armed with more information to the store floor.”
Purchases are researched online to find
the best deal. Information
about products and
brands—what’s trending
and what their friends are
saying, doing and wearing—is shared on social
media. When they walk
into a store they’re not
looking to be sold on a
product, they’re looking
to confirm that the product they want to buy is the right one. LeBlanc
refers to this as “the consultative sell,” so sales
associates’ “skill set needs to be less about ‘let
me take you to the product,’ but instead, ‘tell
me about why you want that product, because
maybe I could make some suggestions.’ [So,]
that value-added sell now becomes the sell.”
Flush with cash
Allowances, birthday and Christmas
windfalls, and part-time jobs are where her
teens get their money, says Andrea Phillpotts,
a Richmond, British Columbia, high school
teacher. Her daughters, Teya, 16, and Jasmine,
15, “shop as much and as widely as they can.
It is one of their prime pastimes.” Clothes are
their main purchases.
Only a small percentage of their shopping
is done online, but before they hit the stores
they’re armed with information they’ve found
on the internet, like price and the location
that has their size. When they buy a cute outfit it’s posted on Instagram and Snapchat with
details on where to get it. They’re also brand
and cost conscious.
“They’re motivated by sales. … They have
money, but they want to make the most of the
money they do have,” says Phillpotts.
Missing the market
The teen market is often undervalued
because of their age, but realistically they have
strong potential future buying power, says
Kris Burwash, a Costco member and the
owner of Listen Records, an independent
record store in Edmonton. “When you don’t
have new, young customers you feel as though
your business has got an expiry date. … For
any market, your growth is limited if your
Teen appeal
Attracting and keeping younger shoppers
BY SUZANNE BOLES
RETAILERS AND MARKETERS have been
busy focusing on the purchasing pulse of
Canada’s nearly 9 million millennials, and the
reason is obvious. Also referred to as
Generation Y, this demographic has a worldwide estimated $2.45 trillion in spending
power. Born between 1980 and 2000, the
youngest members of this group are still teenagers, but a new generation is on their heels.
Generation Z—tweens and early teens—
are the up-and-comers when it comes to consumer spending. As always, younger
generations influence family buying decisions, but Gen Z is also within the teen shopping demographic, wielding some pretty
hefty disposable cash and unique shopping
preferences. If you’re a retailer who hasn’t
focused on the teen market, this might be the
time to take a closer look at the Gen Y and Z
teen demographic.
What does teen loyalty mean for
businesses?
Why should retailers care what teens
want? According to the last Statistics Canada
census, in 2011, there were over 4 million
youths, ages 10 to 19, in Canada. In her book,
The $100 Billion Allowance: Accessing the
Global Teen Market (Wiley, 2000), author
Elissa Moses says the average Canadian teen-
ager spends $20 per week on purchases. If
those numbers hold true today, that means
teenagers are spending about $80 million a
week. That’s more than $4 billion a year being
pumped into the Canadian economy.
Social and often shy
“For teens and millennials, the social ele-
ment of shopping remains crucial,” says
Michael LeBlanc, senior vice-president of the
Retail Council of Canada (RCC), the organi-
zation that speaks on behalf of, and advocates
for, retailers across the country. “Shopping
isn’t just about transactions. [If it were,] then
everybody would shop online. It’s about cul-
ture. It’s social. It’s entertainment.”
Kate Elia, owner of The Beau & Bauble in
Toronto, calls her store “a treasure trove for
girls and women of all ages.” She says the
majority of young girls who frequent her store
are shy and prefer to browse without pressure.
She’s found success by playing music so the
teen customers know their conversations
won’t be overheard.
Teens know what they want
LeBlanc describes this generation as “
digital first. They’re brand savvy, and they come
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