Kids Making Play for Online Purchasing Power

Today’s tech savvy kids have redefined their position in the family and are, more and more, acting as cyber-assistant to parents - they’re shopping and placing online orders for the family and themselves, according to a new study, writes MarketingCharts.

According to “Surfin’ on Mom’s Turf,” a Stars for Kidz national survey of 8-14-year-olds:

• More than three-quarters (77 percent) of kids age 8-14 have completed online transactions.
• At least some of this online purchasing is done for the family, as most of them (56 percent) said they also do online shopping chores to help their mom.
• The top five things they look up online for themselves are purely entertainment-related: music, video games, movies, MP3 players, and celebrities.
• However, the things they’re shopping for mom are wide-ranging: from cars, doctors and vacation planning to ordering food and buying gifts.

• The most popular payment methods are to ask someone to complete the order for them, to use a gift card or to use their parents’ credit card.
• The oldest kids in this age group, regardless of gender, are the most likely to be using one of these popular payment methods.

• The use of the parents’ credit card for online purchases starts at a younger age for boys than girls, but converges at age 13.

“It is increasingly apparent that the new marketing equation is mom+child = one consumer entity. In this research, we saw clearly that busy moms and tech-savvy kids are joining forces as online shoppers,” said Dr. Adele Schwartz, who heads Stars for Kidz.

“Children who help their moms with such an array of online tasks may exert even greater influence on family consumerism than we thought which makes the process of building brand loyalty specifically among children something that all marketers should be reconsidering.”