More Canadians looking for deals for back-to-school shopping: survey

With inflation weighing on the minds of many parents as school season approaches, a new survey by the Retail Council of Canada (RCC), in partnership with Caddle, found that more Canadians are taking a more cautious approach to back-to-school shopping this year.

"Canadians are mindful about what they are spending their money on. They are very careful, but when it comes to the necessities, they are still spending, just maybe a little less and in a more mindful way," Michelle Wasylyshen with RCC told CTV News Toronto.

The Back to School Shopping Survey this year asked: "Will you spend more or less than last year?"

Thirty-two per cent said more, 53 per cent the same, and 15 per cent said less.

Stationery is expected to be the top spending category at 60.8 per cent, which the RCC said was noteworthy since this product category did not make the list in 2022.

Following stationery in this category was clothing at 32.1 per cent, books and music at 23.4 per cent, and personal or home electronics at 18.2 per cent.

The survey also found that shoppers plan to defer purchases of higher-priced items.

Almost two-thirds of respondents said they plan to make a dedicated trip to purchase back-to-school items, whereas in 2022, only 32.7 per cent did.

Eighty-one per cent of Canadians will shop at brick-and-mortar retailers in their neighborhood instead of purchasing their items online. Compared to 2022, only 41 per cent of respondents opted to shop at brick-and-mortar stores.

The majority of Canadians who responded to the survey -- 73.6 per cent -- are planning to spend more than $50 on school supplies.

The survey notes that the number of people planning to spend less than $50 has increased by 3.4 per cent compared to last year, which indicates the tightening of purse strings due to the prevailing economic conditions.

As for where Canadians plan to shop, the survey found 62.3 per cent will be heading to big box retailers, followed by clothing stores at 32.1 per cent, department stores at 19.5 per cent and drug stores at 18.4 per cent.

Now that the supply chain has normalized, Wasylyshen said consumers intend to shop closer to the start of the school year. The survey found 15.7 per cent plan to make their purchases one week (or less) before school starts, which represents a shift from the last two years when more people shopped way in advance as many items were expected to be out of stock.

The countdown is on, as the first day of school is about three weeks away.

Survey methodology

The surveys were conducted in July 2023 using Caddle’s mobile platform and online panel amongst a representative randomized sample of n=9165 and n=9,848 Canadian adults. All data presented, owned by Caddle, has a margin of error of one per cent or lower.