Although this doesn’t seem like ground breaking research findings, there are some important implications for marketers.
Teenage girls seem to always be on a social shopping mission, and once being a teenage girl myself I can confirm this assumption. Shopping is a leisure social activity that girls participate in both online and offline. Although, most of their purchases may not be made online they are using online social mediums such as Facebook and Twitter to influence their purchasing decisions in the traditional brick-and-mortar store.
For example my sister was recently shopping for her highschool prom dress, which is a significant purchase for any teenage girl. She took pictures on her mobile phone of herself in the different dresses that she was considering. She then immediately uploaded the pictures to Facebook to solicit feedback from friends and family. Some of the different retailers did not like that she was taking pictures on her phone, and although she loved some of the dresses she could not seem to commit to any of the ones in those particular stores. The retailers prohibited her from attaining her friends’ approval on this important purchase.
Marian Slazman summarizes this point well in an interview with eMarketer,
“[girls are] incredibly social beings and very involved with their friends’ lives. These intimate relationships have enormous influence over decision-making in all aspects of girls’ lives—especially what they spend their money on.”
This segment represents a huge opportunity for marketers due to their sheer number, spending power, and their heavy and hyper connected internet and social media usage. By possibly implementing a mobile application for certain retail stores to allow teenage girls the ability to easily and efficiently share their finds, steals, and considerations with their peers will attract new customers turned on by the viral buzz that teenage girls created themselves.
