The back to school season is one of the prime opportunities for retailers to bring in cash during the year, and it is already starting. Kids gotta have what they gotta have, and there is no getting around that, so parents will be in the market to spend some cash. But anybody who has purchased food or gas lately knows that they are taking a bigger bite out of consumer resources than last year – and that will directly impact consumer behavior when it comes to equipping children for the upcoming school year.
Introducing a survey from ShopperTrak could very well utilize the old good news – bad news set-up line used since who knows when. Which do you want first?
The bad news is that foot traffic in America’s retail establishments is expected to be down by 2.9%. But that is not all that big a disappointment when taking into consideration ShopperTrak’s good news, which is that average expenditures will grow by a factor of 3.8%. We think most retailers would settle for that.
The price of gas has a double impact, to ShopperTrak’s way of thinking – it will obviously take a bite out of available resources, and it will also be the reason foot traffic is down. Shoppers will conserve gas and get the job done with less traveling.
“With back-to-school shoppers planning fewer trips to the store — and continued economic uncertainty — retailers must maximize the limited number of opportunities to convert browsers to buyers,” said ShopperTrak co-founder, Bill Martin. “Tracking daily foot traffic and understanding store traffic patterns will equip retailers with meaningful business intelligence to ensure the best possible in-store experience for the customer and the maximum shopper conversion rate for the store.”
Of the overall increase in spending, ShopperTrak said it expects a streak in month-over-month gains extending back to February 2010, taking it to 17 months.
Meanwhile, researcher at Deloitte agree that economic conditions will have an effect on the purchasing strategies employed by parents this year, and says that retailers need to be aware to get the full benefit of the spending season.
Deloitte believes that the vast majority of parents – 86% to be exact – will spend as much or more than they did last year. However, significant majorities say that gas and food prices will influence what they spend on back to school, and about half say that continued sluggishness in the jobs market will also be a factor.
Pricing points will weigh heavily on the minds of shoppers – 65% say that low prices will be the single most important factor they consider when making spending decisions.
Parents want to make sure their kids have a leg up to do their homework, and they are going to be doing homework of their own to get the necessary school items and stay within budget. That means research, and many parents will be putting in some study time checking out the web presence of brick and mortar sites in their area, at etail sites, on social networks and on mobile devices to find out where the best bargains are.
“Retailers need to be prepared for a consumer who is sensitive to prices, especially with the pinch households are feeling from higher gas and energy costs this summer,” said Alison Paul, vice chairman, Deloitte LLP and Deloitte’s retail &distribution sector leader. “Retailers should monitor customers’ reactions closely to recognize where they are flexible, and where promotions are necessary to drive traffic and generate purchases of higher margin products in the store.”
“Price-conscious and/or time-constrained, consumers are navigating virtual and physical storefronts to get the information they want quickly and easily,” added Paul. “Retailers need to respond with an integrated experience. In short, they must unite the store with their online and mobile channels to enable consumers to easily access product availability, promotions and information. Retailers can also increase personalization through digital touch points. One example of this is to create targeted mobile advertisements that engage parents and students with advice and merchandise specifically relevant to their shopping preferences to help retailers increase engagement, conversion and loyalty this season.”
RBR-TVBR has been providing early warning information on upcoming special retail seasons in sister publication Managers Business Report. In the May edition, we ran a study that looked at consumer spending plans for the back to school season in detail, called “Planning ahead for special advertising opportunities.” Based on information from the consumer-media-retail database of BIGresearch, it showed who will be buying what for both the K-12 and college back-to-school spending derbies. Click the story title for vital information you can use to match retailers to the audience your station can deliver, and perhaps pick up a few clients during the month or so remaining before school is back in session.
