61% of Gen Z apparel shoppers bracket purchases — returns surge looms

Sixty-one percent of Gen Z apparel shoppers "bracket" their purchases — buying multiple sizes or styles with the intention of keeping just one — against a mere 15% of Baby Boomers. That single gap, from a Locus Robotics survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers aged 18 and over, is the clearest warning yet that retailers heading into peak season will absorb a returns wave their fulfillment networks weren't sized for.

The numbers slice cleanly by generation. Bracketing is a habit for 61% of Gen Z and 52% of Millennials, dropping to 37% of Gen X and bottoming out at those 15% of Boomers. Multiply that behavior across an apparel peak and the math gets ugly: roughly four in ten young orders already carry a built-in return.

What does this change for fulfillment operations?

Two things, and neither is optional. First, reverse logistics capacity. Retailers must absorb the extra returns volume without slowing or disrupting outbound order fulfillment — a juggling act many warehouses still treat as an afterthought.

Second, demand timing. Social media has collapsed the shelf life of a trend. Some 79% of Gen Z shoppers and 75% of Millennials have bought an apparel, beauty, or skincare product after discovering it on social media, versus 26% of Boomers. More than two-thirds of those buyers purchased within three days of discovery. In practice, a viral post can spike demand almost overnight.

Availability compounds the problem. Among all respondents, the most frequently cited reason for abandoning or delaying a purchase was an unavailable item, size, shade, or formula — cited by 33%. Meanwhile, 17% demand same- or next-day delivery. Read together, that makes inventory availability and replenishment just as critical as shipping speed when demand shifts without warning.

Stores still carry the load

For all the social-commerce noise, physical stores remain the workhorse. Nearly half — 48% — of respondents' most recent apparel, beauty, and skincare purchases happened in a physical store, making it the most-used purchase channel overall. Preferences vary sharply by generation, though, which leaves retailers supporting an increasingly tangled omnichannel mix of store, e-commerce, marketplace, app, and social-commerce demand. One warehouse profile no longer fits all.

Locus Robotics, based in Wilmington, Massachusetts, has an obvious stake in the diagnosis — it sells the cure. The company says the generational data reinforces the need for flexible automation that adapts as volume, order profiles, and channels change. CEO Rick Faulk put it plainly: "Retail fulfillment operators are facing an entirely new reality, where demand patterns can change in hours and days, not seasons."

Faulk added that the company is fielding "a record number of peak robot requests to help retailers around the world respond to demand surges." The generational shifts, he said, "underscore why warehouses need automation that can flex with volume, adapt across workflows, and evolve as consumer behavior and business needs continue to evolve."

A robot vendor reporting record robot demand is hardly a neutral witness. But the survey data stands on its own, and the underlying signal — demand volatility compressed from seasons into days — matches what carriers and 3PLs have been reporting from peak cycles for two years running.

The practical takeaway

n For shippers and forwarders, the consequences are concrete. Bracketing inflates parcel volumes in both directions, so peak-season capacity planning needs to cover returns processing labor, reverse-lane parcel capacity, and restocking speed — not just outbound. Social-driven spikes favor retailers with distributed inventory and fast replenishment over those competing purely on last-mile speed.

And the demographic arrow only points one way. Gen Z's bracketing and social-buying rates are the highest of any cohort, and that cohort's share of spend grows every year. Retailers who sized their networks for Boomer-era return rates are, in effect, running last decade's math.

Expect the coming peak to reward operators who can flex labor and automation up within days — and to expose, publicly, those who can't.