Numerator’s 2022 Back-To-School Survey* of nearly 2,400 households found that 89 percent of respondents expect inflation to impact their back-to-school spending and increase cost-saving measures, including buying items on sale, reusing old supplie, and switching to cheaper brands.

Key findings from the survey include:

  • Almost 9-in-10 respondents (89 percent) expect inflation to impact back-to-school shopping. Almost all expect rising prices to influence their shopping, with 28 percent expecting the inflation impact to be significant.
  • Staple back-to-school categories could see pullback due to inflation. 
  • Over one-third of respondents (35 percent) plan to cut back spending on shoes and clothes, 26 percent on backpacks, 24 percent on electronics, 21 percent on craft supplies, and 18 percent on crayons, markers and colored pencils.
  • Ninety-eight percent of respondents said they would find ways to cut spending, including buying items on sale (74 percent), looking for online deals (52 percent), reusing old supplies (50 percent), using more coupons (41 percent), switching to cheaper brands (36 percent), shopping at more dollar or discount stores (28 percent), and buying fewer items (26 percent).
  • Respondents are prepping for in-person school this year, with 78 percent saying their children will attend school exclusively in-person, up from 64 percent in 2021 and 18 percent in 2020—a shift that could result in cutbacks on products for online/hybrid schooling.
  • With COVID-19 concerns at their lowest since the beginning of the pandemic, respondents said they would buy fewer face masks (down 42 percent), hand sanitizer (down 14 percent) and disinfecting wipes or sprays (down 9 percent) this year.
  • Thirty-five percent of respondents purchased electronics in 2021. As online schooling takes a back seat to in-person education and families look to curb costs, respondents noted they oculd spend less on electronics this year.
  • Respondents started back-to-school shopping earlier this year, with 21 percent saying they started shopping in June, up 3 percent. Nearly two-thirds, 62 percent of respondents, plan to finish shopping before August, and 26 percent said they plan to finish by August 15.
  • Children and schools influence back-to-school spending, with 44 percent of respondents expecting to purchase items requested by the school, 42 percent will let their child(ren) choose some of their back-to-school purchases and 38 percent will have their child(ren) shop with parents for back-to-school items.
  • Back-to-school shopping will skew heavily to in-store, mass retailers. Nearly 9-in-10 respondents (89 percent) plan to shop at mass retail for back-to-school supplies, followed by 36 percent online, 22 percent at club stores, 12 percent at drug stores, and 8 percent at specialty retailers.
  • Among respondents who plan to shop in-store, the most popular retailers include Walmart (83 percent), Target (64 percent), Dollar General (23 percent), Sam’s Club (16 percent), and Costco (14 percent).
  • Respondents plan to spend over $100 on back-to-school products, with 48 percent noting they would spend more than $100 and 13 percent expecting to spend less than $50.

*Numerator’s 2022 Back-to-School survey was conducted from June 27-30, 2022, with 2,396 parents/guardians with children in grades K-8.