The Cost of the 2026 Back-to-Class Shopping Season
As the summer holiday season comes to an end, millions of American families ready their children for the upcoming school year. For parents, it can elicit an array of emotions. Some may shed a few tears as their children hop aboard the local school bus. Others, however, may rejoice and break into song, shouting the words to George Michael’s hit song “Freedom!”. As they say, to each their own.
The back-to-class season is one of the retail industry’s largest shopping events, second only to the November-December holiday shopping season. The annual shopping extravaganza encompasses both back-to-school spending (for kids in grades K-12) as well as back-to-college spending.
This year, the National Retail Federation (NRF) expects U.S. consumers to spend $43.3 billion on back-to-school shopping for their K-12 children. This is up $3.9 billion (9.9%) from last year’s total of $39.4 billion. Likewise, back-to-college spending is expected to reach $103.5 billion, up a massive $14.7 billion (16.6%) from last year’s total of $88.8 billion.
On average, the NRF expects each family to spend $863.86 on back-to-school items for their K-12 children. Among their top purchases, shoppers will spend an average of $293.11 on electronics/computer equipment, $250.29 on clothing and accessories, $174.01 on shoes and $146.45 on school supplies.
College students and their families are expected to spend even more ($1,437.79) for the upcoming school year. College shoppers will focus their spending dollars on electronics/computer equipment ($341.95), dorm or apartment furnishings ($194) and clothing and accessories ($182.39).
The NRF highlights a number of trends it’s seeing among shoppers this back-to-class season. First, the NRF cites that consumers continue to start their back-to-class shopping much earlier. 62% say they started their shopping in July. Likewise, nearly a third (32%) actually started their shopping in June. The NRF suggests this is due to shoppers taking advantage of major June sales events such as Amazon Prime Day, Walmart Deals and Target Circle Deal Days.
One of the biggest summer shopping events was Prime Day, the national four-day shopping blitz that offers consumers significant online savings. This year Prime Day was held on June 23-26. Amazon moved its Prime Day event (usually held in July) to June, in part, to better capture the ongoing trend of early back-to-class shopping.
For Amazon, the strategy appears to have paid off. Though Amazon doesn’t publicly disclose its Prime Day sales figures, Adobe Analytics reports U.S. retailers tallied a record-high $26.4 billion in online sales during these four days, up 9.3% from last year. Adobe Analytics also reports Prime Day online discounts for electronics and apparel both peaked at 24% off the regular listed price.
Another trend the NRF cites is that many households have been strategically spreading out their back-to-class spending. This allows families time to search out and capture money-saving deals and to allow them to spread out their household budget. In fact, 47% of shoppers say they will purchase only the initial essentials and then replenish supplies as needed throughout the year.
Being flexible and navigating the vast array of deals and promotions can help save a lot of money. But try and stick to your budget. Remember, the November-December holiday shopping season is right around the corner.
Mark M. Grywacheski, Investment Advisor
Quad Cities Investment Group is a Registered Investment Adviser.
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