Commentary
Never Too Early To Shop For The Kids
- by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, August 7, 2017
According to a report on consumer spending insights, aggregated from the Bank of America's more than 40 million credit and debit accounts around the back to school season, some have suggested the back to school shopping season starts sooner and does not last as long. Yet, the recent Bank of America omnibus survey finds 78% of consumers plan to do the bulk of their back to school shopping in August, with only 38% preferring to start in July.
More online shoppers skip waiting on line, says the report. Back to school shoppers turned to the web, as the majority of retail categories saw increases in online shopping. While point of sale remains the top way to shop at most stores, consumers tended to spend more when they clicked (online) instead of swiped (in stores).
Total Year-Over-Year online transactions | ||
Store Type | % Y-O-Y | Trend (arrow) |
Artist supply stores: | 37% | Î |
Book/magazine stores: | 11% | (down) |
Clothing stores: | 32% | Î |
Department stores: | 61% | Î |
Electronics/appliance stores: | 25% | Î |
Office supply stores: | 2% | Î |
Sporting goods stores: | 12% | Î |
Source: Bank of America, August 2017 | ||
Brick-and-mortar lives on: point of sale (POS) remains top way to shop at most stores. More than half of electronic/appliance stores purchases were made online, while consumers favored in-store purchases for other retail categories.
Share of payment method – Point Of Sale OS or Online Transactions | ||
Store Type | POS | Online |
Artist supply stores: | 88% | 11% |
Book/magazine stores: | 66% | 26% |
Clothing stores: | 81% | 16% |
Department stores: | 88% | 11% |
Electronics/appliance stores: | 30% | 56% |
Office supply stores: | 92% | 7% |
Sporting goods stores: | 85% | 13% |
Source: Bank of America, August 2017 | ||
Online shoppers tended to spend more than those in-store during back to school 2016.
Average Customer Spend (Aside from clothing and electronic/appliance stores, consumers spent more when they clicked instead of swiped) | ||
Store Type | Average Spend Online | Avg. Spend Point of Sale |
Artist supply store | $89 | $52 |
Book/magazine stores | $90 | $66 |
Clothing stores | $159 | $196 |
Department stores | $168 | $145 |
Electronics/appliances stores | $137 | $249 |
Office supply stores | $124 | $68 |
Sporting goods stores | $191 | $156 |
Source: Bank of America, August 2017 | ||
Jack Loechner is the Editor of The Center for Media Research's daily Research Brief. You can reach him at jack@mediapost.com.