Piper Sandler has released their 44th semi-annual Generation Z survey of 14,500 American teens which finds that 87% of American teens own an iPhone and 88% expect an iPhone to be their next phone.
The Piper Sandler Taking Stock With Teens survey is a semi-annual research project that gathers input from 14,500 teens with an average age of 15.8 years. Discretionary spending patterns, fashion trends, technology, and brand and media preferences are assessed through surveying a geographically diverse subset of high schools across the U.S. Since the project began in 2001, Piper Sandler has surveyed more than 233,400 teens and collected over 56.5 million data points on teen spending.
Demographics & Spending:
• Our 44th semi-annual Taking Stock With Teens survey was conducted between August 12 and September 23
• Regional responses were 41% in the South, 20% in the West, 32% in the Midwest and 7% in the Northeast
• 39% of teens hold a part-time job – steady with last Spring and up from 38% in Fall 2021
• Teen “self-reported” spending was up 3% Y/Y to $2,331, and down 2% vs. last Spring; parent contribution was 61% vs. 60% last Spring
• Females led the increase in teen spending, with all female spend up 10% Y/Y, which was driven by clothing (+10% Y/Y) and footwear (+7% Y/Y)
• For upper income teens, Food was the No. 1 wallet priority for male spending at 23% share, and clothing reached its highest level of female wallet share since 2012 at 30% share
• Teens allocate 7% of their shopping time to secondhand; 47% have purchased secondhand; 58% have sold secondhand
• Shopping channel preferences, among all upper income teens, shifted more toward discount channels (13% share, +483 bps Y/Y) and less toward off-price channels (9% share, -346 bps Y/Y)
• The core beauty wallet (cosmetics, skincare, fragrance) stood at $264/year (+20% Y/Y), led by cosmetics (+28% Y/Y)
• Skincare held the highest priority of beauty spending at $103, followed by cosmetics at $96 and haircare at $91
• Everyday makeup wearers are now at 41% (vs. 33% LY), including 50% of upper-income teens wearing makeup everyday
• Weekly usage of VR devices moved to 14% from 17% last Spring; 26% of teens own a VR device (flat vs. Spring 2022)
• Video games are 12% of teen wallet share (vs. 14% LY), and 30% expect to purchase a NextGen console within 2 yearsBrand & Preference Rankings:
• 87% of teens own an iPhone; 88% expect an iPhone to be their next phone; 31% of teens own an Apple Watch
• 52% of teens cite Amazon as their No. 1 favorite e-comm site; SHEIN, Nike, Lululemon, and Pacsun took spots No. 2-5
• Nike remains the No. 1 brand for all teens in both apparel (31% share) and footwear (60% share)
• Crocs increased from the No. 6 preferred footwear brand to No. 5 while Hey Dude moved from No. 9 to No .7
• Converse gained 200 bps of share Y/Y, maintaining the No. 2 ranking, and Under Armour dropped out of the top 10
• e.l.f. maintained its position as the No. 1 cosmetics brand, gaining 500 bps of share Y/Y to 16% of female teens
• Bath & Body Works came in as the No. 1 fragrance brand among female teens (38% share) in a new question this survey
• Ulta remained the No. 1 preferred beauty destination at 42% share, and it 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 (-200 bps Y/Y), followed by Starbucks at 17% (+600 bps Y/Y) and Chipotle at 13% (+300 bps Y/Y)
• Teens plan to eat less plant-based meat; of the 14% of teens that do consume plant-based meat, 23% of teens plan to eat less plant-based meat, up from 17% in Fall 2021
• Teens report highest intentions to eat more or the same amount of Nature Valley (GIS) and Clif (MDLZ); Goldfish (CPB) remained teens most preferred snack brand
• TikTok improved as the favorite social platform (38% share) by 400 bps vs. last Spring, and SNAP was No. 2 at 30% (-100 bps vs. Spring 2022) while Instagram was No. 3 at 20% (-200 bps vs. Spring 2022)
• Teens spend 32% of daily video consumption on Netflix (flat vs. LY) and 29% on YouTube (-200 bps vs. LY)
• Phone is the No. 1 preferred method by teens for customer service interaction; Text/SMS shows the best multi-year gains
MacDailyNews Take: Some kinds of wisdom obviously don’t require age. 🙂
Why would anyone want a slow, green-bubbled, insecure, privacy-invading fake iPhone, when you can have a fast, blue-bubbled, secure, privacy-protecting real iPhone instead?
Only old ignorati handicap themselves with Google tracking devices.
So, what happens to Apple’s smartphone share as these teens grow up, become adults, and have families? — MacDailyNews, October 22, 2018
In one of our local high schools, out of roughly 300 students who are known to have a cellphone, three (3!) are known to not have an iPhone (two Androids of unknown make (that the kids hate and keep well-hidden) and one flip phone to be used only for emergency calls). All of the rest have iPhones. Quote from a student: “It’s really bad to be green in Messages.” – MacDailyNews, April 11, 2018
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