The summer break may just be starting for many school children, but parents are already planning their budgets for the upcoming school year, according to a new report from PriceGrabber.

The survey suggests 46 percent of online shoppers plan to spend more for school supplies this fall than they did during the same timeframe last year. Comparatively, only 13 percent of respondents said they would spend more money in 2012, suggesting consumers are in a financially sound position right now. Meanwhile, approximately 35 percent plan to spend just as much money in 2012 as they did last year.

"In today's challenging economic climate, it's important for families and students to save on back-to-school items," explained Graham Jones, general manager of PriceGrabber. "Many consumers are harnessing the power of the internet to find deals, compare prices, set price alerts, print coupons and take advantage of online promotional codes and free shipping to save extra cash."

Retailers can encourage more consumers to come and buy back-to-school products by improving store operations. By staffing up and making deals more apparent, businesses may better meet the needs of these back-to-school shoppers.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Thursday, June 28th, 2012 at 10:03 am .