Back To School Retail & Shopping Report Highlights: Part Two

Ok, part two of the highlights from our recently released 2008 Back to School Retail & Shopping report. To follow up and clarify a key point made in yesterday's post regarding general attitudes from would be shoppers let me say this...yes, without a doubt there will be a measurable decrease compared to previous years in terms of overall spending, but that's not to say the market is sitting on the sidelines completely, they're still shopping just spending less or in some cases deferring purchases (or ideally, hoping those planned purchases come to them instead in the form of a gift from Mom or Dad or another relative). So, what are the hot or "must have" products this season? Let's start with consumer electronics and technology-related devices. In our latest waves of Youth Trends Lifestyle along with additional validation from the BTS report, we see a modest number of respondents who have plans to purchase a digital camera, about 14% in total (22% of females). Models from Casio and Canon received the most mentions on an un-aided basis. Following digital cameras, about one in ten respondents (12%) plan on purchasing a new portable digital media player, almost all say they plan on purchasing some sort of iPod model. The iPod Touch, followed by the Classic received the most mentions. Finally, about one in ten respondents (9%) said they plan on purchasing a new computer for back to school. The overwhelming majority of those respondents (84%) said they plan on purchasing a laptop computer, no real surprise there. The laptop brand and model of choice for the third straight year is Apple's MacBook. Apple has a nice little back to school promo going on right now for students interested in purchasing MacBooks. Smartphones and multimedia phones remain a hot commodity for the audience. However, since the vast majority of youth are part of family share plans there ability to upgrade and/or change carriers to acquire a new device is somewhat limited. The new iPhone 3G is without a doubt the most coveted mobile phone followed by LG's enV, the BlackBerry Curve and the BlackBerry Pearl. Based on the current growth rate, we expect that 32% to 35% of all teens and college students will own a smartphone or multimedia phone by year's end. On the fashion and footwear front, it looks like we are headed back into the preppie casual look once again. Bright knit tops and skirts for the girls and polos and vnecks for the guys seem to be garnering a lot more attention than all those graphic t's and hoodies we saw previously. The preppie retailer du jour is J. Crew, which over the past year and half has made a strong comeback with the college audience in particular and we now expect them to do well with teen consumers as well. If Mom and Dad are throwing down the plastic, female shoppers would snap up as many pairs of Tory Burch flats as they can, but in reality, it's more of an aspirational buy. The much talked about release of Under Armour's new trainers haven't made a dent with the market yet, they're still fixed on Nike. The ultimate brand accessory of choice for back to school for college females, and again this is more of an aspirational measure than anything else are the new handbags from Burberry. I'll wrap up the highlights posts tomorrow with a final tally of the numbers and comparisons to recent years.