With high prices and squeezed budgets, consumers will purchase less this back-to-school season.
U.S. consumers will purchase fewer back-to-school items in 2025, according to Deloitte Consulting LLP’s annual back-to-school spending survey. Parents are focused on essential products, and in every category except apparel, parents plan to spend less this year.
Overall, U.S. consumers will spend $30.9 billion on back-to-school related purchases for the kindergarten through 12th grades, a slight decrease compared with $31.3 billion in the 2024 back-to-school season, according to Deloitte. Back-to-school spend in 2025 is about $570 per student, down $16 per student compared with last year. In May, Deloitte surveyed 1,203 parents with at least one K-12 student.
The “flat” back-to-school spending headline, however, is not equal across income brackets. Lower-income families plan to spend more due to higher prices, while higher-income families plan to cut back on discretionary items and spend less due to economic concerns:
- Low-income parents (annual household income of $50,000 or less) plan to spend 10% more year over year.
- Middle-income parents (annual household income of $50,000-$99,000) plan to spend 7% less year over year.
- High-income parents (annual household income of $100,000 or more) plan to spend 9% less year over year.
Shoppers trade down, cut back for back-to-school shopping
Back-to-school spending continues to decrease slightly each year. Despite higher prices in nearly all categories, this year’s spending is expected to be 7% below 2021. The majority of shoppers say their household financial situation is worse than last year and 52% of consumers say they are going to cut back on dining and entertainment to make room for back-to-school spending.
The tough economic times backdrop influences how consumers will shop for back-to-school this year, as shoppers will trade down, shop more at discount retailers and spread out their purchases to save money more in 2025 compared with 2024.
- 75% of consumers say they will switch brands if their preferred brand is too expensive, up from 67% in 2024.
- 65% say they will shop at more affordable retailers compared with 62% last year.
- 49% of parents planning to spread out their purchases over time.
“Value for the money is the top driver of retailer choice, and parents are increasingly willing to switch brands or retailers to find the best deals,” said Brian McCarthy, principal, retail strategy at Deloitte.
Where consumers plan to back-to-school shop
At 83% of shoppers, mass merchants is the top destination for consumers to shop, followed by online retailers at 68%.
Consumers who mostly shop online will spend $100 more ($601) than mostly in-store shoppers, according to Deloitte. This is likely because the demographics of online shoppers tend to skew into higher incomes groups, and because of the convenience of online shopping, McCarthy said.
“The impulse buying and reduced friction — you don’t have to get to store, walk around, put in cart, etc. — leads to more transactions,” he said.
Additionally, 41% of parents (75% of Gen Z parents and 46% of Millennials) also plan to use social media for back-to-school shopping. Social media shoppers will spend 1.8-times more than shoppes who don’t use social media.
“The influencers and personalized ads online and on social channels feel more personalized and the right promotion and engagement curated to an individual will drive higher conversion,” McCarthy said.
For the past 10 years, Amazon.com has hosted its “Prime Day” sales event, leading dozens of other retailers to host their own promotional events. About 46% of parents plan to shop for back-to-school items during these July sales, about the same as last year.
The survey also found:
- 71% are willing to wait longer for delivery if it means lower or no shipping costs.
- 26% of parents surveyed plan to buy back-to-school items using cashback websites.
- 32% of parents say influencer content is more trustworthy than brand content and that increases to 59% for Gen Z parents.
- 48% of consumers plan to buy American made products as much as possible.
- 33% of parents plan to use generative artificial intelligence for back-to-school shopping for comparing prices, finding deals, summarizing reviews, generating shopping lists, discovering products, getting personalized suggestions or budgeting.
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