Teen’s favorite brands, top concerns are …
Teens are still spending despite higher prices and other concerns — and they have some clear brand favorites.
Teen “self-reported” spending increased 3% year-over-year, but was down 2% from last spring, according to Piper Sandler Companies’ 44rd annual semi-annual “Taking Stock With Teens” survey (in partnership with DECA). Conducted from Aug. 12 to Sept. 23, the survey highlights discretionary spending trends and brand preferences from 14,500 teens across 47 U.S. states with an average age of 15.8 years.
Females continue to lead the growth in spending (clothing up 10%, footwear up 7%). The core beauty wallet (cosmetics, skincare and fragrance) grew 20% year-over-year, led by cosmetics (up 28%).
Favorite Brands
- Nike remains the No. 1 brand for all teens in both apparel (31% share) and footwear (60% share). Lululemon took the No. 2 spot in clothing, followed by American Eagle, H&M and Shein.
- Ulta remained the No. 1 preferred beauty destination at 42% mindshare, followed by Sephora (24%), Target (10%), Walmart (6%) and Amazon (5%).
- Ulta also held the strongest beauty loyalty membership at 62% of female teens with a membership
- Chick-Fil-A remains the No. 1 restaurant at 18% share, followed by Starbucks at 17% and Chipotle at 13%.
- Coach remained top among handbag brands, with its lead versus number two brand Michael Kors expanding since the Spring 2022 survey.
TikTok widened its lead versus Snapchat as the favorite teen app, with Instagram remaining in third.
Top Social Causes
The survey showed that teens care about social/political issues, naming the environment as their top (15%) concern. Abortion was No. 2 (11%), and racial equality was No. 3 (9%). Gun control entered the top 10 this fall rising from No. 19 to No. 9.
The Russia/Ukraine invasion, the top concern in Piper Sandler’s spring 2022 report, but did not make the top 10 in the firm’s fall survey.
“GenZ is known to be a conscious generation, and teens this fall cited the environment as their top concern,” said Edward Yruma, senior research analyst, Piper Sandler. “Fifty-three percent 53% of consumers consider carbon footprint when making purchase decisions.”
Additional findings from the fall survey are below.
- Teens allocate 7% of their shopping time to secondhand; 47% of teens have purchased & 58% have sold secondhand.
- On average, teens spent 4.4 hours on social media. Amazon remained the top destination for shopping, but Shein further solidified its No. 2 position.
- Shopping channel shifts reflect more discount channel shopping (up 13% year-over-year), and less off-price (down 8% year-over-year).
- Phone is the No. 1 preferred method by teens for customer service interaction; text/SMS (up 18%) shows the best multi-year gains.
- Eighty-seven percent of teens own an iPhone and 88% expect an iPhone to be their next phone.
- A record 31% of teens own an Apple Watch.
- The top influencers are Andrew Tate, Emma Chamberlain, Kanye West, Mr. Beast and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
[Read More: MrBeast sets traffic record at American Dream]