When it comes to back to school shopping, moms prefer a hybrid approach, using a mix of online and in-store approaches, according to a new survey by Wanderful Media®, the company behind Find&Save®. However, 62 percent say less than one quarter of their back-to-school shopping will be done online, and only two percent plan to shop exclusively online. Of course finding sales is important for every shopping holiday, and more than half of respondents (56 percent) say they have more time to uncover back-to-school sales than they do for Black Friday shopping.
The 2013 Find&Save Back-to-School Shopping Experience survey consisted of 500 moms of one or more school-aged children, from kindergarten to college students.
Key survey findings include:
- Kids are back-to-school shopping: Approximately 83 percent of the moms surveyed said their children shop with them and choose their back-to-school items.
- School-age children are browsing for sales: 51 percent of school-age children help look for back-to-school sales.
- Checking their mobile phone while shopping: 53 percent will use a mobile phone while shopping to uncover sales.
- $400 spending limit: Approximately 80 percent report they plan to spend under $400 this year on back-to-school shopping.
- Back-to-School Needs, not Wants: 60 percent shop for “needed” rather than “wanted” items in comparison to Black Friday/holiday shopping.
- More back-to-school shopping done in store: Only 2 percent report they plan to only shop online for all back-to-school purchases.
- Half of moms haven’t started back-to-school shopping yet: 50 percent report they will begin shopping in August.
- Circulars are a primary source for sales: There is a broad mix of where shoppers find their sales. Approximately 59 percent report they uncover back-to-school sales through newspaper ads and circulars, as well as 60 percent via circulars that come by mail. More than one-third of respondents find back-to-school sales via online shopping websites and social media.
- Sales matter: 28 percent report they only purchase items that are on sale; another 45 percent said sales matter since more than 75 percent of the time they buy items on sale.
“Back-to-school shopping has emerged as a critical shopping holiday for retailers, and trails only Christmas as the biggest shopping holiday of the year,” notes Lisa Romano, CMO of Wanderful Media. “Retailers and consumers both have altered their back-to-school strategies in order to optimize the return they receive. For retailers, this means adopting a more advanced omni-channel approach to reaching shoppers, and consumers have learned to leverage technology in order to improve their savings.”