile-first and AI-assisted discovery, with the wariness of people who have already lived through one.

The data shows a grounded reality. Gen X consumers are not resisting digital commerce. They shop online for the categories where it makes sense, and many browse on their phones daily. But they still prefer to walk into a store, buy groceries in person, and compare products themselves rather than ask AI.

The Gen X Playbook is a PYMNTS Intelligence series profiling U.S. consumers born roughly between 1965 and 1980, using proprietary PYMNTS Intelligence surveys, including some collected regularly since 2020. The report is designed for payments and financial services professionals. It covers financial well-being, employment, income and savings, shopping behavior, payments, technology and AI adoption as well as Gen X small business ownership.

This installment, “The Gen X Shopping Map: Stores First, Screens Second and AI at the Edges,” focuses on shopping behavior. The findings show that Gen X has not swapped stores for screens. Instead, it runs a mixed shopping life in which the store remains the anchor and digital tools do the preparation.

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Online and In-Store Shopping Habits

Non-grocery retail has the highest digital share among Gen X consumers, with 31% of most recent purchases made online in June 2026. That share is 35% higher than among millennials (23%). Restaurant food follows at 23%, up from 19% in May 2025, a 22% increase. Groceries look very different. Only 18% of their grocery purchases were made online, while 81% of most recent grocery purchases were made in a physical store.

Gen X shops for groceries often. In June 2026, 48% made three to five grocery trips or orders in the past 30 days, on par with millennials (47%). Another 24% made six to 10, and 12% made more than 10. On average, Gen X consumers made about six trips a month.

The store preference runs deeper than groceries. Asked about shopping in general, 56% of Gen X consumers said they would rather shop in a physical store, a 29% higher share than millennials (43%). Only 26% preferred buying on a mobile device, versus 35% of millennials. In practice, 68% of consumers in this generation made their most recent non-grocery retail purchase in a physical store in June 2026, and 36% fall into the pure “physical shopper” persona, compared with 21% of millennials.

That does not make Gen X an offline generation. One in three (34%) browses products on a phone or tablet daily. The phone is the research tool. The store is still the point of sale.

Search and the Store Outpace AI

The search box still matters for Gen X, but so does the retailer’s own site.

Google remains the top starting point for product discovery, used by 50% of Gen X consumers who researched digitally before their most recent purchase. Walmart (40%) and Amazon (39%) follow closely, ahead of every AI or social platform. ChatGPT and YouTube each reached 21% of Gen X digital shoppers, and Gemini and Facebook each reached 17%. Instagram (11%), Yahoo (6%), Bing (4%), Claude (4%) and Perplexity (4%) trail further behind.

The contrast with millennials is sharpest on AI. Millennials were twice as likely as Gen X to use ChatGPT for product discovery (43% versus 21%) and more than twice as likely to say they used an AI platform to decide what to buy (23% versus 10%). Gen X instead leans on the store itself: 53% compared products in the store before deciding what to buy, versus 46% of millennials.

Gen X does use their phone in-store, but for a specific job. Among those who used a mobile device during their last store purchase, 43% looked for coupons or discounts, a 20% higher share than millennials (36%). Millennials, meanwhile, were 81% more likely to look up product reviews (38% versus 21%). Gen X shops for the price. Millennials shop for the price and opinion. For merchants and payment providers, winning this generation means being present in-store and on retailer sites, and rewarding its hunt for deals.

Gen X Adds AI to Its Shopping Mix

Gen AI is entering the Gen X shopping journey, but at a measured pace. In July 2026, 18% of Gen X consumers typically started their online retail research with an AI tool, compared with 28% of millennials. Among Gen X consumers who used Gen AI to discover what to buy, the tool mix looks different from millennials’. Sixty-seven percent of Gen X AI users used Gemini and 46% named it most helpful, ahead of ChatGPT, used by 48% and named most helpful by 34%. Millennials ranked them the other way around.

For 34% of Gen X consumers who shop with AI, the technology has fully or mostly replaced their previous research methods, compared with 38% of millennials. For most Gen X users, AI remains a second opinion rather than a first stop.

Black Friday 2025 offered a preview of where this is heading. Two in three Gen X consumers (67%) shopped the event, and 45% of those shoppers used AI at least once, well behind millennials (63%) but far ahead of baby boomers and seniors (23%). Those who used AI put it to work on price: 42% used it to find discount codes or deals and 37% to track price drops.

Winning Over Gen X Shoppers

Gen X shopping data matters for payments and financial services companies because shopping behavior drives payment behavior. A generation that researches online, buys in-store and hunts for deals will keep card acceptance, in-store offers and loyalty programs at the center of its payment choices.

These consumers are neither online shoppers nor store shoppers. They are price-driven channel switchers who use every tool available to decide and then, more often than not, complete the purchase in person.

To win over this generation, merchants and payment providers need to show up where they compare (in search, on retailer sites and on the phone in the aisle) and make the trip to the store that follows worth it.

PYMNTS Intelligence is the leading provider of information on the consumer trends driving innovation in consumer finance, digital payments and financial inclusion. To stay up to date, subscribe to our newsletters and read our in-depth reports.

About

PYMNTS Intelligence is a leading global data and analytics platform that uses proprietary data and methods to provide actionable insights on what’s now and what’s next in payments, commerce and the digital economy. Its team of data scientists includes leading economists, econometricians, survey experts, financial analysts and marketing scientists with deep experience in the application of data to the issues that define the future of the digital transformation of the global economy. This multilingual team has conducted original data collection and analysis in more than three dozen global markets for some of the world’s leading publicly traded and privately held firms.

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