Back-To-School Survey Shows Resilient Consumers Are Ready To Spend

Nearly three-fourths of U.S. families expect to spend the same or more on back-to-school shopping as they did last year, according to a survey by management consulting and accounting firm PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) released today.

The survey results, Kelly Pedersen, PwC Global Retail Leader, said, shows the resilience of U.S. parents in the face of price concerns and economic uncertainty, and the importance they place on education-related spending.

“We see quite a bit of confidence coming through” as shoppers prepare for back to school spending, Pedersen said.

PwC has been doing a holiday survey for 10 years, but this is the first time it has done a back-to-school survey. It plans to make this an annual survey, an indication of the importance of back-to-school season for retailers.

Parents are seeking value for school purchases

While parents said they will be looking for ways to stretch their dollars while shopping for back-to-school items, one in three expect to spend more than they did last year.

“We’re finding such a value-oriented consumer right now, given inflation, given the uncertainty of the economy,” Pedersen said. “So that’s frankly no surprise that looking for value is super important right now.”

The tops ways parents are planning to save money during back-to-school seasons are by only purchasing items that are on sale (37%); shopping earlier (37%) and reusing items from previous years.

Other money-saving strategies include buying more store-brand products (22%); shopping secondhand and thrift stores (18%) and using layaway plans (10%).

Technology biggest back-to-school expense

Technology and clothing and shoes are expected to be the biggest back-to-school expenses, according to the parents surveyed. Forty percent said they plan to spend between $251 to over $500 on tech devices for their children, while 45% said they expect to spend $251 to over $500 on clothing and shoes.

The survey also showed that 20% of parents are planning to use AI tools to find back-to-school deals. Parents are showing that they are becoming increasingly aware that “using an AI agent to go find the best deal is possible, and i think consumers are turning to that more and more,” Pedersen said.

AI used to simplify school shopping

AI “makes sense for school,” Pedersen said. Parents typically get a list of things they need to buy for school “and you can now just upload that list right into AI or an AI agent and it will go find those things for you, at the lowest price. It’s such an easy shopping mechanism,” he said.

The survey also reconfirmed a trend that PwC has seen in previous holiday surveys, and that it has heard from its retail clients, that Gen Z shoppers prefer to shop in-store.

According to the survey, Gen Z parents are significantly more likely to shop exclusively in-store, while millennials are more likely to shop exclusively online.

“We find as we survey them Gen Zs value that in-person interaction and that face-to-face interaction more than millennials especially,” Pedersen said.

Income levels also influenced shopping choices, according to the survey. Families earning less than $75,000 were almost twice as likely to shop exclusively in-store compared to households earning $75,000 or more, PwC reported.

The survey of 1,198 parents was conducted in early May.