Back-to-school shopping is no longer one August trip. RetailMeNot’s 2026 survey shows nearly half of shoppers start by July, clothing has passed school supplies as the top category, and the worry has shifted from finding deals to managing the total. Here’s the full picture of when families are buying, what they’re prioritizing, and how to keep the season’s spending under control.
When does back-to-school shopping start?
Earlier than the calendar says. RetailMeNot’s 2026 survey of more than 1,000 U.S. adults found 46% of shoppers plan to begin by July. The season stopped waiting for August, and the people who start early are the ones who spread it out and skip the last-minute scramble.
Here’s when shoppers say they’ll begin:
| When they start | Share of shoppers |
| May or earlier | 10% |
| June | 12% |
| July | 24% |
| August | 25% |
| September | 8% |
| I shop year-round | 12% |
| Not sure yet | 10% |
Look at where the season actually falls. It builds through June and July, peaks in August, and keeps going after the bell rings. 8% of shoppers don’t start until September, buying for kids who are already three weeks into the school year, and another 12% never really stop. This is a season that runs in saves, no one weekend.
What are families most worried about this year?
The worry moved. People made peace with what any one thing costs. What gets them now is the total.
The clearest sign is in two numbers, asked the same way two years running. Concern about the cost of supplies dropped from 50% to 43%. Concern about staying on budget climbed from 29% to 37%. Nobody’s panicking over one glue stick anymore. They’re panicking over what forty of them plus shoes plus a backpack comes to at the register.
Here’s where every concern lands this year:
| Top concern | 2026 |
| Cost of supplies | 43% |
| Staying on budget | 37% |
| Clothing costs | 31% |
| Finding deals | 27% |
| Tariffs or rising prices | 24% |
| Items being out of stock | 23% |
| Time required to shop | 17% |
| Crowds | 14% |
| Shipping delays | 14% |
| Social pressure / trendy items | 11% |
Tariffs and rising prices made the list for nearly a quarter of shoppers. Retailers have been saying the same thing about their own costs all year. The stress is the total, not the sticker on any one thing. That shift, from worrying about the deal to worrying about the total, says a lot about how families shop now.
What are people actually buying?
Clothing, more than anything else. Clothing and shoes is the top category at 48%, ahead of school supplies at 43%. Everyone pictures back-to-school as pencils and folders. The money goes to the closet, and the closet is the thing kids outgrow by October.
The full category picture:
| Category | Planning to buy |
| Clothing & shoes | 48% |
| School supplies | 43% |
| Backpacks & accessories | 34% |
| Health & personal care | 25% |
| Electronics & tech | 23% |
| Organization & study tools | 23% |
Rounding out the list: lunch storage, tech tools for school, sports and extracurricular gear, sustainable products, and dorm essentials all landed between 8% and 19%.
Who are people shopping for?
Not just their kids. 19% of shoppers say they’re buying for themselves, the same share shopping for a grade schooler.
| Shopping for | Share of shoppers |
| Grade school students | 19% |
| Themselves | 19% |
| High school students | 13% |
| College students | 8% |
The self-shopper is real, and nobody talks about them. A new fall pulls people in even when there’s no kid on the list. The new planner, the desk reorg, the wardrobe refresh that has nothing to do with a syllabus. Back-to-school was never only about students. Some of us just never got over the feeling that September means a fresh start.
How much are families expecting to spend?
RetailMeNot’s survey found families expect to spend an average of $324 per grade school student, $454 per high school student, and $541 per college student this year. Against the survey’s 2025 figures, the K-12 averages went up and the college average came down about 10%.
The dollar figure isn’t the interesting part. What it tells you is where people’s heads are. They’re looking at the whole number, not the line items, and that’s exactly why they’re spreading it across the summer instead of swallowing it in one trip.
When should you buy what?
Think about back-to-school in three layers. Each one is a different reason to buy now or wait.
Day Ones
Day ones are what has to be ready for the first morning. The backpack, the supply list, shoes that fit, lunch gear, a few outfits. Buy these early and skip the scramble.
Wait-and-Sees
Wait-and-sees are the things you’ll need soon but can’t pin down yet. Which supplies actually run out. What they’ll really wear. What the teacher adds in week two. Wait a few weeks here and you stop buying the wrong thing twice. This is also when a lot of states run their tax-free weekends.
Wait-for-its
Wait-for-its are the things you know are coming but not for months. Jackets and hoodies are cheaper later and useless in August. A laptop is worth holding for your state’s tax-free weekend. Learning apps and subscriptions don’t hit their lowest prices until late August into September.
Clothing runs through all three. It’s the biggest category and the fastest to outgrow, so it’s the one thing you never buy all at once. Get what fits for the first morning, spread the rest across the season, and you stop paying full price for things they’ll outgrow before they wear them.
How do you actually save without just chasing discounts?
Know the real final price. The sale price is almost never the final number, because three kinds of savings can land on the same purchase:
1. A store sale:
The retailer’s own markdown, deepest during the big late-June and July events and again on key August weekends.
2. A tax-free weekend:
Many states drop sales tax on clothing, supplies, and sometimes electronics for a weekend in late July or early August. On something big like a laptop, skipping the tax is real money.
3. Cash back or a promo code:
It goes on top of the sale and the tax break, and it’s the layer most people leave on the table.
Most people grab one. The shoppers who use all three aren’t hunting for a single deal anymore. They’re watching the whole number come down. RetailMeNot works directly with merchants to provide active cash back offers and exclusive deals, so you can stack the savings in one place and shop with confidence all season.
The post Back-To-School Shopping 2026: By the Numbers appeared first on The Real Deal by RetailMeNot.
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