Thin Mints, Trefolds, Tag-A-Longs or Do-Si-Dos? What’s your favorite? Each year the entrepreneurial green army comes out in drones and floods your office and neighborhood with sign up sheets to sell their delicious delights to raise money for their troop. While the door-to-door sales will still be in full force, the Girl Scouts are going digital and troops across the country will begin selling their seasonal cookies online and through mobile apps.
Digital Cookie is a new digital platform that allows girl scouts anywhere from age 5 to 17 to sell cookies on either a mobile app or customized website, depending on which option their council opted for.
With Digital Cookie, each girl scout can learn to create and market their own online cookie business by inviting customers via email to purchase cookies on their personalized websites. Meanwhile the app enables them to take in-person orders that has been enhanced to process credit cards and ship cookie orders directly to your door.
In an age where women are still lagging behind in numbers and representation in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields, GSUSA hopes the new program will encourage girls to become leaders in these fields.
READ: Girl Scout’s new Cookie Finder app
“Digital Cookie is a game-changer for Girl Scouts, and a quantum leap forward in the evolution of the cookie program, coupling traditional sales activities with an online sales experience that teaches skills like online marketing and e-commerce, all in a digital space that puts an emphasis on learning, fun, and safety,” GSUSA CEO Anna Maria Chávez said in a statement. “If you buy Girl Scout Cookies online this year, you could be helping to prepare the next female leader of a global tech giant who changes our world forever.”
All of the funds raised with Digital Cookie will remain with the Girl Scout council that sponsors the sale. From there, the girls can decide how to spend their troop cookie money and reinvest it in service projects and learning experiences.
Most of the nation’s 112 Girl Scout councils will participate in Digital Cookie — including the Southern Arizona council that covers Tucson, Yuma and Casa Grande — during the 2014-2015 cookie season. However, additional councils are expected to join the platform by the end of 2015.
If you would like to place an online cookie order, you can find a participating Digital Cookie council here.
However, if you just can’t wait to eat an entire box of thin mints, there’s also the Cookie Finder app (iOS and Android) that locates where you can purchase girl scout cookies in your local area.
Graphics courtesy of girlscouts.org
