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Group shopping shows signs of decline as West Coast junior girls are opting for virtual window-shopping and calculated buys on Pinterest.

The group-shopping mentality popular with West Coast girls in the summer of 2011 is starting to shift towards solo shopping, suggesting a junior consumer focused on “me” rather than “we.”

“I just felt like I shopped with my friends so much more last summer,” said April Carson, a 19-year-old student in Los Angeles. “I can’t really remember the last time I went out shopping with them [her friends]. To be blunt, I’m just trying to focus on me at the moment. We pretty much to do our own thing now but we are constantly checking each others’ Pinterest.”

The change from the Canary Consumer and Personal Shopper could be attributed to current economic uncertainty.

According to the Pew Research Center, only 54% of millennials (ages 18-24) have a job – the lowest rate since the government began keeping records in the 1940s. The low unemployment factor coupled with rising student loan debt (nearly $300 billion owed for students under 30) is starting to impact the junior consumer market.

WGSN spoke with numerous West Coast junior girls (ranging in age from 18-23) in a series of street interviews and discovered that nearly all girls were engaging in virtual-window shopping through online retail sites, the leader being Pinterest, a pinboard-style social photo-sharing site. First reported by WGSN in January of 2011, the site is one of the top-five referral sites for numerous retailers sitting alongside 脸书, Stumbleupon, 谷歌 and Twitter. Users create virtual “pinboards” by category (everything from fashion and accessories to travel and interiors) and “pin” photos to their respective boards.

“It’s [Pinterest] pretty idiot-proof, that’s probably what makes it so appealing. You sign in, see a ton of stuff and pin what you like. I don’t even know how many pairs of shoes I’ve pinned to my Shoe La La board,” said Carson.  

Genevieve Glass, a 19-year-old student at USC, has similar views on Pinterest success among junior girls. Glass said: “Pinterest is such a brilliant idea because it eliminates scrambling through thousands of websites and blogs. Pinterest essentially brings websites of all focuses alike together through its wide assortment of boards brimming with thousands of images. It also eliminates the tediousness of saving photos to specific computer folders because with the ability to ‘re-pin’ and ‘like’ button, anyone can instantly create their very own virtual collage.”

While the boards can be shared with friends, most junior girls we spoke with pin items solely for themselves. “On 脸书, I am constantly sharing, tagging something or posting on someone’s page. Pinterest is really about me. Like, what I want to buy, what I want to read, what I want to have in my room, etc.,” acknowledges Elan Sudberg. “I’ve never pinned anything on my boards for my friends or whatever. We comment on each others pin and sometimes repin but it’s my form of self-expression.”

“I hated going out in the malls (sic) because I couldn’t afford anything and parking and gas is expensive at the Promenade,” said 21-year-old Linda Smedly. “My friend Brit showed me Pinterest and I was hooked. You can do so much on there, like find diets, places you want to visit, but I go mostly for the clothes. You pin it to your board and it’s the best. It’s like virtual window shopping.”

Unlike traditional window shopping, junior girls have an intimate connection with the merchandise with the majority of girls creating fashion-themed boards centreed on important events. Prom, Coachella festival, date night, rush parties and holidays were the most common themes. “When it was time for Coachella, you could totally see what was trending by the number of re-pins. I remember there was this Free People top that must have come up in my stream like a million times,” said Sudberg.

“During prom, every single post was related to the event, even down to manicures to wear with your dress and hairstyles. Pinterest pretty much fueled our prom decisions,” said Carson.

During the course of our interviews, we learned junior girls were more frugal and opting for calculated buys.

“The things I pin and the things I actually buy can be totally different,” said Smedley. “I might pin a pair of Louboutins but I’m going to buy the cute flats from Madewell. But when I do click through, I never look. It’s like I want to get in and get out. Looking can be a little too dangerous for me. Looking means buying with money I don’t have.”  

According to David Maddocks, a senior retail consultant for brands including Nike, Keds and Converse: “Boomers were about abundance, whereas this generation [millennial] is about having enough.”

“We have a group of people who are seeking only to live within their means,” said Pam Danziger, president of research firm, Unity Marketing. She notes that a 25-year-old who shops at Gap typically trades up to Nordstrom, Saks and perhaps Tiffany, but does so decades, not years, later.

The simplicity of Pinterest is that users can click on the image and it generally takes them right to the item available for purchase online, making it less tempting to overspend.

“That’s one of the reasons I go on Pinterest because I don’t have to spend forever on the actual site. It links me right to what I want to purchase and I’m done,” said Sudberg.

How do retailers stand out and gain junior consumers in a competitive, frugal market?

• Deep discounts: retailers including J Crew, Madewell, Topshop and Banana Republic allow student discounts on existing sale merchandise, providing greater savings
• Image is everything: for sites such as Pinterest, crisp, clean and clear imagery has a higher pin-rate. For products, stick to white backgrounds and simple descriptions. For apparel, simple styling with little background clutter works best
• Join the club: create a company Pinterest board and begin engaging directly with the consumer, gaining brand loyalty as well as market analysis. For inspiration, read Pinterest: top brand practice