In the GCC, the youngest members of the household are playing a far more active role in shaping how families spend, shop, and engage with brands. Gen Alpha, children born from around 2010 onwards, are growing up in an environment of high connectivity, individualised consumption, and strong family cohesion. While they are still years away from financial independence, their influence on household decisions is already visible and growing.

This article explores how Gen Alpha is already shaping household spending in the GCC and what that means for businesses planning. Drawing on consumer insights, we examine how their behaviors and preferences are starting to influence decisions today, well before they have direct buying power.

For companies navigating market research in UAE and across the region, this segment brings both complexity and long-term opportunity. Their influence intersects with trends we already observe through qualitative research, focus groups, and quantitative research and raises new questions about how families make decisions in digitally saturated households.

Early digital habits, early consumer impact

Across our regional qualitative research, we consistently see how digital habits among children in the GCC begin well before adolescence. In upper-income households, children are using tablets, streaming platforms, and digital games from as early as four years old. In addition to early access to screens, Gen Alpha is distinguished by how intuitively they move between content, products, and trends.

As a result, they are forming preferences early and making them known. Parents report that their children play a meaningful role in decisions around which devices to buy, which apps to install, and even which grocery brands to choose. In higher-income UAE households, it is increasingly common to see parents checking with children before finalizing decisions on tech, food delivery, or holiday plans.

This influence is particularly visible in homes where children have dedicated screen time, device access, or personal profiles on digital platforms. The content they consume is often global, but their reactions are locally shaped by what peers in their community are doing, watching, and using.

Decision-making in families hasn’t flipped, but it has opened up. Children are being listened to earlier, and their preferences are shaping the outcome. Brands that once targeted parents now need to consider how their messaging, design, and product formats resonate with younger voices sitting at the same table.

Children’s influence on everyday family decisions

Children today aren’t just influencing what gets added to the toy basket, they’re shaping a much wider range of everyday choices. Their preferences are increasingly taken into account across categories that used to be considered adult-only territory.

We specifically see this in:

• Food choices: Branded cereals, flavoured milk, or fruit snacks are increasingly chosen to align with children’s preferences, especially when packaging or influencers are involved.
• Streaming content and subscriptions: Decisions around platforms like Netflix, Shahid, or YouTube Premium are often made based on what children want to watch not what adults prefer.
• Fashion and sportswear: Children are influencing which brands enter the household, especially in footwear, streetwear, and school supplies.

These decisions often happen informally, for example, a quick nod from a child, a comment at the store, or a habit formed through repetition. But over time, they add up. The result is a subtle shift in how families approach routine spending: less top-down, more consultative. For brands, that means recognizing that the end consumer might not be the only voice that matters.

This shift also shows up in retail behaviors. Families may walk into a store to purchase a single item, only to adjust their entire basket based on a child’s request. In e-commerce, wishlist functions and shared carts are often filled by children who are not authorized to make a purchase, but whose preferences are taken seriously. These micro-decisions create a pattern of influence that many brands still underestimate.

A GCC-specific context of influence

What amplifies Gen Alpha’s impact in the Gulf is the nature of family dynamics. In many households, there is a stronger emphasis on shared routines and intergenerational presence. Families shop together, dine together, and travel together. In this context, children’s opinions are more likely to be voiced and heard.

Disposable income is also a factor. With smaller family sizes and higher per-capita spending in many segments, parents have more flexibility to accommodate individual preferences, including those of children. This can be seen in areas like personalized birthday parties, school lunch plans, and extracurricular purchases, where children are involved in the planning and selection process.

Even in functional purchases, such as home appliances or family cars, the presence of Gen Alpha is felt. Brands that signal entertainment, tech integration, or comfort for younger passengers often have an edge even if children are not the target buyer.

In Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, local content creators and child-facing influencers play a growing role in shaping demand. Branded toys, fast food collaborations, or even educational products gain visibility through platforms like TikTok or Snapchat. For many parents, their child’s interest in a brand stems not from advertising, but from what a classmate or online personality is using.

This also points to the importance of tracking regional content ecosystems. GCC-based influencers, even if young themselves, are setting preferences across school communities and peer groups. The brands they endorse, the products they unbox, and the games they play filter directly into household decisions long before any formal brand loyalty is developed.

Influence before income: What this means for businesses in the region

Over the next decade, Gen Alpha will gain spending power but by then, many of their preferences will already be fixed. Their expectations are being shaped now, through the everyday choices they influence at home. Brands that wait to engage until this generation reaches financial independence will be reacting too late.

The opportunity today isn’t to market directly to children, but to understand how their presence is already reshaping household decisions. That requires more than assumptions. It calls for behavioral research that captures how influence flows within families across categories, income levels, and nationalities.

The most valuable research in this space doesn’t isolate Gen Alpha as a segment. Instead, it observes how their preferences shift routines what parents respond to, where trade-offs are made, and how decisions are shaped across platforms, stores, and screens.

At Sapience, we help clients across the GCC decode these dynamics through tailored research from family-centered segmentation to decision-mapping and longitudinal studies. To learn how our extensive research and advisory capabilities can support your strategy, contact our team.