This article appeared in MediaPost. Read it in full here.
Consumers are nervous about the economy, and this may put a damper on back-to-school spending, subscription renewals and other outlays, judging by a new study from Resonate: Back to School: Relearning Marketing Foundations to Thrive in Economic Uncertainty.
Of the consumers polled, 66.9% do not plan any back-to-school shopping at all. It’s not clear how this compares with past years. But most of the remaining 33% plan to limit their spending.
Of that group, 7.3% are budgeting between $100 and $199 for back-to-school, and 6.8% plan to spend from $200 to $299.
How do they plan to cope with rising prices?
- Reusing existing supplies or clothing — 12%
- Using more coupons or discount codes — 14.3%
- Shopping only during sales events — 14.2%
- Taking advantage of tax-free holidays — 9.4%
- Buying more generic/non-name brand products — 12.2%
- Buying more products in bulk — 7.4%
- Buying products online — 12.8%
- Buying more products at dollar stores — 10%
- Buying more products at second hand/thrift stores — 7.1%
- Don’t know/Other — 0.9%
- I do not plan on taking any specific actions — 2.3%
What are they buying? Mostly the essentials:
- Clothing and shoes: everyday wear — 21.8%
- Clothing and shoes: sports or extracurricular — 16.3%
- Personal items: backpack, lunchbox, water bottle, etc. — 19.3%
- School or office supplies: notebooks, pens, pencils, crayons — 23.2%
- Electronics: tablet, laptop, calculators, etc. — 9.3%
- Personal care: deodorant, hair care, etc. — 17.8%
- Extracurricular supplies: art supplies, musical instruments, robotics kits, etc. — 9.4%
Email marketers should take note and reflect these trends in their offers and creative.
The general economic picture is also troublesome. The number of consumers who worry about an economic slowdown has risen by 17.5% to 46%.
Almost 40% blame inflation on corporate price gouging, a 2% increase over the past three months.
Whatever the cause, 35.5% of consumers are spending less than they were six months ago.
Overall, 48% of consumers are buying cheaper store or alternative brands — up by 6% over the last three months.
Moreover, 36.2% are cutting out some non-essential purchases, a jump of 8.7% over the last three months. And 26.2% are buying fewer luxury items—that number has increased by 9% over the same period.
In addition, 48% are going out less, but that number has declined slightly from three months ago.
Consumers are also cancelling some or all subscriptions — 29% did so over the last three months, compared to 26.7% in the March period.
The data set for this report was created by rAI, the Resonate AI Data Engine.
