Study: Back-to-school shopping not over yet

School may be back in session, but the back-to-school (BTS) shopping frenzy continues.



And as parents continue to purchase merchandise from newly distributed classroom supply lists, 42% of BTS shoppers expect to spend more this school year compared to 2016, according to new research and insights from Acosta, a sales and marketing agency in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) and retail merchandising industry.



According to the data, 52% of shoppers made their first BTS purchase before Aug. 1, and they expect to spend, on average, $912 this year. The biggest spenders for the season were Dads (male shoppers average $1,489); Gen Z/Millennial shoppers ages 18-36 (average $1,210); and shoppers with kids ages 7-12 (average $1,202).



“Unlike the holidays, the back-to-school shopping season is a little more fluid as schools across the U.S. are back in session at various times from early August until mid-September, with the advertising push from retailers beginning as early as July,” said Colin Stewart, senior VP at Acosta. “Although schools are already back in session at this point, retailers will still see sales continue as students are given classroom supply lists and get a better sense of what they will need for their particular areas of study.”



BTS shopping also continues to span a wide variety of categories, including school clothing (32%); school supplies and backpacks (26%); lunch/snack food (18%); and computer electronics (16%). With 54% of shoppers planning to pack their children school lunches each week during the school year, shoppers indicated they are buying easy-to-pack items including individually portioned foods (57%) and single-serving beverages (52%), along with plans to purchase lunch boxes or reusable lunch/snack totes (46%).



Meanwhile, 80% of shoppers purchased or plan to purchase writing/paper supplies, with category purchases planned across many retail outlets including mass merchants (71%), office supply stores (30%), dollar stores (23%) and grocery stores/supermarkets (22%).



With so many items to buy across multiple categories, BTS shoppers turn to a number of places to help them make purchasing decisions. Shoppers indicated being influenced in-store when making back-to-school purchasing decisions, including by items on sale at the shelf (58%), aisle displays (45%), and in-store flyers/ads (42%).



Online tactics from retailers/stores, such as emails (41%), ads (39%), and social media posts (28%), were also influential to shoppers. Meanwhile, 47% of shoppers were influenced by coupons.



Shoppers also researched their purchases online. The most popular categories researched including computer electronics (46%); skincare or makeup items (38%); and school clothing (36%). However, fewer of these shoppers (21%, 20% and 14%, respectively) reported purchasing these items online instead of in a retail store.