Online vs. In-Store for Back-to-School Shopping

Well it’s about that time of year again: back-to-school shopping. This means one thing, spending money and probably lots of it. Naturally, this is every parent’s nightmare and every kid’s favorite time of year.

With the internet becoming increasingly popular within the past few years, this means one thing for back-to-school shoppers: online shopping. This has clearly been a great choice for people since back-to-school online shopping has quadrupled since 2003.

Online shopping has its appeal, especially to those parents who are thinking about back-to-school shopping. Everything you need is found easily online, which makes comparison shopping a breeze, and everything can be purchased with just the click of a button. The best part? You don’t even need to get out of your pajamas or haul the kids all over town for an all day ordeal. This is a great option for full time students, professionals, stay-at-home moms and many others, since their busy schedule doesn’t allow for a lot of time to be wasted running from store to store when they could just do everything from home much faster.

Online shopping may be convenient, but is it saving you money?

Shopping online is quick and easy, but unfortunately it doesn’t mean that you are saving money. According to StellaService, it only took online back-to-school shoppers an average of ten minutes to get everything they needed, while it took in-store shoppers 30 minutes to get those same items, and that doesn’t even include travel time. On the other hand, those in-store shoppers save an average of $21 compared to online shoppers.

So which option is better?

If you are willing or able to pay more in exchange for convenience then online shopping is a great choice. However, if saving money is an important factor then you might want to bite the bullet and go out to nearby stores to do your shopping.

In the end, the best answer that we have for you is that it all depends on what you’re looking for. Is the most important factor for back-to-school shopping convenience or cost? When you decide upon that you will have your answer. Let us know your thoughts.

For tips on how to save money on back-to-school shopping click on this helpful link we found at Life Inc. here.

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