How should brands prepare for Gen Alpha's spending power?

Gen Alpha is the first generation to grow up with AI embedded in everyday life and they really are the first generation of “Digital Natives”. As AI-enabled personalisation becomes increasingly expected, trust is emerging as a critical differentiator for brands. Consumers are more likely to engage when personalisation is accompanied by transparent, secure, and responsible use of data

The opportunity is particularly significant in many Asian markets, where declining birth rates and smaller family sizes can result in greater spending concentration per child. Increasingly, parents are willing to invest in products and services that support their children's development, wellbeing, learning, and future opportunities. While value for money remains important, brands that align with these long-term family priorities may be well positioned to build deeper relationships and achieve sustainable growth for those future generations of Digital Natives.

Generation Alpha may be digital natives, but winning their loyalty requires more than simply increasing screen-based engagement. The most successful brands will combine digital convenience with real-world experiences that foster creativity, learning, social interaction, and family participation. Physical stores, events, and community-led initiatives can play an important role in building emotional connections that are difficult to replicate online.

At the same time, as children exert greater influence over household spending, brands must carefully balance personalisation with responsible data practices. Parents remain key gatekeepers, making trust, transparency, and age-appropriate engagement essential. Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of how their data is collected and used, and brands that demonstrate clear privacy standards will be better positioned to build long-term credibility.

For retailers, the opportunity is not simply to market to Gen Alpha, but to earn the trust of both children and their parents through meaningful and responsible engagement.

The Gen Alpha Vietnamese market is one of the most lucrative consumer markets in South East Asia, estimated to be worth 3-4 billion. Ho Chi Minh City's fertility rate has fallen to 1.39-1.51, well below the national 1.93, meaning family spending is concentrating on fewer children rather than simply growing. This "golden child" effect makes Vietnam's Gen Alpha unusually high-value per child. 
What we noticed working with Biti's; one of Vietnam’s leading youth footwear brands, is the winning move is participation: letting young consumers shape the product rather than inferring what they want from data collected quietly. Vietnam's law now makes that the only real option anyway — processing an under-16's data requires consent from both child and parent, which rules out quiet inference by design and forces brands toward personalisation. Win Vietnam's lucrative Gen Alpha market by choosing compliant parent and child participation over quiet data tracking. 

Parents in developing APAC markets like Indonesia, the Philippines and India rely on schools, community programs and pediatricians when deciding on children's health and nutrition purchases. School-aged children already spend two to three hours a day on screens, so more digital content will not gain much attention from an already saturated group. Brands need to weight offline relationships instead: schools, community programs, pediatricians, and in-store moments where parents and children try products together. Growth is concentrated in these markets, which are expected to see the strongest gains in children's health and nutrition.
Children influence the purchase decision, but parents hold the payment method and give consent for data use. Brands that personalize the child's experience without accounting for the parent's role risk losing that trust. Age-appropriate data collection and opt-in defaults should be designed around the parent from the start, before a regulator forces it and trust becomes hard to rebuild.

Gen Alpha will reward brands that earn trust early, not just attention. As AI reshapes search and content creation, discoverability will increasingly be driven by conversational queries, creator-led recommendations, and algorithmic curation—so brands need authentic, genuinely useful content that’s relevant, interesting, and always age-appropriate. Personalisation must be transparent and responsible, built on first-party, consented data with clear parental controls, because overly intrusive targeting will backfire quickly with both children and Millennial parents. The winners will design for the whole household: delivering safety, quality and value signals for parents, whilst creating fun, interactive experiences for kids across digital and real-world touchpoints—not relying solely on more screen time.

Q2. As children gain greater influence over household spending, how should companies balance personalisation with privacy and responsible marketing?
Responsible marketing should avoid pressure loops and manipulative advertising patterns that could trigger excessive consumption. Personalisation should focus on age-appropriate settings that allow easily adjustable safety features for parents/guardians to manage, such as easy parental controls or dashboards, instead of default standards. This is especially important for markets where digital devices are embedded into lifestyles, shaping digital nativity among children and the rise of children-centric electronics. The growth of smart wearables (9% CAGR, equivalent to 34 million additional units) is predicted to outpace smartphones in Asia Pacific (2%, adding 5 million units) over the 2025-2030 period. Companies should adopt strategies that involve parents and guardians as important gatekeepers and lean into a broader group of children segments such as school and learning occasions instead of capitalising on behavioural data.

Q1. How can brands build lasting relationships with Gen Alpha without relying heavily on screen time and social media?
While Gen Alpha are digital and AI-natives, lasting loyalty will not come from simply maximizing screen time. Euromonitor’s Voice of Consumer, Lifestyles survey in 2025 showed that 49% of APAC parents say their children use TikTok. However, parents are increasingly concerned about overstimulation and their children falling victim to scams. As Gen Alpha strengthen their role as influencers towards family purchase decision-making, successful brands will have to shift from digital attention capture to education and family participation, and phygital experiences. The winners will be brands that build trust, create meaningful value, and convert shared family experiences into long-term loyalty.