Mastercard SpendingPulse, which tracks spending across all payment forms including cash, forecasts that back-to-school spending will be up 7.5% from
Sales for the 2022 back-to-school season are expected to be 18.3% higher than the 2019 season, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse.
Inflation is helping to prop up back-to-school sales, and overall spending should be healthy despite surging prices on necessities like gas and food that are expected to put pressure on shoppers' spending, according to
“Back-to-school is the second biggest season for retailers and is often looked at as an early indicator of retail momentum ahead of the traditional holiday season,” said Sadove in a statement. Sadove noted that while he expects sales growth in all areas, retailers will need to find innovative ways to entice shoppers as spending on non-essentials potentially stretches thin as a result of increasing prices.
To make room for back-to-school items, retailers are marking down mounting inventory this summer, particularly in casual clothing and patio furniture that were in hot demand at the height of the pandemic. They're now are falling out of favor as shoppers shift to pre-pandemic routines. Stores are also raising prices on other items as they try to offset surging costs in fuel and labor.
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