Life In Internet

Every July, I am reminded how busy this time of year is for retailers – it’s the season of July sales, planning for the upcoming holiday season, launching fall merchandise, and, in tandem with the last, kicking off back to school.  The heat outside appears to be driving many US consumers into well air-conditioned malls, which might help retail a bit in this up and down year.  Our parent, NRF, and research partner BIGresearch, recently released findings and forecasts for the back to school (BTS) shopping season, noting that close to one third of consumers anticipated shopping online for this purpose, up from less than a quarter last year. 

BIGresearch generously provided Shop.org a more detailed analysis of those online shoppers to understand this segment in more detail.  Shop.org members can now download the full results, and herewith a couple of highlights: 

• Online BTS shoppers will shop not only online, of course:  approximately three-quarters plan to buy also in clothing stores, discount stores, and department stores (and that’s quite a bit more than their offline-only counterparts).  Close to half will also buy in an electronics store, or twice the number of offline consumers.  A reminder of just how important the multichannel shopper really is to the multichannel retailer. 
• Almost half of online BTS shoppers plan to start their shopping 3 to 4 weeks before school starts, although well over a quarter already started their shopping as far back as late June or early July.  (Once school is out, it appears that BTS messaging almost can’t start too early.)
• The overall news about total spend for BTS this year is certainly good:  BTS shoppers  in general expect to spend a combined average of $606.40. But the news gets better:  people who plan to do at least some of their BTS spending online plan to spend a combined average of $871.99, or 44% more than offline-only BTS shoppers. 
• Part of that impressive spend difference certainly has to do with significantly higher expected net average spend among online BTS shoppers for electronics or computer related goods.  That said, online BTS shoppers are anticipating a higher net average spend for clothes, shoes and school supplies as well. 
• As to how the state of the economy is impacting BTS shopping for online consumers, over half noted that they are shopping for sales more often and doing more comparative shopping online, whereas close to half are buying more store and generic brands, spending less overall, consulting ad circulars and newspapers (there’s that channel –agnostic customer again…), and using coupons more. 

As always, I welcome your thoughts and feedback.