As back-to-school shopping season begins and concerns about an economic downturn persist, parents say they plan to cut back on big expenses and focus on the necessities to prepare their children for the 2023-2024 school year.

According to Deloitte’s annual back-to-school survey report, now in its 16th year, parents expect to spend 10 percent less per child across the board on purchases like devices, clothes, and supplies.

On average, parents expect to spend $597 on each student, compared to $661 in 2022. That doesn’t mean spending will dip across all categories, however. Parents expect to lay out more money for school supplies, for instance, than they do on clothing and other goods.

Overall nationwide, retailers can expect to see back-to-school spending hit roughly $31.2 billion this season, a 9 percent decrease year-over-year, Deloitte’s data show. The research, conducted in May and June, was based on a survey of 1,212 parents of school-aged children.

The shift in consumer behavior comes at a time when prices remain inflated, with the cost of school supplies rising nearly 24 percent over the past two years, the report found. (New government data released this week showed that inflation appears to be lessening, with upward price pressures for many types of goods easing.)

At the same time, concerns over layoffs and a cooling labor market have spurred many households to trim expenses and monitor spending more closely. Out of the survey respondents, 31 percent said prolonged inflation worsened their financial situation in the past year.

“Inflation-weary parents see an opportunity with back-to-school to spend a little less this year,” said Stephen Rogers, executive director of Deloitte Services’ Consumer Industry Center and a co-author of the report.

Denim, No. Highlighters, Yes

After parents spent the past two back-to-school seasons buying tech products and apparel to prepare their students to return to post-pandemic, in-person classrooms, many are now refocusing on basic annual supplies. Parents said they plan to spend 14 percent less this year on clothing, and 13 percent less on tech items.

In comparison, they’re expecting to spend about 20 percent more on school supplies.

“Parents are delaying their purchases of denim and devices, and focusing really on traditional back-to-school categories like notebooks and highlighters,” Rogers said.

Inflation-weary parents see an opportunity with back-to-school to spend a little less this year.Stephen Rogers, Executive Director, Deloitte Services Consumer Industry Center

Spending on devices has also been impacted by the shifts in students’ tech needs during and after the pandemic, he added.

Parents may have sought out devices right as the pandemic hit, but once schools ramped up 1-to-1 programs and made devices more available, families’ need to buy students’ their own laptops and tablets decreased, said Rogers.

Families that did make big tech purchases in the past few years likely don’t need to stock up again as well, he said.

“You don’t necessarily need to replenish [tech devices] the same way you need to replenish a pencil,” he said.

Deloitte’s survey also dug into parents’ feelings about students’ use of devices ahead of the new school year. The survey found that nearly half of parents are concerned about their children’s mental health, and 36 percent said smartphones have complicated their children’s lives.

The concern indicates that parents’ — and potentially educators and school leaders — will be keeping a close eye on students’ use of devices and attempting to limit the time students spend using them this year.

“It’ll be interesting to see how parents navigate that,” Rogers said.

Social Pressure to Buy Tech

The survey found that 45 percent of parents would have preferred to delay their use of a smartphone, but parents are also grappling with students’ desire to fit in with their peers. Out of the respondents, 31 percent said societal pressures played a part in when children received their first smartphone.

Based on those results, parents may be interested in tools that could help them and their children navigate issues with tech use and overuse, he said.

As generative artificial intelligence tools, such as ChatGPT, take up an increasingly larger share of students’ tech use, the Deloitte survey also asked parents about their perspective on those technologies.

Overall, 15 percent of parents say their children are using generative AI in their schoolwork. Parents’ perception of the value of doing so, however, varies widely by generation.

Out of millennial parents who responded, 31 percent said they would agree that generative AI is a positive tool for academic performance and overall learning experiences, and 34 percent disagreed. In comparison, 22 percent of Generation X parents agreed that generative AI is a positive tool, with 36 percent disagreeing.

Baby boomers, perhaps unsurprisingly, are more skeptical of generative AI, with just 17 percent seeing it as a positive tool, and 44 percent disagreeing.

“It’s similar to the story around mobile technology and the introduction of cell phones,” Rogers said. “You get a bit of a split by generation about who says it a good thing versus who says it’s a bad thing.”

Image by Getty

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See also:

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