Families are reducing their back-to-school spending and focusing on early summer savings, according to a Deloitte survey. While value and convenience-seeking parents plan to spend the same or less on back-to-school, more are looking to pull their spending forward this year. Retail sales in July should be fairly solid despite the expected dip in the back-to-school season.
Major retailers are attracting back-to-school consumers with deep price promotions, with a recent JLL survey showing that by late June, a quarter of respondents started shopping. A National Retail Federation survey found that 85% of respondents planned to shop Amazon’s Prime Day sale.
Deloitte’s ConsumerSignals analysis showed a healthy jump in spending intentions in July, led by spending on travel and experiences. As the economy shifts to services from goods, shoppers are expected to make minimally viable back-to-school purchases to reprioritize incremental dollars on summer travel and repadding their savings.
Convenience is most important to 70% of consumers in deciding where to shop, with 75% being multichannel shoppers and 65% preferring online retailers. Generative AI is also being used more in the shopping experience, with 18% planning to use it for back-to-school shopping.
- Parents plan to spend $586 per child on back-to-school items this year, down $11 from 2023 totals, according to a Deloitte survey of 1,198 parents of school-aged children attending grades K to 12 this fall. Estimated market spend for the year on back-to-school is $31.3 billion, down from last year’s total of $31.9 billion, per the report.
- Low- and middle-income families will spend less on back-to-school supplies for their kids this year than in 2023, down 4% and 9%, respectively, according to the survey.
- With major summer promotional deals underway from such players as Amazon, Walmart, Target and Best Buy, families are shopping earlier with 66% of planned spend by the end of July compared with 59% last year.
Source: Retail Drive
