Date Posted: 08/18/22
NCP Blog: Going Back to School With New School Supplies
So what does back-to-school shopping look like in 2022? The National Retail Foundation has conducted surveys since 2003 to study how American families shop for the school year. According to their research, families expect to spend an average of $864 getting ready for the school year. Nationwide, that’s a total of $37 billion! The top categories that families are spending money on is electronics, clothing and shoes.
Even though the economy and inflation are on consumers’ minds, and the cost of supplies is higher, back-to-school spending is still strong. The NRF expects that families will spend at least as much as last year, which saw record highs for back-to-school shopping, and will exceed pre-pandemic levels.
School Supply Shifts
The items students need for school has dramatically changed over the years. While kids still use pencils, notebooks and glue sticks, electronics is a category that has seen tremendous growth. And, electronics spending has increased a lot in the past three years. The National Retail Foundation reports that electronics purchases account for half of the back-to-school shopping growth in the past three years.
School supply kits, where multiple items are bundled together, have also become popular. According to research by inMobi, 40% of shoppers they surveyed would be likely or highly likely to buy kits. For parents of younger children, 49% of those who responded indicated they would be likely to buy them.
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Related:
NCP Blog: C is for Cookie, That’s Good Enough For Me (August 11, 2022)