Parents are spending less on back-to-school shopping this year: report

It might seem like Memorial Day was just yesterday, but signs of the end of summer are already all around us: Labor Day is right around the corner, pumpkin-spice products are cropping up (even iced ones), and students are heading back to school.

Marketers, it’s time to shake off the sand from those summer-y campaigns and start focusing on the trends of the fall. Since (in our opinion) it’s far too early for pumpkin spice, here are a few takeaways from Deloitte’s back-to-school survey to set the mood.

All about inflation: Parents across income brackets plan to spend less per child this year than they did last year, largely due to a decline in disposable income and a rise in prices, according to Deloitte, which this spring surveyed more than 1,000 parents of children in kindergarten through 12th grade.

• Average spend per child is expected to decrease 10% year over year, from $661 to $597. That would mark the reversal of a growth trend from 2019 to 2022.
• About half (51%) of parents spending less said it’s because they have less money to spare this year, while 75% of those spending more said prices are higher this year.
• “Although parents were willing to endure higher prices last year for replenishing BTS items after the pandemic, 18 months of inflation have changed their tune,” per the report.

So last year: Shoppers appear to be relying less on social media for back-to-school shopping purposes, with 21% saying they’re using social this year, down from 35% last year and 41% in 2021.

• While “social media’s relevance for BTS shopping is receding,” some parents are using it to track down deals.
• Gen X parents in particular are using social to economize their BTS shopping, with 62% who said they planned to use social to shop for school saying they planned to do so specifically to find out about promotions.
• About half (49%) of Gen Xers said they planned to use social to get a coupon, over-indexing compared to millennials and the general population.

Pretty please: Parents might be tightening their purse strings, but their kids could convince them to change their minds. More than half of parents said their child(ren) could talk them into splurging on clothing and accessories or tech items.

But parents seem less willing to spend for sustainability: Half said they choose “environmentally friendly and/or responsibly sourced back-to-school products” whenever possible last year, compared to 35% this year.