Studies arrived showing Nike and Lululemon ranking high among favorite retailers for millennial and Gen Z consumers; Outdoor Voices landing among LinkedIn’s top startups and research on visual search, online personalization, Walmart’s online share gains and voice assistant shopping.

Nike, Lululemon Favs with Younger Consumers

Victoria’s Secret, Sephora, Nike, Coach and Kate Spade were the top-five retailers millennial and Gen Z shoppers like to shop, according to the annual Love List Brand Affinity Index from Goldman Sachs and Conde Nast. In the active space, Lululemon ranked at 9; Under Armour, 12;and Adidas, 13. Asked which brands they buying from that have been around for more than several years, the top five were Nike, Adidas, Lululemon, Urban Decay and NYX.

Outdoor Voices and AllBirds Land on LinkedIn’s Startups

Allbirds ranked at 29 and Outdoor Voices at 43 on LinkedIn’s list of the 50 Top Startups. Thrive Global, the wellness startup launched by Arianna Huffington, was 42. Other retailers on the list included Enjoy and Away.

Younger Consumers Seeking Visual Search Capabilities

A survey of 1,000 Gen Z and Millennial consumers from ViSenze found that more than 60 percent are most likely to complete transactions on their mobile devices with nearly 80 percent discovering products via mobile while on the go. Due to this dominance of the mobile device in the shopping journey, it’s natural that the study further found that 62 percent of respondents want visual search capabilities enabling them to quickly discover and identify the products on their mobile devices that they’re inspired by and seek to purchase.

Consumers More Open to Personalization Expertise

According to new research from Accenture and the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), 63 percent of consumers surveyed are interested in personalized recommendations, up from 57 percent two years ago. The majority of respondents are willing to share their data in exchange benefits such as automatic credits for coupons and loyalty points (64 percent of those surveyed), access to exclusive deals (60 percent), the ability to gain points and rewards (56 percent) or special offers for items that interest them (53 percent).

Wal-Mart Making Some Gains on Amazon Online

According to an analysis of anonymous consumer actions on mobile and desktop devices within 500 e-commerce sites and marketplaces in Q2 2018 from Jumpshot, Amazon has more than 80 percent market share across numerous categories. But the company’s dominance has left no room to grow further. While Walmart has a relatively small market share today compared to Amazon, the company is growing at 3.5 times faster than Amazon. Walmart is growing more than 2 times faster than individual categories across the board, except in Women’s Clothing

Voice Assistant Shoppers Forgo Brand Loyalty

According to new research from Digitas, 85 percent of virtual voice assistant purchasers say they’ve purchased the first brand offered by their device, rather than the specific brand they initially requested. As brands rethink how they compete in a voice-assisted world, here are a few truths to tackle. Seventy-eight percent said if they were purchasing a product using a virtual voice assistant with a screen, they’d be likely to scroll through additional product options instead of purchasing the first option the voice assistant gives.

Photo courtesy Digitas