EOC: W2: Survey and Results

The Decline In Teen Fashion Spending

In 2007 Piper Jaffray conducted a mall research survey in ten cities across the United States which included research form 980 students, asking what they're purchasing behaviors were.  Piper Jaffray retail research team published key findings for teens' purchasing behaviors and preferences in the categories of fashion, apparel brands and retailers, beauty and personal care, home furnishings, video games, digital entertainment and restaurants. Piper Jaffray also partnered with the national DECA organization for the sixth time resulting in 3,000 additional completed online surveys. To his findings the fashion spending declined 24 percent from spring of 2007 due to the gradual maturing of the fashion cycle. Research showed that spending habits for young women went down 18 percent where as spending habits for young men went down 9 percent.  But for those that did spend, they spent a significant amount on the fashion department.

"The fashion category still represents 42 percent of the total teen budget for the fall 2007 season despite moderation in spending habits," said Jeff Klinefelter, senior retail research analyst at Piper Jaffray. "However, we found that spending expectations remain largely unchanged, as nearly 50 percent of the students plan to spend the same amount of money on apparel this season. We believe the discrepancy between budget dollars and expectations may be due to a decline in contributions from parents."Other key findings include:Teens were surveyed on their favorite places to shop and their spending habits. Hollister took the lead for the sixth consecutive time, followed by West Coast Brands, American Eagle, Abercrombie & Fitch and Forever 21. Aeropostale moved into the top ten retail brands for the first time, due to strong support from young women. Overall spending in the beauty category is down for teens and up for their parents. Eighty-three percent of teens indicated they own at least one video game console and 51 percent own at least two video game consoles. Sixty-two percent of teens plan to own a next generation video game system, which shows an increase of eight percentage points from the spring 2007 survey. When asked about buying habits of MP3 players and online music, 82 percent of the students who own an MP3 player indicated that they also own some form of an iPod, which is up from 79 percent in fall 2006. Purchasing online music is becoming more mainstream as 64 percent of the students surveyed indicated they download music illegally, compared to 72 percent at this time last year. Students completed survey questions on restaurants and spending on food this fall for the second time. approximately 44 percent of the students surveyed believe they have spent more money this year at restaurants than last year. http://www.piperjaffray.com/2col_largeright.aspx?id=716