JLL: Back-to-school spending to rise 17%
Parents are expected to increase their back-to-school spending this year, with brick-and-mortar stores slated to play a key role.
According to a new survey from JLL, parents plan to spend 17.3% more on back-to-school shopping, which is considerably more than the current year-over-year inflation rate of 2.4%.
Parents in every major income bracket plan to spend more than they did last year, with wealthier households (those earning over $150,0000) upping their budgets the most, by 27%. Lower income households, (those earning less than $50,000) plan to boost spending by 21% over last year.
Older parents between 45 and 60 years old (primarily Gen Xers) will spend the most on average, according to the survey, at $470 per child. This is 21.7% above the average budget for this year. Parents shopping for high school and college students will spend roughly 30% more than those who are only shopping for younger kids.
Those who plan to spend 60% or more of their budgets on discretionary items will spend over 50% more on average than those who plan to stick to necessities.
JLL’s survey found that more than 90% of parents shopping for back-to-school supplies will interact with stores in some way, either shopping in-store or picking up items at physical locations. Only 9.2% said that they will exclusively shop online.
Between two and three retailers was the most common answer for how many stores parents plan on shopping at, with almost half (46.6%) of the parents surveyed reporting so. Around 14% of parents will try to get it all done at one store or online retailer.
High-income shoppers were notably more likely to shop at four or more stores. More than 85% of baby boomers who are buying back-to-school goods will stick to three or fewer retailers.
According to the survey, mass merchandisers like Walmart and Target increased their popularity by almost 10 percentage points from last year as parents plan to stretch their dollars. Parents who plan to shop at mass merchandisers say they tend to prioritize saving money and having a one-stop shop experience. In fact, 11.3% of parents will shop at mass merchandisers exclusively – considerably more than any other store type.
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Parents with elementary school kids are relatively more likely to shop at mass merchandisers than other grade levels, while parents of middle-schoolers were more likely to shop online and high school parents were more likely to shop at sporting goods stores and apparel stores. Parents with college kids were more likely to shop at office supplies retailers, department stores and electronics stores.
Modest income parents (earning less than $50,000) will shop relatively more at dollar stores and thrift stores. Nonetheless, JLL’s survey found that high-income shoppers will also shop more at these retailers than they did last year. High-income parents are also relatively more likely than other groups to shop at single-category stores like apparel, electronics, sporting goods and home goods stores.
Additional survey insights include the following:
- More than 70% of parents listed the ability to save money as the top factor they use in choosing where they shop for back-to-school. Free shipping came in second at 55.5%.
- More than 56% of parents are concerned about back-to-school products being available when they shop. Less than one-quarter were not concerned. Parents who plan to do at least some of their shopping at malls were much more likely to worry, with 75% being slightly or very concerned about product availability.
- Younger parents (18-29) were notably more likely than older parents to buy secondhand products, while older parents – primarily Gen X and baby boomers – were more likely to buy fewer items and focus on necessities.
