Back-To-School Shoppers Rush to Make Last Minute, Big-Ticket Purchases — Retail Bum

The back-to-school school season may be coming to a close, but consumers are continuing to shop at record levels.

This year, more consumers than ever began shopping for school supplies by early July, mainly just to spread out their budgets and find the best value on their purchases. Still, more than half of the consumers shopping for kids in elementary all the way up to high school are busy making last-minute purchases. And another 20% plan to make their purchases in the week leading up to the start of school.

Meanwhile, college-going students are waiting even longer to make their last-minute purchases, with 13% planning to do so after their classes start, according to a survey of 7,843 consumers conducted by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights & Analytics.

What are shoppers buying?

Must-have products such as notebooks and pencils are high on shoppers’ priority lists, as are outfits for the first few days. But it is not just small-ticket items consumers are shopping for last minute; more than a quarter of back-to-school shoppers and 34% of college students are yet to buy electronic products on their list.