The back-to-school shopping season is the second biggest shopping event of the year next to the holidays. That’s why consumers are bound to spend more and retailers are bound to gain more.

In 2018, RetailMeNot, Inc. surveyed more than 1200 retailers and consumers in a way to gain insights into the back-to-school shopping season in the US. Let’s take a sneak peek at the top line findings:

Back-to-School Insights Into Retailers in the USA

• In 2018, 76% of companies, surveyed, are investing more in back-to-school marketing vs. 2017.
• Nearly 8 in 10 of retailers will offer more back-to-school discounts, while 3 in 4 will run deeper discounts for consumers in 2018.
• In terms of the most used marketing channels that retailers are investing in for the back-to-school shopping season, social advertising and mobile advertising ranked at the top with rates of 72% and 69% respectively.
• 3 in 4 retailers are planning to start their back-to-school marketing efforts earlier in 2018. 84% of them will begin on or before Amazon Prime Day in 2018.

Back-to-School Insights Into Parents/Consumers in the USA

• 6 in 10 of parents prefer to purchase all of their back-to-school items in three shopping trips or less.
• 67% of parents indicated that they look for more savings during this back-to-school season than they do during other times of the year.
• Clothing, electronics, shoes and then backpacks are the main top categories that parents in the US plan to spend more this back-to-school season.
• 63% of parents reported that they always research online for back-to-school deals before going to a physical store to shop.
• 72% of shoppers plan to shop online at least once during back-to-school.
• 52% of them browse back-to-school items on their smartphone because they can do it on the go, while 46% prefer mobile shopping because it allows them to multitask.

A Graph Shows the Top Categorie of Back-to-School Shopping Season That Parents/Consumers Plan to Spend in (2018 Vs. 2017)

Methodology:

Data is based on 200 interviews were captured via a 15-minute online survey with senior managers/directors and higher and retailers. As well as, 1,005 interviews were conducted via a 10-minute online survey to parents who will be back-to-school shopping for their children who are under the age of 18.

Additionally, key time-frame data and insights are based on analysis of a subset of the 500,000 offers from 50,000 retailers within the RetailMeNot, Inc. internal data.