Online Back-to-School Shopping

As August nears its end, swarms of college students are thinking of what they "need" to buy for the upcoming school year. The most popular items and the places where they intend to purchase them are not surprising, but this time of year can be a significant time to focus on a market that is foaming at the mouth for new goodies.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) expects $47.3 billion to be spent during 2007’s back-to-school shopping season. An average student will spend $956.93 on goods for the new school year, which is noticeably larger than last year’s $880.52 figure.

Clothing and accessories will attract around $7.41 billion in 2007, according to the NRF. About $12.8 billion is expected to be spent on consumer electronics.

College bookstores should expect to see some long lines, as 57.2% of college students and their parents indicated that they will purchase some of their necessary goods (especially textbooks, most likely) there. Discount stores were cited as a shopping destination by 51.5% of the 7,710 respondents, while Department stores were third on the list with 41.8% of respondents noting them as a destination.

Office supply stores (35.6%), clothing stores (34.3%), online retailers (30.5%), electronics stores (20.9%), thrift stores or resale shops (14.0%), drug stores (13.2%), home furnishing or home décor stores (12.7%), and catalogs (10.5%) also received mentions.

According to the NRF, 83.6% of respondents indicated that they plan to purchase textbooks this year, while 83.4% said they planned on buying school supplies, and 69.2% said that they would be buying clothing and accessories (excluding shoes). Shoes garnered a 62.0% response, while 50.3% indicated that they planned on purchasing consumer electronics or computer-related equipment, and another 36.5% said they would purchase dorm or apartment furnishings.

Fifty-five percent of college students purchased clothing online this past year and spent an average of $162, according to a Youth Trends report. Textbooks (43%), books (41%), downloadable music (40%), travel/air (40%), and concert/sports tickets (33%) were also popular amongst the 1,200 respondents, which were full-time, four-year college students.

In terms of average amount spent on a product category this past year, the computer category topped the list with $1,105, followed by travel/air with $840, textbooks with $254, and computer equipment with $241.

Though they always seem to be poor, college students (with the help of their parents, of course) seem to be quite a lucrative target market.

Source:

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1005251