A survey from global commercial real estate and investment management firm JLL reveals parents plan to spend 21.8% more on back-to-school shopping this year, signaling positive implications for retail sales and a successful shopping season.
The survey of more than 1,000 parents of school-age children demonstrated that despite concerns about inflation, parents earning over $50,000 per year do not plan to cut back on their back-to-school budgets. Parents across all income groups, especially those with higher incomes, intend to allocate a larger share of their budgets to discretionary products rather than school-required items.
“For the second consecutive year, parents are increasing their per-child spending from $390 to $475, despite concerns about inflation,” said Keisha Virtue, JLL senior analyst of retail research, in announcing the results. “Our survey demonstrates that parents are prioritizing back-to-school essentials and will continue to play a crucial part in driving consumer spending and foot traffic.”
The study suggested that parents will start back-to-school shopping significantly earlier this year. More than 75% of parents expect to have already begun shopping by July, JLL indicated, showing a trend of consumers wanting to get their shopping done sooner. Additionally, about 25% of parents reported they already started back-to-school shopping by the end of May. Almost 90% of parents will interact with physical stores in some way for their back-to-school shopping and will spend more than 63% of their shopping budgets in stores versus online, the survey concluded, especially high-income shoppers.
Walmart, Amazon and Target remain top choices for parents, JLL noted. Other retailers coming in as top destinations include Costco, Old Navy and Dollar General. Still, parents with college-aged students plan to spend about $200 more per child and are more likely to shop at office supplies stores for big-ticket items such as electronics, home office supplies and textbooks. The proportion of parents planning to shop at malls for their back-to-school needs increased versus 2023. Parents who plan to visit malls for back-to-school shopping are more likely to spend significantly more than average, with a budget of $656. In addition, 45.8% plan to visit four or more stores.
