49% Of College Freshmen’s Parents Already Spending Generously On Back-To-School

While 34% of all parents have already begun their back-to-school shopping, one particular group of parents have been especially eager to splurge on their children before sending them away to school. Nearly half (49%) of parents of college-bound freshmen have started shopping, according to advertising platform Rubicon Project.

This demographic certainly isn’t holding back when it comes to supplying their children’s needs; they spend $1,378 per person, almost double the $684 average that K-12 parents plan to spend.

Indications overall seem strong for BTS spending: 61% of parents plan to spend more this year than they did in 2015, an average of $917 per child.

When it comes to how that money will be spent, the college-bound children’s parents intend to:

Spend an average of $470 on technology;
Spend an average of $324 on dorm room related materials; and
Help their child pay for college (60%).

Parents of freshmen are relying on mobile: 73% plan to shop on a mobile device, with 41% planning to do at least a quarter of their shopping on the device. This total significantly outpaces the K-12 counterparts, with only 25% seeking to shop on mobile that often.

The mobile frenzy among college-bound freshmen’s parents also extends to app usage: as many as 40% have at least three mobile shopping apps, compared to 27% of K-12 parents.

As these students pack up their bags and are themselves likely to use their mobile devices more often, 39% of their parents will reevaluate their family mobile plans, far more than the 24% of K-12 parents.

To conduct the survey, titled: Back-to-School Consumer Pulse, Rubicon Project interviewed 1,000 parents of children entering grades K-12 and 506 students entering their freshman year of college.

When it comes to purchasing technology such as laptops, tablets and mobile devices, the majority of parents (61%) throughout all demographics unsurprisingly prefer to shop at Amazon, making it the top tech shopping destination — just ahead of Walmart (60%). Walmart, however, still reigns supreme among parents when it comes to buying both apparel (66%) and school supplies (77%).