Dive Brief:
- In time for this month’s sales, 55% of back-to-school and college shoppers have already started purchasing items for the upcoming school year, according to an early July survey of over 7,500 consumers by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics.
- Amazon and other major retailers like Best Buy, Target and Walmart are offering discounts in July, and back-to-school shoppers are planning to take advantage of the wave of markdowns. Nearly nine in ten survey respondents said they plan to buy back-to-school items during Amazon’s Prime Day and other retail sales this month, the NRF’s survey found.
- Households with K-12 students plan to spend an average of $874.68, a decline from last year’s record of $890.07. Households with college students anticipate spending $1,364.75, about the same as last year’s $1,366.95, per the survey results.
Dive Insight:
This year’s NRF report expects that back-to-school spending will decline slightly from last year’s highs, reaching $86.6 billion for college students and $38.8 billion for K-12 students. The projected numbers would be the second highest on record, though lower than last year, during which the NRF predicted that shoppers would spend $41.5 billion for K-12 students and $94 billion for college students.
The NRF’s report adds additional context to other research suggesting that shoppers have begun buying their back-to-school items early, primarily from major retailers. A recent JLL survey of 1,026 found that roughly a fourth of survey respondents had started their back-to-school shopping. Nearly half of JLL survey respondents (46.4%) anticipated shopping with Walmart, followed by Amazon (35.4%) and Target (32.6%).
According to the NRF, K-12 shoppers are planning to do most of their shopping online (57%), followed by department stores (50%), discount stores (47%), clothing stores (42%) and electronics retailers (23%). Similarly, college students and their families are buying their back-to-school items online (50%), at department stores (35%), discount stores (31%) and college bookstores, office supply and clothing stores (26%), the survey found.
“The back-to-school and college season is an important time for retailers and consumers,” NRF Vice President of Industry and Consumer Insights Katherine Cullen said in a statement. “Families and students are eager to get a jumpstart on their shopping for the start of the school year. Retailers have anticipated this early demand and are well-positioned to offer a variety of products at competitive prices.”
Though many of NRF’s survey respondents have already started shopping, 86% still need to buy at least half of the items on their list. Of shoppers that are still waiting to finish their shopping, nearly half (45%) are waiting for deeper discounts, such as Prime Day and other July sales, or haven’t figured out what they need yet (45%), the survey found.