Unlike the biggest shopping season of the year, the second busiest doesn’t enjoy the same prominence or experience the same anticipation from consumers, unless of course you are a summertime-weary parent. Back to school shopping is the second largest selling opportunity for retailers and it is expected to generate more than $82.8 billion is sales for retailers of clothing, pencils, backpacks and pencils this year. While the final results are still ringing up, consumers are off to the stores and virtual markets all across the country and the keyboard. This year more than half of parents are planning on increasing their “get them out of the house and back to school” spend.
More than 57 percent of the shopping will be at local brick and mortar stores with online sales gaining ground. This year, approximately $6.3 billion will be spent online for school supplies, clothing, and technology. With the shopping beginning in early June, marketers were eager to end up in first place, with more than 90 percent of them offering deep discounts and money saving coupons to consumers from pre-school to graduate school students.
Retailers are following performance data from 2017 and reaching out to the estimated 55 percent of parents who use smart devices to find the best deals. Experienced marketing-savvy sellers are approaching the season’s tasks through omnichannel campaigns. While nearly 55 percent of the consumers will buy early, nearly half of them will extend their buying opportunities past the start of the school opening classes. The National Retail Federation’s (NRF) CEO, Matthew Shay, says he expects “a very strong season,” due to growing consumer confidence. For each of their students, parents are expected to spend $236.90 on clothing, $187.10 on electronics, $136.66 on shoes and $122.13 on school supplies. Shay went on to say, “There’s still more shopping to do, and regardless of timing, the economy is healthy and shoppers are confident and willing to spend.”
Compared to the Christmas holiday experience, retailers are backing off on their once massive spend for the back to school season. “It’s not that retailers are spending less on advertising overall,” says Jon Swallen, chief research officer at Kantar Media, “or that back-to-school still isn’t an important part of their calendar. It’s just that they are not investing as heavily in dedicated back-to-school messaging.” It appears retailers are attempting get more bang for each buck during a time when consumers are already spending for clothing and other items that also relate to back to school purchases.
Overall, marketing spending is still focused on using TV and digital media first, followed by paid search. Regardless of the size and method of the campaigns, retailers are excited about entering the time of the year when they emerge from months of red ink into a period of profitability and promise.