Because the starting dates for a new school year vary so widely, some retailers began promoting back-to-school products before the July Fourth holiday as they try to get a jump on competitors.
For its seventh annual Back-to-School survey, consulting firm Deloitte LLP polled a sample of nearly 1,100 parents of children in grades K through 12 and found some results that might make the early-bird retailers glad they started early.
Parents expect back-to-school spending to decline from a total of $672 in 2013 to an average of $543 this year. That total includes the amount parents expect to spend plus the amount that the child will spend on purchases of back-to-school items. Items most in demand are school supplies, new clothes, new shoes, and backpacks.
Discounters and discount department stores like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and Dollar Tree Inc. (NASDAQ: DLTR) are the top destination for shoppers, with 85% saying that they will shop these kinds of stores. That’s down 5% from a year ago. Online sales sites gained 2%, rising to a destination for 38% of back-to-school shoppers. The office supply stores like Staples Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS) and Office Depot Inc. (NYSE: ODP) are going to see traffic fall 5%, from 43% of shoppers last year to 38% this year. Online sites are now tied as the number 2 choice for back-to-school shoppers with the office supply stores.
A Deloitte executive said:
Retailers should look at their online and mobile channels as a greater opportunity to drive traffic and revenue at the physical store, rather than viewing it as merely a point of purchase, where it actually tends to deliver lower sales than the physical store as a whole.
One concern for shoppers, though, is protection of their personal data. After the major data breach at Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) stores last holiday season, more than half of respondents said they are worried about the protection of their personal data. Nearly two-thirds of online shoppers are worried about data protection and more than half of brick-and-mortar store shoppers are too.
Social media sites like Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) and Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) play a sizable role in back-to-school shopping. According to Deloitte’s survey, 55% of respondents use social media to browse products, more than 40% visit retailers’ pages on social media sites, and 68% use social media to find out about promotions. The first two uses increased from 47% and 31% in 2012, while finding promotions fell from 83% a year ago.
Some 84% of respondents owned a smartphone and 66% own tablets. The top use for these devices is to get price information or promotional info or coupons, but 60% of tablet owners also use those devices for online shopping.
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