NEW YORK — As inflation drives up costs, many parents with school-age children are cutting back on other areas of their budget or were seeking deals earlier in the season to head off tariff-related price hikes, according to preliminary analyses of back-to-school spending trends.
Parents increasingly use AI tools and other digital technologies to hunt savings, and many were focused on finding products made in the United States.
More than one-third of consumers (38%) said they are cutting back in other spending areas to cover the cost of items for the school year, according to an annual report from the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics.
A survey from Credit Karma found that 37% of parents of school-age children cited inflation in explaining why they were unable to afford back-to-school merchandise this year. And nearly half of respondents said they were taking on debt shopping for their kids, according to Credit Karma, an online personal finance company founded in 2007.
A survey from Numerator, a Kantar Group company, found 57% of back-to-school shoppers were prioritizing back-to-school items at the best prices possible, up from 52% last year.
Nearly all back-to-school shoppers planned to employ some sort of money-saving measure this year, with 68% shopping sales events, 58% comparing retailer prices, 57% using coupons or promo codes, and 45% reusing school supplies from past years, according to Numerator. Many participated in summer sales events like Prime Day (37%), Walmart Deals (34%) and Target Circle Week (25%) to do their back-to-school shopping, as well.
Thorvardur de Shong
Online prices on apparel and accessories including shoes, bags and belts surged 9% year-over-year in July, according to Klaviyo, a customer relations management firm that provides brands with a platform combining analytics, marketing, and personalized customer service.
Klaviyo, which counts 170,000 brands as clients, also said there are fewer deals this year on apparel and accessories. Discounts on these items were four percentage points lower than last year, the firm said in late August.
Shopping for classroom supplies is also more costly this year, with prices up 7.3% from last year, according to an analysis from Groundwork Collaborative and The Century Foundation. Those costs include a nearly 13% increase for folders, the analysis found, and the price of index cards is up 42% this year.
U.S. office supplies sales revenue across all channels during the first six weeks of the back-to-school shopping season (June 29 to August 9) declined 2% to $1.9 billion, according to Circana data.
“Whether they are waiting for better promotions, opting for different brands, or buying larger or smaller pack sizes, consumers are looking for ways to cut their costs without foregoing school supply necessities,” said Ben Arnold, industry advisor, office supplies, at Circana.
Shoppers were finding value by buying larger sizes in key supplies categories, Circana said. While unit sales of pens and pencils were mostly flat, sales of 10-packs of pens rose 4% from last year, and 24-pack pencil sales increased 6%.
“A higher-cost environment across retail and higher average prices of school and office supplies will inhibit unit demand for some consumers,” Arnold said. “But school supplies are nondiscretionary purchases during this time of year, and this year’s consumer will clearly go where they will get the best value.”
Private-label supplies accounted for 29% of early-season spending, Circana said, and represented 48% of unit sales. Store brand school supplies were priced more than 50% lower than national brands.
NRF projected back-to-school spending of $39.4 billion this year, up from $38.8 billion a year ago. But per-family spending was projected to slip to $858 from about $874 last year.
Electronics remain the top spending category for K-12 families, averaging $295.81 per household and totaling $13.6 billion in projected spend, according to NRF’s pre-season projections. Spending on clothing and accessories was projected at $249.36 per K-12 family, with spending on basic school supplies coming in at $143.77 on average.
NRF was expecting online retailers to be the most popular destinations for back-to-school shopping, attracting a little over half of all shoppers in the category.
