The end of summer signals more than just a collective sigh of relief from many parents — it’s a vital period for the retail industry.
As families prepare to purchase school supplies, clothing and other necessities, brands and retailers must be ready to tackle this second-largest shopping season of the year.
Field Agent Canada, based in Calgary, Alta., leverages the power of crowdsourcing by utilizing shoppers’ smartphones. The company provides consumer packaged goods, retailers and agencies with valuable in-store photos, videos, retail data and insights into shopper behaviour.
The company conducted interviews with 517 parents with children starting kindergarten to Grade 12 in September. They released a report for the 2024-25 school year that offers insights into the shopping habits of Canadian parents, detailing what they buy and where they shop.
Field Agent offers an extensive reach, covering over 95 per cent of the population with more than 200,000 app users. Image: Submitted/Field Agent Canada
Jeff Doucette, the general manager of Field Agent Canada, reports that 43 per cent of parents plan to increase their spending this year compared to last. Additionally, 73 per cent of them indicate that inflation is influencing their purchasing decisions.
“We know that consumers’ budgets are tight and that people only have a limited amount of dollars in that payroll at the end of the week. Just because the prices of things are going up doesn’t mean that they can afford them,” said Doucette.
The survey revealed that Walmart, Dollarama, Costco, Shoppers and Real Canadian Superstore are their preferred in-store shopping destinations. Eighty-five per cent of these parents will opt for online shopping for back-to-school items, with Temu, Amazon, Walmart, Shoppers and Costco at the forefront.
Doucette attributes this shift to time management, noting that parents can now dedicate just 15 minutes to shop for essentials online rather than spending several hours in physical stores. This change has been further accelerated by the growth of e-commerce during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The growth of e-commerce has paralleled the surge in social media, with 72 per cent of parents on platforms like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok reporting that social media influencers have shaped their purchasing decisions for their children.
“Instagram is the platform for influencing back-to-school shopping decisions. When we dig into that it does seem like a platform shared between parents and kids, so it is easy for a kid to share something they want with their parents,” added Doucette.
He acknowledges that each school offers a unique lunch program, and with 92 per cent of parents opting to pack lunches, he prefers the lunch program for its diverse selection of hot meals rather than the monotony of the same lunch every day.
The full report can be found on Field Agent Canada’s website.