Dive Brief:
- After requests from the scouts themselves, the Girl Scouts of the USA will now use the Internet to sell its popular cookies.
- The young entrepreneurs will be able to use an app and personalized website—after they get their parent's permission, of course.
- Girl Scout officials acknowledge the lessons that can be taught by using the web to sell cookies, like tracking goals more easily, learning how to handle money in a new way, and processing credit card information.
Dive Insight:
The yearly cookie sale is a huge cash cow for the Girl Scouts of America. Priced at $3.50-$5 a box, the organization brings in $800 million a year in cookie sales. More than 1 million scouts are expected to opt-in to the digital sales option, which is meant to enhance—not replace—the paper spreadsheet standby.
The question remains, what took the Girl Scouts so long to offer a web sales option? According to the chief communications officer, a lot of time was spent making sure it was "safe, scalable, and smart," Kelly Parisi said at a recent media demonstration.
