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Girl Scout cookie selling goes omnichannel

January 20, 2021Written by Tom Ryan

Source: Grubhub

Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) has kicked off its 2021 cookie drive with a partnership with Grubhub. It marks its first collaboration with a national delivery service as the national organization pivots to online selling and contact-free delivery during the pandemic. Grubhub isn’t charging a fee to the organization. Local Girl Scouts will track and fulfill orders as well as manage inventory via Grubhub’s platform with the overall program continuing to help girls develop important life skills, such as goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills and business ethics. “This season, our girls will continue to exemplify what the cookie program taught them — how to think like entrepreneurs, use innovative sales tactics, and pivot to new ways of doing business when things don’t go according to plan,” said interim GSUSA CEO Judith Batty. “The cookie program is what keeps Girl Scouts thriving in communities across the country and is proven to build girls’ leadership skills and help them become successful in life.” The organization opened preorders for cookies in mid-December and will run sales from February through March. GNC has agreed to support the Girl Scouts by allowing girls to set up outside their locations in “a safe and socially distant manner,” but traditional selling from tables outside stores is expected to be limited due to COVID-19 transmission risks. Desk-to-desk pitches inside parents’ offices and door-to-door knocking likewise face restrictions. As a result, many Girl Scouts this year are already establishing e-commerce websites and creating social media videos to support online outreach. A recording of a virtual front-door sales pitch from Allie Shroyer, a first-grader from Scottsdale, AZ, was featured on People.com and a number of other media sites. [embed]https://youtu.be/FpeWHLxiqVE[/embed] Drive-through pickup sites and front-door drop-offs are also in the works. Ava Estrada, a girl scout from Los Angeles, told a local ABC News affiliate, "I will do it safely by leaving it on their doorstep and then going six feet apart and be 'Ms. Cookie' maybe, doing a little singing delivery, maybe." The challenge is getting the word out virtually. Nancy Wright, CEO of Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana, told the Chicago Tribune, “We know the demand is there. It’s just, how do we get them to them?”

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