Study: And the top shopping site for teens is…
Amazon comes out on top — way on top — as the top shopping web site for teens.
That’s according to Piper Jaffray Companies’ 31st semi-annual “Taking Stock With Teens” research survey, which highlights spending trends and brand preferences amongst 6,500 U.S. teens across 46 U.S. states.
Amazon ranked first among web sites, with a 41% “mindshare.” Its closest competitors, Nike and Forever 21, both had a 5% share. In a related finding, the survey found that Amazon Prime adoption, which has increased across all income brackets in each of the past five surveys, continues to expand and now exists in 51% of households of the teens in the survey. This survey, along with other previous Piper Jaffray consumer surveys, suggests that there are 57-61 million Prime households in the U.S.
The survey found that spending by upper-income teens on key fashion categories — clothing, accessories and footwear — is up to 38% versus 36% a year ago. Overall teen spending is down compared to spring 2015.
Marketers who want to reach teens should take note that teens are spending more time on Netflix (38%), cable TV (26%) and YouTube (23%) as opposed to traditional TV.
The report noted that overall teen employment appears to be on the rise, with 39% of teens indicating they hold a part-time job, up 400 basis points over last year’s levels.
“As they take more control over their discretionary spending, we believe it is critically important to watch for category shifts and brand preferences,” said Neely Tamminga, Piper Jaffray senior research analyst.
Here are some key findings from the report:
Denim brands saw an uptick to 14% “aggregated mindshare” and showed up as a top trend among upper-income females for the first time since fall 2013.
The beauty category’s wallet share among upper-income females reached 10%—the highest value in 10 years. Specialty store formats continue to outpace legacy channels for beauty.
*The only two categories that exceed male teen spending on video games (13%) are food (20%) and clothing (15%). Video game spending among males is at an all-time high for the survey.