Those crazy kids.
“When it comes to shopping online, teenage users are a contradiction: Most teens don’t have their own credit card, yet they love to shop online.” (Which simply proves they have access to their parents’ card).

So starts ecommerceguide.com’s look at the online shopping tendencies of that hallowed demographic-the teenager with too much time and money and access to their parents’ credit card. I came across this article a little late (18 days if you’re counting), so excuse me if you’ve seen this before.

Let’s get the stats out of the way, not because they’re unimportant, but because numbers make for boring reading…Oh ya. Thanks to comScore for the research behind this article.

Most Boring Number- Teens means 12-17 years old.
Percentage Point- 80 PERCENT of teens visit online retail sites.
How Many?- That’s 12 to 15 MILLION teenagers.
Who- In April eBay saw 6.4 million teenagers. Amazon, 3.5 million. Apple (which basically means iTunes), 3 million.
Keep it Simple- Teens successfully complete online tasks at a lower rate (55 percent) than adult users (66 percent).

That last stat stuck out the most when reading the article. The writer makes it very clear that while teens are not afraid of new technologies, the myth that they are all super-programmers is just that.

If something doesn’t work for a teen user, “they have much less patience, and that’s why they can’t overcome a lot of technological obstacles. If it doesn’t work the way they expect, they just abandon the process.” Usability What?

The article is full of relevant tips for ecommerce stores selling to teens. For instance,“Teenagers are attracted to sites with a hip, cutting-edge look, yet they have difficulty with a complex design.” Also important is prominently displaying the price (they may have money, but not too much) and the ability to create wishlists (birthdays and holidays are central to ecommerce).

Our favorite?

“Speedy Checkout
Your site’s checkout process should be as short and easy as possible. Since many teens have limited experience with checkout, answering questions about billing and shipping address or finding a credit card’s three-digit security code might be time consuming. Adding any complexity to this already new experience could result in abandonment.”

Why? The one-page checkout of course.

If the extensive quoting hasn’t tipped you off, this article is a must read if you plan on selling to anyone under the age of 18. Nice work by e-commerceguide and comScore.