Thank you to all the chapters and members who participated in the Fall 2023 Piper Sandler Taking Stock With Teens® survey!
Check Out These Key Findings
- Our 46th semi-annual Taking Stock With Teens survey was conducted between September 4 and September 27
- Regional responses were 36% in the South, 29% in the Midwest, 21% in the West and 14% in the Northeast
- 37% of teens hold a part-time job – down slightly from 40% spring '23
- Teen “self-reported” spending was down 1% Y/Y to $2,316, and down 4% vs. from spring '23; parent contribution was 62% vs. 60% last spring '23
- Males led the increase in teen spending, with upper income male spend up 11% Y/Y and up 11% vs. spring '23, while female spend was down 8% Y/Y and down 2% vs. spring '23
- Female fashion spend was down 7% Y/Y with lower spend across apparel (-9% Y/Y) and shoes (-5% Y/Y), offset by strength in accessories spend (+8% Y/Y)
- For upper-income teens, food was the No. 1 wallet priority for male spending at 25% share, while clothing remains at the top of the female wallet share at 28%, down 260 bps vs last fall '22 when female clothing wallet share peaked at 30%
- Since fall '22, shopping channel preferences have shifted toward off-price (+545 bps Y/Y) and online only e-tailers (+121 bps Y/Y) and away from specialty, discount, and outlet dropped (-162 bps Y/Y, -440 bps Y/Y, and -81 bps Y/Y, respectively)
- The core beauty wallet (cosmetics, skincare, fragrance) stood at $324/year (+23% Y/Y), led by cosmetics (+33% Y/Y)
- Cosmetics held the highest priority of beauty spending at $127, the highest level seen since '19 Weekly usage of VR devices declined to ~10% from ~14% in spring '23. But 31% of teens now own a VR device, up from 29% Spring '23
- Video games are 11% of male teen wallet share (vs. 12% fall'23), and 33% expect to purchase a NextGen console within two years
- SQ’s Cash App ranked No. 1 for most preferred peer-to-peer money transfer app at 50% vs. PYPL’s Venmo at 36%
- 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 42%; followed by Cash App at 27%
- 55% of teens cite Amazon as their No. 1 favorite e-comm site; SHEIN, Nike, GOAT, and Temu took spots No. 2-5
- Nike remains the No. 1 brand for all teens in both apparel (35%) and footwear (61%)
- New Balance surpassed Vans as the No. 4 favorite footwear brand, New Balance gained ~200 bps of mindshare Y/Y while Vans lost ~350 bps of mindshare Y/Y Crocs ranked No. 6 and Hey Dude ranked No. 7 favorite footwear brand among all teens, gaining ~30 bps and ~50 bps of mindshare Y/Y respectively
- On Running and Hoka One One were the No. 8 and No. 13 favorite footwear brands respectively for all teens, and the No. 5 and No. 3 favorite athletic footwear brands for upper income teens respectively
- e.l.f. remains the No. 1 cosmetics brand, increasing 13 points Y/Y to 29% for female teens
- Specialty retail for beauty purchases reached the highest level yet at 79%, and mass/dept/drug reached a new low of 11%
- Sephora surpassed Ulta for the No. 1 preferred beauty shopping destination (Ulta at No. 2) and held the strongest loyalty membership at 67% (Ulta at 60%)
- Chick-fil-A remains the No. 1 favorite restaurant at 16% share, followed by Starbucks (13%), and McDonald’s (9%)
- Teens that consume or are willing to try plant-based meat hits all time low with 35% in fall '23 vs. 49% in spring ’21
- Teens report highest intentions to eat more or the same amount of MDLZ’s Clif Bar; CPB’s Goldfish remain most preferred snack brand
- Monster (28%), Red Bull (23%) and Celsius (16%) are teens’ favorite energy drink brands; Celsius at 16% is well above its ~10% market share
- 70% of teens have used Spotify over the last six months (up from 68%), with 46% of teens opting to subscribe/pay for Spotify (up from 44%)
- TikTok improved slightly as the favorite social platform (38% share) by 80 bps vs. spring ‘23. SNAP was No. 2 with 28% share, followed by Instagram (23%)
- Teens spend 28.7% of daily video consumption on Netflix (-220 bps vs. spring '23) and 29.1% on YouTube (+100 bps vs. spring '23)
- Mobile device remains the No.1 preferred method for customer service interactions (50% share); Text/SMS shows the best multi-year gains
- 87% of teens own an iPhone; 88% expect an iPhone to be their next phone; 34% own an Apple Watch
The Piper Sandler Taking Stock With Teens® survey is a semi-annual research project that gathers input from 9,193 teens with an average age of 15.7 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 248,283 teens and collected over 60.7 million data points on teen spending.
