Back-to-School Shoppers Rely on Smartphones, Discounts

This fall, one-quarter of all U.S. households will send their children back to class with brand-new supplies, clothing, and electronics, making July through September the second-biggest shopping season of the year. Back-to-school spending is expected to increase slightly to $27.8 billion overall, averaging $519 per student, according to Deloitte’s annual Back-to-School Survey.

Spending on electronics and gadgets—including smartphones, tablets, and wearables—is set to rise by $800 million, a 29% increase over 2018. Twenty-two percent of consumers surveyed plan to purchase these items and spend an average of $305 on them.

Back-to-school shoppers will continue to make most of their purchases in stores (56%), consistent with prior years, but online shopping is gaining ground; it is set to grab 29% of back-to-school spending, up from 23% last year, the survey finds. The increase reflects a shift to online buying among individuals who were previously undecided between online and in-store.

Overall, use of personal computers for back-to-school shopping is down from 49% in 2018 to 42% of respondents in 2019, while 60% are reaching for their smartphones this year, primarily to visit a retailer’s website (54%), obtain price information (51%), and look for discounts or promotions (51%).