Girl Scouts are going digital

One of America’s finest food traditions is about to get more convenient than ever: Girl Scouts have have been given the go ahead to sell their cookies online. The tradition, which is now almost 100 years old, churns out over 200 million boxes of deliciousness per year—but until now it’s been a solely offline affair. Now, spurred by the girls themselves, the organization has given the nod to allow the cookies to be sold via mobile apps and personalized websites, reports the Boston Globe. The only catch: scout councils and guardians have to agree to the Girl Scouts in question going digital.

Watch out world, the Girl Scouts are going digital to sell you cookies. For the first time in nearly 100 years, Girl Scouts of the USA will allow its young go-getters to push their wares using a mobile app or personalized websites. But only if their scout councils and guardians say OK. ‘Girls have been telling us that they want to go into this space,’’ said Sarah Angel-Johnson, chief digital cookie executive for the organization covering about 2 million girls. ‘‘Online is where entrepreneurship is going.’’ And the best news for these digital natives: They can have cookies shipped directly to your doorstep. 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.