• by Thom Forbes  @tforbes, December 1, 2014

Just in time for a Cyber Monday that will presumably fare better than Black Friday did, Girls Scouts of the USA is formally rolling out a program called “Digital Cookie.” It will be the first national online presence for those delectable nuggets of sugar and spice and few things nice for their consumers’ health and waistlines.

The organization “will allow its young go-getters to push their wares using a mobile app or personalized websites,” writes the Associated Press’ Leanne Italie. The sale of the hard-to-resist — on both the neighborly and gustatory level — cookies has seen its share of controversies in recent years but going digital would seem to be a no-brainer.

“The No. 1 reason people say they don’t buy our cookies is they couldn’t find a Girl Scout,” Kelly Parisi, chief communications director of Girl Scouts of America tells Bloomberg Businessweek’s Claire Suddath. “We needed a new way to approach the consumer.”

“The expansion beyond traditional selling strategies like operating booths outside supermarkets, sending order forms into their parents’ workplaces and door-to-door canvassing is expected to increase the nearly $800 million raised in annual cookie sales,” reports Elizabeth Olson in the New York Times. “More than 80% of the two million Girl Scouts sell cookies every year, for about $4 a box, the national organization said.”

Local “councils were offered one of the two platforms but not both,” the AP’s Italie reports. “For web-based sales, scouts customize their pages, using their first names only, and email prospective customers with links to click on for orders. They can also put up videos explaining who they are and what they plan to do with their proceeds.

“The mobile platform offers tabs for tracking sales and allows for the sale of bundles of different kinds of cookies. It can be used on a phone or tablet.”

“Online sales had previously been prohibited, as the goal was to teach girls how to sell directly to people and learn how to handle money, but the organization has found ways to incorporate those skills into the Digital Cookie platform,” sums upThe Week’s Catherine Garcia.

The national organization had argued that “online sales did not teach girls how to sell to others directly or learn how to handle money and deliver cookies — some of the entrepreneurial skills the sales program is designed to instill,” Olson writes. She singles out  a couple of instances where the Girl Scouts put the kibosh on enterprising attempts to generate online sales in the past, including one involving reality television star Honey Boo Boo.

To put a positive spin on the recent decision to join the century in progress, “it's a move to get girls interested in computers at a young age,” writes Rex Santus on Mashable. “Girl Scouts has always touted the cookie program as a way to lay the groundwork for good business and negotiation skills, and the digital program is modernizing those skills.”

“It allows you to reach customers that you would not reach otherwise,” Lauren Tinglin, 15, of the Girl Scouts of Greater New York tellsUSA Today’s Jessica Durando, who reports that the teen has family in Georgia and Florida that she plans to hit up once she’s allowed to open shop Dec. 12.

“I think it helps me organize my life in a way. It has you set goals,” Tinglin says. “I think it will help me grow as a person and a future businesswoman.”

That’s right out of the cookie-selling playbook.

“The program is supposed to help teach girls five skills: goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills and business ethics,” as Mashable’s Sautus reports. “As a bonus, it's also meant to give girls experience in using apps and online marketing.”

As with any sophisticated sales organization Digital Cookie isn’t some half-baked idea. Girl Scouts of Minnesota and Wisconsin River Valleys, for one, have been testing the online sales program since the beginning of the year.

As for keeping everything in proportion, here’s some well-meaning advice for Thin Mint and Samoas bingers. 

“Find it hard to limit yourself to the official serving size?” asks Kathleen M. Zelman, MPH, RD, LD, on WebMD in what we have to assume is a rhetorical question. “You can portion them out and put the box away, or keep the cookies in the freezer to help you slow down.”