The past decade has seen a boom in personal technology as educational tools to be featured prominently in classrooms. Students can be seen in classrooms typing notes instead of putting pencil to paper, and electronic calculators can do math faster and more efficiently than ever before.
Retailers now need to add electronics to the list of school supplies for all grades. Although there are debates on whether there is merit to electronics in the classrooms, statistics can not deny that they are growing in popularity in the classroom at all levels. Spending on electronics for back-to-school shopping is projected to surpass $15 billion.
Despite inflation, USA Today reports that back-to-school spending is expected to grow by eight percent from 2021. However, back-to-school spending in 2023 will look different from 2022, with consumers likely to put less of a premium on brand-name products.
On July 13, the National Retail Federation released its annual survey, which not only showed that people have started shopping earlier but that back-to-school is set to break 2021’s record of $37.1 billion with a staggering $41.5 billion in projected spending. This is a growth of $4.6 billion from 2022. Additionally, back-to-college spending is predicted to grow an additional $20 billion from last year to $94 billion. In percentages, that would be a solid A in any college class!
One aspect that may be helping consumers with their purchasing is the buy-now-pay-later feature. According to the National Retail Federation, over fifty percent of consumers have started shopping earlier.
“Retailers have been preparing for months to ensure they are well stocked with essential items that families and students need for the school year,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay in the group’s report.
This paradox of higher spending overall but a stretch of those same dollars is perplexing. Will there be an interest in lower-budget items for consumer electronics? Or will consumers still place value on high-budget electronics and cut costs in other ways?
