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Somehow summer’s already winding down – and back-to-school sales are heating up, as families rack up their second-largest spending expenditure of the year… $31.3 billion, to be exact, to get their kids ready for school.
As parents hit the stores, how have their consumption habits changed from last year? A Deloitte survey asked 1,198 parents of school-aged children about their back-to-school shopping this summer – and found that parents were on the hunt for value and convenience… with maybe a little room left over for an indulgent purchase.
This year, parents planned to spend an average of $586 per kid on back-to-school items – just $11 less than last year. Clothing and accessories ($12.6 billion) make up the biggest chunk, followed by tech products ($8.6 billion). Many families surveyed also were rearranging their budgets to afford this spending, especially as they navigate higher cost-of-living expenses this year. More than half of low income (64%) and middle income (57%) families said they’d cut back on other expenses, like eating out and entertainment, or delay a major household purchase (52% of low-income parents, 45% of middle-income parents), to afford back-to-school essentials for their kids. Still, parents are working hard to prep their kids for the new school year: 8 in 10 parents planned to enroll their kids in extracurricular activities, like art or sports. And a full 85% of parents said they could be persuaded to splurge on their must-have back-to-school brands or products – across all income groups – to make the transition back to school more exciting or boost their child’s confidence, for example.
To account for these expenses, parents are starting even earlier this year to score the best prices. More than half of parents said they thought the best deals ran early in the back-to-school season – and accordingly, two-thirds of parents predicted they’d have their shopping done by the end of July. To capitalize on the most savings, nearly half (48%) of parents also planned to shop during the Amazon Prime Day sales – up from 39% of parents last year. That means that online retailers are a top destination for back-to-school shopping for parents – 65%, to be exact.
To meet these price-savvy parents where they are, online retailers should make their sites as user-friendly as possible. One way is building up their Gen AI capabilities – not for customer service chatbots, but for review aggregators. 76% of parents reported finding product reviews helpful, and 62% use AI to economize. Gen AI can help busy parents streamline their shopping experience by offering summaries of product reviews, providing products’ quick hits to save them time – and make sure they’re getting the most bang for their buck.
Saving time and money? Talk about an A+.
Read the full survey results from Deloitte: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/insights/articles/us187343_cic_b2s_2024/DI_2024-BTS_Final.pdf
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