Vibing With Teens: Latest Gen Z Trends Report

By Rieva Lesonsky

There’s good news for small business owners who sell to teenagers. The just released fall Taking Stock With Teens survey from investment bank Piper Sandler reveals that teens are spending more--$2,361—up 4% from the spring report and 6% from last fall’s survey.

If you sell to teens, the data in these bi-annual surveys are key to knowing what teens want.

Let’s look at teen spending by category.

Beauty

Teen spending on beauty products (cosmetics, skincare, and fragrances) rose to its highest level since spring 2018—$342, which is up 6% from last fall. While cosmetic spending tops the category, fragrances continue to grow rapidly—with 25% year-over-year growth. Skincare spending lagged the category, down 4%.

If you’re a beauty entrepreneur who sells to bigger retailers, Ulta lost its number-one ranking to Sephora this fall. But the big category winner is Target, who, while in third place, “gained 4 points year-over-year.”

The Target Accelerators program has expanded to take early-stage and mature consumer packaged goods (CPG) businesses “to the next level with curated education, industry-leading resources, and connections to some of the brightest minds in the business.”

Ulta (MUSE Accelerator) and Sephora (Sephora Accelerate) also have accelerator programs. Entries are closed for this year, but check them out for future applications.

To prove the category’s entrepreneurial bona fides, e.l.f., the top teen cosmetic brand boasting a 35% share of market, was co-founded 20 years ago by a 23-year-old college student.

Clothing and footwear

Athletic clothing and footwear dominate teens’ wardrobe. Nike tops both the apparel and footwear categories. But it’s losing share in the footwear category (particularly from girls) to New Balance and Adidas.

Food and restaurants

Teens top three restaurant choices are (in order) Chick-fil-A, McDonald’s, and Chipotle. To get “energy,” teens turn to energy drinks like Monster Beverage,?Red Bull, Celsius, and Alani Nu instead of coffee or soda.

For snacking, teens favorite foods are Goldfish, Lays, and Cheez-Its.

Technology and social media

TikTok is still their favorite social app, followed by Instagram and?Snapchat. An overwhelming number of teens (87%) own iPhones, with 30% planning to upgrade their phones in the next six months to take advantage of Apple Intelligence.

Other teen faves

Most teens prefer to shop at Amazon (52%), get rideshares from UBER (79%), and food delivered from DoorDash (75%).

Survey stats

The average age of the more than 13,000 teens surveyed is 15.8, and 54% are boys, 45% are girls, and 1% are non-binary. The average household income in their homes is $67,440.

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Rieva Lesonsky?is President of Small Business Currents, LLC, a content company focusing on small businesses and entrepreneurship. Email Rieva at?[email protected], follow her on Twitter?@Rieva, and to get the scoop on business trends and sign up for Rieva’s free Currents newsletter.

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Teens picture by Dean Drobot/Shutterstock