(NBC News) – The average household spending for back to school is hitting record heights, with a big chunk of that going towards tech.
According to the National Retail Federation, consumers are going to spend about $1,673 on back-to-school items this year, which is about a three percent increase from 2018.
When you break it down, that’s almost $700 on average for K-12 and nearly $1,000 for back to college.
But forget the pencils and notebooks, electronics will be the big budget buster this year.
According to Deloitte, there will be a 29 percent increase in spending on back-to-school gadgets. The retail services company expects parents to shell out a record $3.6 billion on technology, like smartphones, wearables and data plans. Household spending on those particular items is expected to beat computers for the first time ever.
Meanwhile, retailers are racing to lure in shoppers with early campaigns.
Amazon got ahead the competition this year, by starting to launch storefronts in mid-June.
“Because of Prime Day, the back-to-school season started to shift earlier and earlier,” said Amazon spokesperson Julie Law.
Over the 48-hour sale this week, Amazon said it topped more than 100,000 purchases for both lunchboxes and laptops.
“Almost 50 percent of people [are] saying that they are shopping based on promotions,” said Mark Matthews with the National Retail Federation.
Those deals are driving the back-to-school creep, and pushing 44 percent of parents to start shopping sooner.
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