A quick look: Back to school by the numbers

By the sheer volume of back-to-school marketing emails that have landed in my inbox this past week, I’d venture to say – and industry reporters would agree – retailers have started even earlier this year with sales and promotions aimed at capturing the frequently frugal back-to-school shopper. This year, according to our data, those shoppers are going to be canvassing their closets for last year’s glue sticks and sneakers before making decisions on what they really need to buy this year.

If you’re looking for all the data-rich findings of NRF’s Back-to-School survey, which was released today, visit our Back-to-School Headquarters or read the press release. But for those looking for some quick, easily digestible fast facts…here’s my gift to you.

• Combined back-to-school and back-to-college sales will reach $68 billion.
• The average family of K-12 students plans to spend about $600 on back-to-school items, nearly identical to last year.
• College students and their parents will spend about $800 on average this year, down about $30 from last year.
• 9 in 10 Americans surveyed said the economy will impact their back-to-school spending in some way.
• Half of consumers say they’ll shop for sales more often to compensate for the economy and over a third will be using coupons more often.
• Total back-to-college spending remains about twice as large as back to school.
• One-fourth of college students and parents will begin shopping at least two months before school starts – the highest since NRF began conducting the survey in 2003.
• The back-to-school and back-to-college season remain the second biggest season next to the holidays.

If you want more stats, you can download the full survey results, listen to our media briefing or visit NRF’s Back-to-School headquarters for news articles, tweets and other NRF resources.