What to Expect This Back-to-School Season

The outlook for retailers is positive. Less than one out of five consumers plan to spend less than they did last year on back-to-school items. In fact, 25 percent are planning to spend more.

Forty percent of consumers will be going back-to-school shopping this year. Parents of children in elementary school represent the largest segment of back-to-school shoppers (44 percent), followed by parents of children in middle school or high school (43 percent), and parents of college students (14 percent). That said, marketers shouldn't gear all of their back-to-school messaging towards parents. One in five back-to-school shoppers are students themselves.