Most students are only just beginning to enjoy the summer break from school, but retailers are already gearing up for the onslaught of students and their parents expected in the aisles during the back-to-school shopping season.
Unfortunately for retailers, consumers are planning to start shopping later than they did last year and are hoping to spend about the same amount of money they did last year, according to a survey of over 40,000 shoppers conducted by The NPD Group, a leading provider of consumer and retail information. On the brighter side, mass merchants are once again set to lead sales, but there's some positive news for department stores and footwear retailers, as well.
Mass merchants can once again expect to take the lion's share of back-to-school purchases this year, 81 percent of consumers plan to shop there, while 45 percent plan to shop office-supply stores and 38 percent will head to chain stores.
There's also good news in NPD's survey results for department stores, since 27 percent of consumers expect to shop at these types of establishments – a three percentage point increase over the previous year. Footwear retailers are also poised to capture more back-to-school sales this year than last. While 27 percent of consumers planned to shop for shoes at footwear retailers last year, this year 29 percent plan to do so.
“Department stores and shoe stores have been taking hits from mass merchants for years, when it comes to back-to-school shopping,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst for The NPD Group. ”So it's got to be gratifying for them to see an increase in the number of consumers planning to go back-to-school shopping at their stores later this summer.”
marketing@alchempro.com
