Parents Up Back-to-School Spending Despite Inflation’s Hard Lessons

A shaky economic landscape is no match for parents determined to discover back-to-school shopping bargains.

That’s according to research released this week by commercial real estate/investment management firm JLL, showing that parents are projected to increase their spending on back-to-school items by 15.7% over last year’s numbers.

“After moderating spending plans last year, parents have a different approach this year — spending more per child despite inflation concerns,” Naveen Jaggi, JLL’s president of retail advisory services, said in a news release.

“Our survey shows parents are investing in back-to-school essentials, and this is not only supporting their children’s educational journey, but also playing a crucial part in driving consumer spending.”

The JLL survey found that 55.2% of parents planned to budget more to deal with higher prices for the same number of goods purchased in 2022. Parents will still look for deals, the report said, with the increased spending suggesting resilience among consumers despite inflation.

Meanwhile, the survey shows that just under 70% of parents will look for bargains when they shop, although a decreasing number of parents said inflation will impact their purchases. And 24.1% of parents valued free shipping over cost when choosing where to buy online.

“This is understandable given that since the pandemic hit in 2020, the percentage of parents ordering online for their kid’s school supplies has soared over 21 points,” the release said.

The research is in keeping with figures released earlier this month from the Commerce Department, which showed American individuals and households increasing their spending in May, “seemingly shrugging off inflation and any concerns over carrying what amounts to $17 trillion in debt,” as PYMNTS wrote.

All the same, recent research by PYMNTS finds that concerns among consumers about economic conditions — both current and figure — are on the rise.

Compared to a January low of 28%, the number of consumers extremely concerned about current and near-future economic conditions has steadily risen, hitting 32% in May. This sentiment is intensifying as well, as the share of consumers very concerned has also gone up. during the same time period. That means the percentage of consumers who are only somewhat concerned about the economy is falling.

This sentiment shifting further toward concern could be at least partially driven by wage growth slowdown, even as prices keep creeping up. Proprietary research for the same report measures consumers’ change in income compared to costs — and the numbers aren’t pretty.

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