Digital Enhancement to Girl Scout Cookie Program Makes National Debut

This Girl Scout Cookie season, hungry shoppers will be able to purchase cookies where they never could before—online. Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast announced today that for the first time in its history, girls from local troops will be able to sell Girl Scout Cookies to customers online through a brand new national platform—Digital Cookie. This groundbreaking platform will expand the iconic cookie program by adding a digital layer that broadens and strengthens the 5 Skills girls learn in the traditional cookie program— goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills and business ethics.

Digital Cookie follows Girl Scouts’ classic, hands-on approach to teaching girls new skills by introducing vital 21st century lessons about online marketing, application use and e-commerce to more than one million excited Girl Scouts. Through the platform, Girl Scouts will maintain their own protected, personalized websites to market their cookie business to local consumers, accept orders via credit card and activate cookie shipments directly to customers. From the website, customers can choose the cookie varieties they would like to purchase for themselves, and they can also select to purchase cookies for Gift of Caring, a program through which Girl Scouts donate cookies to members of the military. Customers will have to pay shipping and handling fees in addition to the cost of the cookies.

The platform places an emphasis on the safety of girls and customers alike and offers an online experience that allows girls to learn about digital money management using dashboards to track their sales and goals.

“Through Digital Cookie, we are bringing the Girl Scout Cookie Program fully into the 21st century,” Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast CEO Tracy Keller said. “Digital Cookie lets us continue our proud tradition of teaching today’s girls the skills of tomorrow, while remaining true to the core principles taught by our iconic cookie program.”

In today’s world, only 21 percent of chief information officers at Fortune 100 companies are women and even smaller numbers are CEOs of firms engaged in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields. Digital Cookie tailors the traditional Girl Scout Cookie Program to fit the modern world, helping give more girls an important foundation in technology, as well as combining customer relationships, interpersonal skills and e-commerce training.

“Girl Scout Cookies have always been about so much more than a delicious treat—they’re about helping girls learn important business lessons,” Girl Scouts of the USA CEO Anna Mariz Chávez said. “This year, when you’re buying Thin Mints and Samoas online, you can feel good that you’re helping girls learn the 5 Skills the cookie program has always instilled in a 21st century way, turning today’s girls into tomorrow’s business and tech leaders.”

As with the traditional cookie program, the net revenue earned from the cookie sale will support local Girl Scouts in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. Girls decide how to spend their troop cookie money and invest it back into their neighborhoods through community service projects and learning experiences.

Today’s launch of Digital Cookie represents an initial phase of a program that will progress over time. Future versions of Digital Cookie will create better user experiences for girls and customers alike and a more robust customer interface. Find more information here.

Girl Scouts in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina will begin taking orders for cookies on January 10, 2015. For more information about the local Girl Scout Cookie Program or joining Girl Scouts, visit www.gsccc.org.