The Hot Sheet On Teens

Stores

By Ellen Wulfhorst

Published:  June, 2008

Keeping tabs on teens is a tough job, but Anna D’Agrosa wouldn’t trade it. She and her team of trend spotters and researchers spend hundreds of hours each month observing and interacting with young people. In the course of a year, they interview some 3,000 young people using a variety of research tools in an effort to explore their values, aspirations, lifestyles, interests and purchase behavior. The Hot Sheet, a veritable bible for retailers who cater to this fickle demographic, is published bi-monthly. In this excerpt from a recent Hot Sheet, D’Agrosa, director of consumer insights for the Zandl Group, shares insights on today’s teens, including three top trends retailers cannot afford to miss.

The teen retail landscape is experiencing a great deal of change, and priorities are shifting accordingly. Teens are making trade-offs based on their personal passions. Fashion addicts, for example, are holding out for sales — comparison shopping online versus paying full price at mall stores. At the same time, gamers are inclined to forgo new jeans in favor of the latest game.

Overall, the area that remains strongest with teens is tech. While today’s economy may be crimping their budget, teens are not downgrading their cell phone plans; nor do they resist buying a new iPod if the one they have breaks. Teens overwhelmingly list tech gadgets/services as the “Newest Thing People are Doing or Buying,” eclipsing apparel by a great margin. This tech obsession reflects their priorities and indicates what excites them.


The Apple store has become an entertainment destination for them. They love to go in the store, try out the products – even take pictures with the built-in iSight camera and send them to friends on the store’s MacBooks. Other winners are stores whose offerings provide teens with increased mobility and Internet access. T-Mobile’s new Sidekick with one-touch MySpace access fits the bill.

Among mainstream teens the most popular stores are Hollister, PacSun and Hot Topic, but among progressive, directional teens we hear more about Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters, American Apparel and H&M. Directionally, teens are going to the mall less and opting instead for online. eBay has become the go-to for fashion-forward bargain hunters, and many teens are buying T-shirts directly from their favorite bands’ websites. Teens, especially those who earn their own spending money, love to shop at Wal-Mart and Target for items like toiletries – and they tell us that they shop for clothes at Target
because they can “always find cute stuff.” Independent boutiques and thrift shops are becoming more attractive for unique items.


Top Trends Impacting Retail
Cool to be frugal. Teens are acutely aware and affected by the downturn in the economy. We recently interviewed a teenage girl in Chicago with an afterschool retail job whose parents are both currently unemployed, leaving her and her brother as the breadwinners for the family. This is an extreme example, but most teens are telling us that they are strapped for cash and having difficulty finding jobs.

We’ve noted that Americans, including teens, have proven to be very resilient; the going is tough financially, and it is suddenly cool to be frugal. Off-price and fast-fashion retailers such as H&M should fare well in this climate. Teens inherently view fashion as ‘disposable’. We have never heard a teen say that they’ve made an “investment” purchase of clothing, and these retailers offer them a chance to be stylish at affordable prices.

Knowledge is their vanity. There has been a recent shift away from status brands and toward knowledge as the new social currency. Those with the most insider knowledge/connections are becoming the new power brokers. Teens seek out expertise in the hope of becoming the go-to person for their area of interest. They love shopping at stores that employ experts – they specifically mention Sephora, the Apple Store and
GameStop – making comments such as “you have to know so much about games to work there.”


Online full time. Teens are online 24/7. It’s the first thing they do when they get up in the morning and the last thing they do before bed. This constant exposure to information has fundamentally changed the way they approach nearly everything, including shopping. The online retail experience is crucial to them — from auction sites like eBay to online homes of their favorite retailers. They demand a fluid relationship between online and store and expect to be able to research products online to buy in-store and return online orders in-store. The need for a satisfying online shopping experience will only increase with time.