Study: Deals drive back to school shoppers

When it comes to choosing where to buy pencils, jeans and backpacks for back to school parents are most likely to be influenced by retailers' offers. That's the takeaway from a new Retale study which indicates most (89%) of parents decide where to shop based on the deals offered on mobile devices.

by Kristina Knight

"Smartphones have increasingly become the go-to shopping tool for parents to research, plan and organize their back-to-school purchases," says Pat Dermody, president of Retale. "Retailers need to keep up with mobile's rise in consumer shopping behavior, incorporating in-store and digital mobile content to drive visits and purchases. If they don't, parents will simply shop elsewhere."

Researchers found about three-quarters (78%) of parents say they'll use a mobile device for back to school shopping with more than half using mobile to compare prices (63%), look for coupons or deals (62%) or to create shopping lists (55%). When it comes to making lists, by the way, nearly half say they make lists out of the store (49%) and only 20% do so while in-store. Interestingly, one-third say they make lists both in and out of stores.

Other interesting findings from the report include:

• Most parents say they'll do 70% of back to school shopping in stores
• 32% say they prefer to access store deals via the store's app
• 24% say they prefer to access deals via aggregator or dedicated free app
• 23% want to access deals via a product website
• 20% want access to deals/coupons via retailer's text messaging

Image via Shutterstock

Tags: back to school shopping, ecommerce, ecommerce trends, mobile commerce, retail trends, Retale