Girl Scout Cookies To Be Available Online (There's Even An App for That)

Barbara Boland | December 1, 2014
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Good news: the Girl Scouts of the USA are about to allow you to buy your favorite cookies online!

“Online is where entrepreneurship is going,” said Sarah Angel-Johnson, chief digital cookie executive for the organization.

The Girl Scouts parent organization will sell the cookies through the web site and mobile apps.

From the Associated Press:

More than 1 million scouts, from kindergarten-age Daisies to teens, were expected to opt in as cookie-selling season cranks up this month and the scouting organization gets digital sales underway. But digital sales are intended to enhance, not replace, the paper spreadsheets used to generate an estimated $800 million in cookie sales a year — at anywhere from $3.50 to $5 a box, depending on scout council.

There are important e-lessons here, scout officials said, such as better articulating and tracking goals, learning to handle customers and money in a new way, and more efficiently processing credit card information.

"A lot of people have asked, 'What took you so long to get online?' We spend a lot of time thinking how do we make this safe, scalable and smart," Kelly M. Parisi, chief communications executive for Girl Scouts of the USA, said at a recent demonstration for select media.

Councils can choose to use a web site (with scouts building their pages) or an app – but not both. The mobile platform will track sales and can be used on the phone or a tablet.

“This is going to be amazing because now [my daughter] can just say 'Give me your business card,' or 'I'll take your email address,' send the email and they can be delivered,” said Troop Leader Karen Porcher. “This is gonna be sweet."

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