About a third of K-12 students have already returned to class amid a fourth COVID-19 wave. While, earlier this year, analysts had predicted a very optimistic back-to-school (BTS) season for retailers and brands, not all is lost: Many parents still want to make school-related firsts and rites of passage as “normal” as possible for their children.
Regardless of how kids end up going back to class, we believe certain trends will remain:
1. Apparel and accessories are key categories.
According to many reports leading into the second-largest shopping season of the year, clothing will by far be the No. 1 category during BTS. Roughly 38% of the $32.5 billion BTS spending this year will be on clothing and accessories, according to Deloitte's June 2021 projections. Additionally, Sensormatic Solutions found that 70% of US internet users polled in June anticipated spending most on clothing while BTS shopping. The wild card: Nearly 40% said they expect to spend most on backpacks. However, this number may drop if parents wait to see what the fate of in-person learning will be for their kids.