Back-to-School Spending exceeded 55 billion dollars in 2010 8/1/2011

Back-to-School Spending exceeded 55 billion dollars in 2010*!

Now that it is August and summer is winding down and back-to-school time is near, parents will begin to scan the internet and newspapers looking for great deals and sales on school supplies and electronics.  It is estimated that nearly half (49%) of back-to-school shoppers will be making purchases in August this year.   

While back-to-school shoppers are waiting until August to do their purchasing – to take advantage of last minute internet discounts – they are likely to spread out their purchases in 2011.  According to pricegrabber.com, fifty-five percent of back-to-school shoppers said they will distribute the costs of purchases over a longer time period.  That is not surprising considering 21% of consumers felt influenced to make non-school related purchases for themselves while shopping for back-to-school items in 2010.

Did you know that back-to-school shopping is the second largest U.S. retail spending period, with only the Winter Holidays/Christmas spending being greater? The amount of money spent in 2010 on back-to-school shopping was greater than the next four highest spending periods - Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Easter, and the Super Bowl - combined!  Did you know that in 2010 back-to-school spending reached $55.12 billion?  

While many of us have fond memories of back-to-school shopping as a time to pick out a new wardrobe and getting the latest fashions, spending on school clothes was only the 2nd highest category (approximately $14.5 billion) of back-to-school spending in 2010. With clothing and accessories being the second largest outlay of funds, you probably can guess that the most amount of money spent in 2010 was related to purchases on school electronics.  Individuals spent approximately $20 billion on school electronics in 2010!  

Not only are we purchasing electronics at a high level, we are using electronics and the internet to compare prices - to make sure we are getting the best deals.  The internet will likely play a major part in back-to-school shopping this year as well.  Rather than doing internet searches for discounts, have you considered doing your online back-to-school shopping for electronics on the CSEA Member Benefits website?  

Did you know that CSEA offers a wide variety of discounts that can help you with your back-to-school spending?  CSEA offers members discounts on computers, lap-tops, iPads, mobile phones and many more items to help with school.  Did you know that you can spread your payments out and have the ease of payroll deduction when purchasing some of your back-to-school electronic items through CSEA partners?  To learn more about the discounts available and how to pay for electronics with the ease of payroll deduction visit our Discount page. 

* All statistics were viewed from an article posted on http://community.microsoftadvertising.com/blogs/advertiser/archive/2011/07/01/back-to-school-trends-insights-and-optimization-tips-for-search-advertisers.aspx on July 1, 2011.