July 27, 2006

It's only the end of July, but already it's back to school time as far as the retail sector is concerned. Parents, armed with lists of their kids' necessary school supplies, are already walking the aisles of Wal-Mart, Target and many other brick-and-mortar stores.

But the aisles may be quieter this year as more of that back-to-school shopping heads online. In a recent study of mothers by MedeliaMonitor for the PersonalShopper.com website, more than fifty percent of the responents said they are planning to do their back-to-school shopping using the Internet this year.

The moms told a litany of frustrations about shopping for back-to-school items in retail stores.

Overall, 64 percent said "keeping myself and my children on budget is Mission Impossible". Another 42 percent reported "feeling stressed about getting it all done within the limited time they had". And another 30 percent said "driving to twelve stores to find four items with 3 kids in tow" was not exactly their idea of fun.

Still, a broader survey of shoppers by BIGresearch for the National Retail Federation found that a smaller percentage (15.2 percent) plan to shop online for back-to-school items this year.

For women aged 25-54 with children, online shopping is a very common activity. In March of this year, 85 percent of women in that group visited the retail category of sites, according to comScore Media Metrix.

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As parents contemplate the advantages of doing back-to-school shopping online, they are also starting the process later and later. According to a NPD Group study of 34,000 shoppers (of all ages and both genders), 40 percent plan to start shopping before Aug. 1, compared with 43 percent last year.

The drop is significant, NPD says, because people surveyed said they plan to spend the same amount as in 2005, only in a more compressed time period.

As a whole, clothes and accessories will garner the biggest back-to-school spending, an estimated $7.6 billion, according to the BIGresearch data. Electronics and computer equipment will be the second biggest, an estimated $3.8 billion in spending.

Source: eMarketer