US – Cash is the most penetrated payment method, with 89% teens saying they used cash in the past month vs 83% last year – survey

Piper Sandler Companies, a leading investment bank, has completed its 43rd semi-annual Taking Stock With Teens^® survey in partnership with DECA. This survey highlights discretionary spending trends and brand preferences from 7,100 teens across 44 U.S. states with an average age of 16.2 years.

This year’s Spring 2022 survey was conducted from February 16 to March 22. Piper Sandler received the highest number of responses from the South at 45% of the mix and 12% of the responses from the Northeast—similar to Fall 2021 and Spring 2021 surveys.

“Our Spring survey showed an acceleration in overall teen spending, up 9% Y/Y. Of note, females continue to lead the growth in not only fashion spending (clothing +15%, Footwear +16%), but also continue to lead in the shift to digital with 95% of upper-income females shopping online vs 91% of males,” said Nicole Miller Regan, senior research analyst.

Spring 2022 Key Findings

. Teens allocate 7% of their shopping time to secondhand; 46% of teens have purchased & 56% have sold secondhand

. For payment apps, Apple Pay ranked first, partly due to 87% of teens in the survey saying they have an iPhone

. PYPL’s Venmo ranked No. 2 (with the PayPal app No. 4) behind Apple Pay among payment apps used in the last month while SQ’s Cash App ranked No. 3

. For buy now pay later (BNPL), teens said they used PayPal “Pay in 4” most frequently, followed by SQ’s Afterpay

. Cash is the most penetrated payment method, with 89% teens saying they used cash in the past month vs 83% LY

. While 26% of teens own a VR device, just 5% use it daily. 48% of teens are either unsure or not interested in the Metaverse

. 87% of teens own an iPhone and 87% expect an iPhone to be their next phone; 72% of teens already have AirPods

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The Piper Sandler Taking Stock With Teens^® survey is a semi-annual research project that gathers input from 7,100 teens with an average age of 16.2 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 218,900 teens and collected over 54 million data points on teen spending.