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With school start dates well within sight now, school kids and college students across the US are still finishing up their back-to-school and back-to-college shopping. In the August 2009 Consumer Intentions & Actions Survey, BIGresearch asked on behalf of the National Retail Federation how families and students are progressing in this endeavor since we first asked about their back-to-school and back-to-college shopping plans last month. (That updated survey was released today.) This blog post explores back-to-school shopping results specifically; please watch for the back-to-college shopping update shortly.
As always, Shop.org members can download the complete results of how online shoppers vary from shoppers who will only make back-to-school purchases in stores.
BTS shopping to date. On average, families have completed not quite half of their back-to-school shopping to date; almost one third has not yet begun this task at all, and only 14% can say they are fully finished. Clearly, consumers will be receptive to back-to-school offers and messages from retailers for some weeks to come. There appears to be almost no difference in completion levels between shoppers who plan to complete their back to school shopping online specifically and those doing so in other channels.
Where they’re shopping. Given the imminent start date for numerous school districts around the country, it was perhaps not surprising to see that just 12% of consumers planned to complete their remaining back-to-school purchases online. Almost two-thirds of online shoppers plan to head to discount stores for this purpose, though department stores, clothing stores and office supply stores (among others) will also see traffic in the coming weeks.
Influence of coupons, sales and promotions. Of those consumers who had done any back to school shopping so far, about half said that those purchases were influenced by coupons, sales and/or promotions. Indeed, online back to school shoppers noted that coupons (59%), word of mouth (47%), in-store promotions (46%), and advertising inserts (46%) influence them to shop at a particular store. Possibly reflecting the need to finish this task relatively quickly, one quarter of online shoppers noted that the traditional newspaper and TV/broadcast both are also important influences, beating out slightly advertisements on the Web and via email.
Favorite Web sites. Finally, shoppers were asked to write in the name of their favorite back to school retail Web site. While there were numerous mentions, Wal-Mart and Target led the pack, followed somewhat more distantly by JCPenney, Staples and Kohl’s, among others. Whether these Web sites actually motivated shoppers to buy from those retailers, however, is more open: almost one third of all shoppers said it had no specific impact as they regularly shop there already, while just under one fifth said it did indeed motivate them to shop there. For online shoppers, however, the influence was stronger – given that these shoppers have committed to completing their back-to-school shopping online specifically, well over a third of these consumers were motivated to shop from a retailer whose back to school Web site they liked.
Watch soon for a similar update on Back to College shopping. As always, let us know your thoughts on this topic.
