Anticipated back-to-school shopping spending has remained steady since 2010. In 2014, consumers reported they planned to spend $74.9 billion on back-to-school in total (including both kindergarten through grade 12 and college spending), marking a slight increase from 2013. However, retailers face a growing challenge in the heightened demand for multichannel experiences across all retail categories.

This report explores what consumers want out of the retail experience when back-to-school shopping as well as the prominence of online and in-store purchasing. Other topics explored in this report include the types of information used on path to purchase, back-to-school shopping opinions, and both college and shopping for grades kindergarten through 12.

This report builds on the analysis presented in Mintel’s Back-to-School Shopping – US, January 2014, as well as Back-to-School Shopping – US, January 2013, Back-to-School Shopping – US, January 2012, and Back-to-School Shopping – US, June 2011.

This report defines back-to-school shopping as any shopping done in preparation for a school term. This may include clothing and accessories, pens, pencils, paper, electronics, and other items consumers purchase specifically for school.

This report differs from previous reports because it includes consumers shopping for college students as well as college students who shopped for themselves.

Value figures throughout this report are at rsp (retail selling prices) excluding sales tax unless otherwise stated.

• National Retail Federation’s Monthly Consumer survey. Figures are self-reported anticipated back-to-school spending for each year.

• Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ data for educations-pending per state

• US Census Bureau historical data for school enrollment

In addition to quantitative consumer research, Mintel also conducted an online discussion group among a demographically mixed group of adults aged 18+. This discussion group was asynchronous (ie not run in real time), functioning like a blog or bulletin board, with questions remaining posted for a predetermined period of time. This method allows participants to respond reflectively, at their leisure, or to log off to think about any issues raised, and return later to respond. Participants were recruited from Lightspeed GMI’s online consumer panel with responses collected in July 2014. All quotes are included verbatim, and as such, include typos and other grammatical errors as they originally appeared.

For the purposes of this report, Mintel commissioned exclusive consumer research through Lightspeed GMI to explore consumer attitudes and behaviors regarding back-to-school shopping. Mintel was responsible for the survey design, data analysis, and reporting. Fieldwork was conducted in October 2014 among a sample of 2,400 adults aged 18+ with access to the internet.

Mintel selects survey respondents by gender, age, household income, and region so that they are proportionally representative of the US adult population using the internet. Mintel also slightly oversamples, relative to the population, respondents that are Hispanic or Black to ensure an adequate representation of these groups in our survey results and to allow for more precise parameter estimates from our reported findings. Please note that our surveys are conducted online and in English only. Hispanics who are not online and/or do not speak English are not included in our survey results.

Mintel has also analyzed data from Experian Marketing Services, using the Simmons NCS Kids Study.

The Experian Marketing Services, Simmons NCS Kids Study was conducted during April 2013-June 2014 and based on a sample of 1,975 kids aged 6-11, with results weighted to represent the US child population.

While race and Hispanic origin are separate demographic characteristics, Mintel often compares them to each other. Please note that the responses for race (White, Black, Asian, Native American, or other race) will overlap those that also are Hispanic, because Hispanics can be of any race.

The following is a list of abbreviations used in this report.

Generations are discussed within this report, and they are defined as:

* Also known as Generation Y or Echo Boomers