In one of the first forecasts for back-to-school retail spending in the United States, eMarketer has said that spending will be up 4 percent from 2016, noted Chainstoreage.com.
Total retail sales for the season will reach $858 billion, which is about 17 percent of annual retail sales.
Drilling down a bit, said the site, eCommerce for the season headed into September will be up roughly 15 percent to $74 billion. Spending is slated to stretch across several categories, including apparel, accessories, books and supplies.
The site quoted eMarketer senior analyst Yory Wurmser as stating that, “Ecommerce growth this year comes on top of a strong year in 2016, making it that much more impressive. Younger consumers that shop in preparation for going back to high school and college actually prefer shopping online, so eCommerce growth should continue for the foreseeable future.”
