The survey of about 1,000 U.S. parents of kids between 8- and 14-years-old found 42% of household spending was influenced by Gen Alpha’s opinions, a figure swelling to 49% for households earning more than $100,000 per year. This influence can range from what’s put on the dinner table to what clothes to buy and where to travel.
“This generation has more spending money than you’d think,” DKC President Matthew Traub told Fortune. “Their economic influence is enormous.”
So where is Gen Alpha getting all this money to spend? Like tweens of every generation, Gen Alpha kids are doing chores and mowing laws in exchange for their parents’ pocket change. While 83% of surveyed parents said they give their children an allowance, 91% of the generation is working or earning money on their own in some form, including 40% who get paid for doing “odd jobs” outside the house.
Their earnings aren’t chump change. This generation of budding entrepreneurs has an average $67 to spend each week, totalling $3,484 per year. But what separates this generation from yesteryear’s latchkey kids and millennials is their “entrepreneurialism” spurred by easy access to technology, according to Traub.
“Digital tools allow a level of entrepreneurialism that replaces the old lemonade stand and gives you instant access to a much larger audience,” Traub said.
“Even in these gaming platforms that have traditionally been reserved for children, e-commerce is becoming a really monetizable form,” Alex Popken, vice president of trust and safety at WebPurify, previously told Fortune. “We’re just seeing kids being inundated with this content more often.”
