One in Three Shoppers Will Not Shop This Back-to-School Season

An ongoing shopper behavior study conducted by The Integer Group and M/A/R/C Research shows that retailers will continue to see the number of back-to-school shoppers in their stores drop. Last year, the data showed a drop of 3.5 percent compared to 2012, and in 2014, the data shows an even greater decline of nearly 5 percent. With fewer shoppers to compete for, retailers and brands will be challenged to focus that much harder on differentiating themselves and outperforming the competition to win over existing back-to-school shoppers. "Shoppers are expected to spend more this year so our study showing a drop in the amount of people who will be shopping presents an interesting dynamic," said Craig Elston, SVP of Insight & Strategy at The Integer Group. "A combination of several factors could explain why a third of the respondents won't be shopping, including fewer school-age children in the home and households repurposing school supplies and merchandise to help minimize costs." Of those who are shopping for back-to-school, more and more are gravitating toward shopping online. Traditional channels can expect the online channel to continue to grow and absorb their shoppers, with nearly 40 percent of younger Millennial shoppers reporting they will shop online for their back-to-school needs (compared to 23 percent of total). As these shoppers get older and eventually have families of their own, they will likely continue to use retailers and channels they are familiar with. Retailers across traditional channels like mass, office, and department stores would be wise to invest in building stronger multi-channel, back-to-school retail programs that help bridge the digital and brick-and-mortar divide. Additional findings from the back-to-school issue of The Checkout include: