Survey: Back-To-School Spending to Increase 5%

New York, NY, July 30, 2007--About 76 million school-age children and adults are heading back to school this fall, and back-to-school sales should top last year’s by about 5 percent, totaling $27 billion, according an ICSC–Citi Global Wealth Management survey of 1,000 U.S. households. "Consumers are planning to shop for back-to-school items earlier this year than we have seen in the last couple of years," said Michael P. Niemira, chief economist and director of research for ICSC.

Although the 2007 back-to-school shopping season is off to a faster start, the ICSC-Citi survey also suggests that the consumer will be looking for value in their purchase. Fifty-two percent of respondents expect to do their back-to-school shopping in august, the survey found. Last year, only 18.4 percent planned to do their shopping in August.

Fifty-six percent of those surveyed stated that they would purchase an apparel item for the new school year. The top venue for back to school shopping will be discount stores, as price will be the main motivation. Some of the new apparel items that are at the top of the back-to-school consumers' shopping lists this year include: Capri pants; denim bottoms and flare denim bottoms; lightweight sweaters; hooded tunic tops or jackets; graphic print tees; updated polos and hoodies.

When asked where consumers have or will be doing their back to school shopping, the main venues cited—in order of preference (with multiple venues accepted)—were: discount stores (84 percent), traditional department stores (48 percent), apparel specialty stores (47 percent), "big-box" stores specializing in electronics or books, etc. (36 percent), online (36 percent) and catalogue (17 percent). Overwhelmingly, 49 percent of households polled stated that the main motivation for choosing a retailer for their back to school shopping is price, followed by convenience (26 percent), selection (20 percent) and ambiance (2 percent). In a separate question on the consumers' propensity to spend more than last year for trendy or fashion-forward apparel for the new school year, 57 percent reported that they would not be spending more, but 40 percent of households did expect to be spending more on those fashions.

Although there is no single way to define back-to-school demand, ICSC’s benchmark for retail spending is based on August and September retail sales at family clothing stores, shoe stores, computer stores and bookstores.

Opinion Research Corporation conducted the survey on behalf of ICSC and Citi from July 19, 2007 through July 22, 2007 The survey featured a nationwide sample of households, 18 years of age and older, living in private households in the continental U.S. The margin of error was +/- 3 percent. Some of the survey findings are based on a sub sample and the margin of error may be larger for these sub samples.