Back-to-School Savings

The Back-to-School season typically means increased traffic and big bucks for retailers. However, this year the economy is lagging and consumers (especially college students) are doing everything they can to stretch each and every dollar. For example, according to a recent study by consulting firm, Deloitte, 70% of back-to-school shoppers in Illinois plan to buy lower-priced items than they did a year ago. A recent study conducted by the National Retail Federation* predicts the following trends in back to school spending among college students:

"While students will still allocate the largest portion of their budget to electronics, spending will fall to $211.89 per person from $258.43 last year. Spending on clothing ($134.40 vs. $149.85 last year) and dorm furnishings ($90.90 vs. $109.85 last year) will also drop, while spending on shoes will remain flat ($58.46 vs. $59.90 last year). Only one category—school supplies—will experience a notable increase, from $63.52 last year to $68.47 this year. Spending on collegiate gear, a new category, will average $35.26 per person."

They also expect these trends to hit over-priced college campus bookstores the hardest with "only 41.8 percent of students planning to buy from those stores, a sharp decrease from 57.2 percent last year." This is obviously great news for the discounters like Wal-mart and Family Dollar who are likely to draw even greater flocks, but what does this mean for the online retailers?

Our generation is very internet-savvy and well aware of the potential savings and convenience of shopping online. Online retailers want some of this price-sensitive traffic so you'd better believe they're going to have their share of discounts although finding some may take a bit of digging.

Here's a sneaky little tip for finding the best discounts on Amazon. By adding a tiny piece of code (like this: "&pct-off=70-") to their search results urls you can easily and quickly narrow down items discounted by a certain percent or more. Our example would limit search results to items discounted 70% or more! Use the links below to jump right to discounts on the stuff you need.

Office & School Supplies: 10% Off 20% Off 30% Off 50% Off 70% Off 90% Off
Cell Phones: 10% Off 20% Off 30% Off 50% Off 70% Off 90% Off
Computers: 10% Off 20% Off 30% Off 50% Off 70% Off 90% Off
Laptop Notebooks: 10% Off 20% Off 30% Off 50% Off 70% Off 90% Off
DVDs: 10% Off 20% Off 30% Off 50% Off 70% Off 90% Off
Electronics: 10% Off 20% Off 30% Off 50% Off 70% Off 90% Off
Study Snacks: 10% Off 20% Off 30% Off 50% Off 70% Off 90% Off
Kitchen Appliances: 10% Off 20% Off 30% Off 50% Off 70% Off 90% Off
Dorm Decor: 10% Off 20% Off 30% Off 50% Off 70% Off 90% Off

*About the Survey
The NRF 2008 Back to School and Back to College Consumer Intentions and Actions Surveys were designed to gauge consumer behavior and shopping trends related to back to school spending and back to college spending. The surveys were conducted for NRF by BIGresearch. The poll of 8,361 consumers was conducted from July 1 -8, 2008. The consumer polls have a margin of error of plus or minus 1.0 percent. - NRF.com