Consumers delay back-to-school shopping: survey

By Nicole Maestri

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. retailers have already shifted
into back-to-school mode, but shoppers are not quite ready to
fill their backpacks with supplies for the new school year, a
survey by market research firm The NPD Group found.

Consumers are expected to start shopping later this summer
for back-to-school items than they did last year, and they want
to spend about the same amount of money as they did in 2005,
the online survey of more than 34,000 shoppers.

“There are no must-have items” this season, said NPD chief
industry analyst Marshal Cohen of the survey’s results.
“Nothing is really incentivizing the consumer to say ‘I need to
start shopping now’.”

Children in previous years dragged their parents into
stores to load up on hot new items, like MP3 digital music
players but this year there are no new products to drive the
same kind of traffic, Cohen said.

“What’s different this year than last year? We’re in
exactly the same spot we were,” he said.

Last year, NPD said that 43 percent of back-to-school
shoppers had already begun shopping by August 1, and 51 percent
shopped between August 1 and September 1.

But this year, NPD’s survey found that 40 percent plan to
shop that early, while 56 percent expect to shop between August
1 and September 1.

NPD found that 21 percent of consumers plan to spend less
than they did in 2005, compared with 26 percent who responded
similarly last year.

Thirty-four percent said they plan to spend more this year,
compared with 33 percent in 2005, and 43 percent say they’ll
spend about the same amount, up from 41 percent in last year’s
survey.

“When you take the fact that there’s no rush to the store
and when you take the fact that the wallet is a little bit
skimpier than it was last year … I say we’re going to see
stability, we’re not going to see growth,” in sales, Cohen
said.

NPD expects merchants, like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target
to get the lion’s share of back-to-school purchases. NPD also
found that 27 percent of consumers expect to shop at department
stores — a 3 percent increase from the previous year. And more
consumers plan to shop for shoes at footwear retailers this
year than last year.

NPD said it collected information for its spending poll
between June 8 and July 5 using its online consumer panel.