Tuesday, August 16, 2022

Back-to-School Shopping Trends

 Will back-to-school shopping break the bank this year?

Jungle Scout examined the effects of inflation on online back-to-school shopping, and here are a few insights we found:

Back-to-school searches on Amazon have declined in 2022
  • Back to school supplies: up 316% in the past 30 days (Jul 1 – Jul 31, 2022), a decrease from July 2021 (up 1006%)

  • Back to school: up 270% from Jul 1 – Jul 31, 2022. However, this is a decrease from the same time period in 2021 (up 739%)

  • More search volume trends here 

Online spending on school supplies is trending down for 2022
  • According to Jungle Scout’s Q2 Consumer Trends Report, around 38% of consumers say their household income is unstable, and more than half (52%) say they only buy products that are on sale.

  • Buying in bulk is also one of the ways that consumers are trying to beat inflation this back-to-school season. Best-selling products purchased in bulk include:  

    • Crayola Classic Color Pack Crayons (Pack of 4) has seen an 833% revenue increase 

    • Mead Spiral Notebooks (Pack of 18) has seen a 138% revenue increase

    • Two Tone Backpacks (Pack of 24) has seen a 7,216% revenue increase
Inflation is affecting school supplies, too
  • The cost of essentials like backpacks has gone up 10% on Amazon, and lunch boxes have seen an 8% percent increase. The same goes for back-to-school kits, which have increased by 16%.
Categories showing negative growth
  • Category revenue for kids’ lunch boxes is down 36%, and unit sales are down 31% in June-July 2022 versus the same period in 2021.

  • Revenue for pencil cases is down 20%, and unit sales are down 11% in 2022.

Categories showing positive growth
  • The appeal of one-stop shopping can be seen with the rise in popularity of back-to-school kits. Revenue for this category is up 136%, and sales units have seen a 115% increase.

  • Revenue for notebooks is up 24%, and unit sales are up 23% year over year

  • Unit sales of backpacks are up 6%, and revenue is up 15% year over year, despite a 10% category cost increase this year.

Jungle Scout’s full report on back-to-school trends for 2022 can be found here. 

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