VitalikRadko/Depositphotos.com
There's a big of gloomy news on the horizon for retailers relying on teen consumers, according to Piper Sandler's most recent "Taking Stock With Teens" survey, in partnership with DECA.
The headline: Teen spending, on a self-reported basis, fell 6% YoY to $2,213, with that figure being pegged as down 1% on average versus the past decade.
Anna Andreeva, managing director and senior research analyst at Piper Sandler, delivered the bad news before pivoting to explore the silver lining.
"On a positive note, looking at wallet share for the upper income teen, clothing grew 1% year-over-year driven by females, while footwear share held steady after a decline last spring," Andreeva said.
Teens Show Preference for Established Brands With Cultural Cache
Other notable key findings include:
- Nike held the top spot in both the footwear and apparel categories in terms of brands, perhaps signaling that the company's turnaround efforts could be showing signs of promise. Hollister and Brandy Melville took down the No. 2 and No. 3 positions in apparel, respectively.
- The core beauty wallet tumbled by 2% YoY, to $336. However, e.l.f. Beauty maintained its position as the top beauty brand for teens, and the percentage of teen girls who reported wearing makeup sometimes or daily improved by 1 percentage point, to 85%.
- Sephora retained its position as the top beauty shopping destination, while Ulta came in closely behind. Target held out at a distant third.
- Lay's (PepsiCo) stuck it out as the top-rated snack, followed by Goldfish (Campbell's) and Cheez-It (Kellanova). Dr. Pepper was ranked the No. 1 beverage brand (10%) with Coca-Cola (10%) and Gatorade (8%) following in its footsteps.
- Apple appears to have a near-lock on teen consumers, with 87% reporting having an iPhone. Nearly one-fifth (17%) indicated they expect to upgrade to an iPhone 17 this fall or winter.
- Facebook, and more broadly Meta, may have a demographic problem on its hands, although it has an insurance policy in Instagram. TikTok dominated the preferred social media platform category (46%), followed by Instagram (31%) and Snapchat (14%).
On the celebrity front, Adam Sandler was cited as the top personality, followed by LeBron James and Drake -- and in terms of influencers, it's perhaps no surprise that MrBeast topped the charts, with LeBron James and Alex Earle next on the podium.
The survey has been conducted since 2001, this time involving nearly 11,000 teen survey respondents with an average household income of just under $70,000.