Back-to-school time represents one of the busiest shopping times of the year, and the electronic device sector is no exception. Customers with children in the United States in K-12 will spend about $8.27 billion in total on electronics, according to a report from Prosper Insights. In the UK, families are anticipated to spend £1.2 billion ($1.5 billion) on devices, from calculators to computers.
Per family, parents plan to spend an average of £397 ($524) on technology in the UK, more than triple last year’s figures of £135.
The pattern extends to higher education, too. Americans plan to spend $204 dollars on average on back-to-college electronics in 2016, a number slightly down from last year and down from 2014, and $673 on back-to-school spending in general.
In a 2016 survey from Prosper Insights & Analytics, 20 percent of respondents said that college class requirements influence 50 to 75 percent of their electronics purchases.
Most of that shopping is done online, with 57 percent of K-12 families in the US going to discount department stores. Online stores were fifth on the list, at 35 percent.
Those gadgets can include laptops, mobile phones, tablets, and more. While many schools ban the use of personal cell phones, others incorporate their use into the classroom. As the second-largest seasonal shopping period of the year, back to school is an economic powerhouse influenced by both the products on the market and their advertising, including sales or promotions and inclusion on back-to-school lists.
