Thank you to all the chapters and members who participated in the Spring 2023 Piper Sandler Taking Stock With Teens® survey!
Check Out These Key Findings
- Teen “self-reported” spending was up 2% Y/Y to $2,419; parent contribution was 60% vs. 61% LY
- Spending among upper income males increased 6% Y/Y; UI female spend increased 1% Y/Y
- Food was the No. 1 wallet priority for males at 24% share; clothing was No. 1 for females at 28%
- Shopping channel preferences shifted to Off-Price (+500 bps Y/Y) and Secondhand (+200 bps Y/Y)
- The core beauty wallet (cosmetics, skincare, fragrance) stood at $313/year (+19% Y/Y), led by cosmetics (+32% Y/Y)
- Cosmetics held the highest priority of beauty spending at $123, surpassing skincare for the first time since 2020
- Weekly usage of VR devices stayed flat vs Fall 2022 at 14%; 29% of teens own a VR device
- Video games are 12% of male teen wallet share (vs. 14% LY), and 32% expect to purchase a NextGen console within 2 years
- SQ’s Cash App ranked No. 1 most preferred peer-to-peer money transfer app at 41% vs. PYPL’s Venmo at 39%
- For BNPL, teens said they used PayPal “Pay in 4” most frequently, followed by SQ’s Afterpay
- Apple Pay ranked No. 1 for payment apps used within the last month at 39%, followed by Cash App at 25%
- 57% of teens cite Amazon as their No. 1 favorite e-comm site; Nike, SHEIN, lululemon, and PacSun took spots No. 2-5
- Nike remains the No. 1 brand for all teens in both apparel (33%) and footwear (61%)
- UGG broke into the top 10 favorite footwear brands at No. 7, ranking No. 5 with all female teens
- Crocs ranked No. 6 and Hey Dude ranked No. 8 favorite footwear brand among all teens, both gaining ~25 bps of share Y/Y
- On Running and Hoka One One were No. 12 and No. 19 favorite footwear brands respectively for all teens and No. 5 and No. 4 favorite athletic footwear brands for upper income teens respectively
- e.l.f. remains the No. 1 cosmetics brand, increasing 900 bps Y/Y to 22% for female teens
- Specialty Retail for beauty purchases met the Spring 2021 high of 75% and mass/dept/drug reached a new low of 12%
- Ulta remained No. 1 preferred beauty destination at 41% share and held the strongest loyalty membership at 63% of female teens with a membership
- Chick-fil-A remains the No. 1 favorite restaurant at 13% share, followed by Starbucks (12%), and Chipotle (7%)
- 42% of teens consume or are willing to try plant-based meat, vs. 49% in Spring 2021
- Teens report highest intentions to eat more or the same amount of Cheez-It and Goldfish; Goldfish remain most preferred snack brand
- Of the teens surveyed, 40% either consume or are willing to consume plant-based dairy
- 68% of teens have used Spotify for streaming services over the last 6 months, with 44% of teens opting to subscribe/pay for Spotify services
- TikTok declined as the favorite social platform (37% share) by 100 bps vs. Fall 2022. SNAP was No. 2 with 27% share, followed by Instagram (23%)
- Teens spend 31% of daily video consumption on Netflix (-100 bps vs Fall 2022) and 28% on YouTube (-100 bps vs Fall 2022)
- Phone is the No. 1 preferred method for customer service interaction; Text/SMS shows the best multi-year gains
- 87% of teens own an iPhone; 88% expect an iPhone to be their next phone; 35% own an Apple Watch
The Piper Sandler Taking Stock With Teens® survey is a semi-annual research project that gathers input from 5,690 teens with an average age of 16.2 years. Discretionary spending patterns, fashion trends, technology, and brand and media preferences are assessed through surveying a geographically diverse subset of high schools across the U.S. Since the project began in 2001, Piper Sandler has surveyed more than 239,090 teens and collected over 58.3 million data points on teen spending.
