NEW YORK--A new analysis argues that payment brands looking to win with Gen Z may need to think beyond speed, security and convenience, with the data suggesting that emotional relevance and personal alignment are becoming powerful drivers of brand strength in digital wallets and other financial services.
In a three-page report, BERA said “Personal Connection” explains more than half of the variance in overall brand equity among Gen Z across more than 2,000 brands, and more than three-quarters of the variance in equity specifically for finance, banking and digital wallet brands.
For credit unions and other financial institutions, the report offers a notable warning: among younger consumers, payments are increasingly tied not just to utility but to identity and lifestyle. BERA said Gen Z is not viewing digital wallets such as Zelle, PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay and Amazon Pay as interchangeable tools, but as brands that can feel integrated into daily life and aligned with personal values. The report, citing Harris Poll research, added that more than half of Gen Z consumers now use physical cash only as a last resort, underscoring how digital payments are becoming a more central part of how younger consumers manage money and express financial preferences.
The report said PayPal currently stands out as the strongest brand-equity performer among the five major digital wallets it examined, with brand equity stronger than 95% and 90% of the top 2,000 brands in the U.S., while Apple Pay also scored highest on Personal Connection relative to Apple Pay, Venmo, Amazon Pay and Zelle, whose brand equity ranks were listed in the 90th, 84th, 78th and 67th percentiles, respectively.
BERA stressed that functional basics still matter—apps must remain easy to use and frictionless—but argued that as those core features become more commoditized, differentiation is shifting toward emotional and experiential factors that can deepen loyalty with Gen Z over time. The study covered Q2 2024 through Q2 2025 and used Gen Z sample sizes ranging from roughly 2,070 for Amazon Pay to 8,750 for Zelle.