Back- to- school shoppers haul it in, and gloat
Businesses take note as young women increasingly post online videos of shopping spree spoils
If hunter- gatherers were teenage girls, the “haul” would be their big- game kill.
A term for the spoils of a shopping spree, hauls can include everything from fashion to beauty products, personal electronics to décor — and often all of the above. Whatever the quarry, it seems the most important thing is that it’s filmed and posted to the Internet for other young women to admire.
YouTube reports that searches for haul videos have reached an all- time high, up 40 per cent over last year’s peak. In fact, of the nearly 600,000 of them on the site, more than 35,000 were uploaded in the last month — a phenomenon credited to backtoschool shopping.
“It’s almost become the virtual fitting room,” says Chris Hodgson, Google Canada’s sector lead for multi- channel solutions. “But instead of going to the mall with five of your friends, you’re sharing [ your purchases] with hundreds of thousands of people.”
Hodgson likens it to a teengirl version of “unboxing videos,” in which YouTubers ( typically men) record themselves opening pricey new gadgets.
Unfortunately for anyone older than Miley Cyrus, haul videos can be torturous to watch. Their creators tend to have either the feigned ennui of American Apparel models or the exhausting enthusiasm of infomercial hosts, with very little middle ground.
An elite few, however, have established themselves as true tastemakers through these shop- and- share exercises, and have massive followings to show for it. In fact, leading brands like Sears, Crocs, L’Oreal and J. C. Penney will often furnish the girls with products or sponsor full- blown hauls.
And it’s no wonder: a July report by Google found 38 per cent of 18 to 34- year- olds rely on online videos to decide where to spend their money, compared to just 13 per cent of consumers 35 to 54.
“It shows you what’s out there,” says Melissa Merk, the Vancouver teen behind YouTube channel Skin deep beauty tips. “If you’re planning on shopping, it can give you an idea of where to go and what to check out.”
Toronto’s Sylvia Ta, whose fashion and beauty videos have racked up 9.9 million views, says her subscribers see haul videos as a source of inspiration.
“A lot of people look up to [ haulers] on YouTube, stylewise,” says Ta, known on the site as Beautycakez. “They want to see what kind of outfits they should be wearing for school, and what’s considered fashionable.”
Ta uses online video to display her latest fashion prey and share tips on how to wear the garments. The 19- year- old says she gets as much pleasure making the videos as she does watching them. “It’s kind of like if you were going shopping with your friends how, at the end of the day, you want to share all the excitement [ over your purchases] with them,” says Ta.
Anthropologist Megan Boler, who has studied vlogging, has mixed feelings about the trend. On one hand, she’s pleased young women are finding a sense of agency by creating these videos, which make them hosts of their own talk shows.
On the other, she’s saddened that shopping is what’s “empowering” them.
“In a culture where women and girls’ access to power is very limited, YouTube is a place they can exert autonomy. But why is it that so many of them are finding this is the subject they have authority to speak about?” says Boler, a professor at the University of Toronto.
“It’s consumerism as a form of identity.”