For all the attention paid to making shopping more immersive, playful and experiential, one audience still risks being missed: boys.  

The findings behind our recent Gen Alpha: Born to Shop report highlight a clear shopping gap between how boys and girls engage with retail. While girls are more likely to enjoy the journey, browsing, exploring, touching, discovering and being surrounded by colour and choice, boys are more likely to want shopping to feel purposeful, direct and connected to something they already care about.

That doesn’t mean boys are disengaged from retail. It means many stores are not giving them the right way in.

Boys are tactical shoppers

When shopping, boys are more likely to have a target in mind, want to get to it quickly, and respond to retail spaces that feel like a focused destination rather than an extended browse.

And among boys aged 7–10, Dad emerged as a surprisingly powerful shopping companion, with 55% saying he was their favourite person to shop with. They were also statistically more likely than girls to favour Dad. Why? Because Dad often changes the rhythm of the trip: less wandering, more permission, more speed and more focus on the thing they came for.

“My favourite memory was getting some Pokémon from ASDA. It was a one-off and I was with my dad and said, ‘I found this, it looks really cool — can I get it?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, sure.’” — Rocco, 9

Hands-on retail gives boys a way in

Apple stores show how powerful hands-on retail can be when built into an aspirational space. Playable devices, sleek design and an environment that invites pick up and play. For boys in particular, this kind of side-by-side digital play can make a store feel less like a shopping trip and more like a place to explore what a product can do.

Touch is not a nice-to-have in kids’ retail; it’s a basic expectation. 87% of kids in the UK say they prefer to touch or feel products before they buy them. For boys, that often means trialling and testing: building LEGO, trying a gadget, trying on trainers/sneakers or working out how something functions.

The retail tick list

We have identified clear strategies for attracting boys into retail – and keeping them longer:

• Make the mission obvious: Give boys a clear route to the thing they came for, whether that is football boots, Pokémon cards, gaming kit, trainers or tech.
  
  
• Use aspiration as a magnet: Put big, high-status products on display. Hero items, premium drops and visually impressive gear give boys something to gravitate towards.
  
  
• Let them test, touch and try: Build in product play, demos and hands-on moments so boys can work out how something functions before they buy into it.
  
  
• Add a simple reward: Food, drink or a single hangout spot can make the trip feel more exciting without turning it into a long, fragmented shopping journey.

Finally, when focussing on boys it is worth remembering that passions, not style, are the strongest route in for boys.

A boy may not describe himself as having a “look”, but he may want football boots like Lamal, basketball shoes like Stephen Curry or gaming kit like his favourite YouTuber. Once he is in-store, retailers can nudge him into broader choices and new forms of self-expression.

The challenge for retailers is not to label spaces as being for boys or girls. It is to design retail experiences flexible enough to meet different needs without making either audience feel excluded. And for boys, that means building clearer routes into stores through passion points, purposeful destinations, hands-on product play and aspirational worlds.

Getting this right will open up new ways for boys to belong in physical retail and close a shopping gap that many stores have not yet noticed.

Want more insight into how kids are shaping retail spaces in 2026? Download the Born to Shop mini-report below.