Back to school brings shoppers back to stores

From giant chains like Bed Bath and Beyond to one-store businesses like Giblings Footwear in Oakland, retailers have learned an important lesson about back-to-school shopping: More than any other sales season, it brings customers who might otherwise shop online into their stores.

If the shoe has to fit or the jeans have to win the approval of a fourth-grade fashionista, parents are more likely make those purchases in person rather than risk having to make multiple returns with online shopping.

“The folks who come to me, their time has value,” said Ken Wrisley, who has owned Giblings Footwear since 1986. “If they can get it right the first time and not have to try three or four times to get it right or mail packages back, that time cost is absorbed.”

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Laura Rumana, a Wayne resident, went to Wrisley’s store for the first time recently after having returned multiple pairs of shoes for her 6-year-old son, Tommy, to online shoe seller Zappos.

Wrisley measured Tommy and put him in a 5W sneaker. “That explains it,” his mom said, as Tommy practiced running and jumping in his new footwear. “I was ordering him 3.5 on Zappos.”

A chance to woo shoppers

The back-to-school shopping season is prime time for retailers to woo back online shoppers or to make a good impression that could lead to repeat customers, said Ken Perkins, president of the research firm Retail Metrics, Inc.

“It’s even more of an opportunity than Christmas,” Perkins said. In back-to-school shopping, “you really do want to get a feel for whether the stuff really fits and works with the kid,” he said.

“It is a big opportunity for retailers to get consumers into the store and provide them with good service,” Perkins said. “Hopefully it leaves a good feeling [that] will generate more visits.”

For neighborhood shoe stores like Giblings, and Ped-Agree in Wyckoff, the back-to-school season is the busiest time of the year. “This is our Christmas,” Wrisley said.

The country’s two leading retail organizations, the National Retail Federation and the International Council of Shopping Centers, are betting that this will be a profitable back-to-school season for many retailers.

The retail federation predicts back-to-school shoppers will spend a total of $83.6 billion this year.  And the international council found that 89 percent of parents plan to do that shopping in shop in malls and stores.

In consumer surveys conducted by both groups, shoppers also said they plan to spend significantly more than they did last year. But those surveys only mention intentions, and in past years back-to-school shoppers ended up spending far less than they predicted. Part of the reason for that in recent years has been deep discounting by retailers worried about slow sales in July and early August. However, retail analysts say that this year store inventory levels are tighter and retailers realize that many parents wait until Labor Day or even later in September to do the bulk of their shopping. So the discounts may not be as deep this year as in the past.

Consumers optimistic

Retailers are betting that customers will be willing to spend.

“Consumers have been in a much better position compared to the last several years,” said Ellen Davis, senior vice president of the National Retail Federation. “It makes sense that they’re willing to open their wallets a bit more”

Back-to-school is a key sales season for three national retail chains with headquarters in New Jersey – Secaucus-based The Children’s Place, Toys “R” Us, which has its corporate offices in Wayne, and Bed Bath & Beyond in Union.

Bed Bath and Beyond has campaigned over the past decade to own the back-to-college market, offering parents and students the ability to select sheets, towels and dorm room furnishings in their hometown store and pick up the merchandise at a Bed Bath in their college town. The company stocks their stores with dorm information sheets for over 1,400 colleges.

The effort has boosted sales during the back-to-school quarter to close to the volume done during the holiday months.

Executives at The Children’s Place consider back-to-school to be “our second most important shopping period of the year,” second only to Christmas, a company spokesperson said.

A feature of this year’s back-to-school merchandising is a “basic denim” promotion, with a wide assortment of denim jeans all priced at $7.99.

“Another very important category for us is graphic T-shirts and for this back-to-school we put a lot of emphasis on positive messaging and girl empowerment,” the company said.

Toys “R” Us sets up its back-to-school displays, with lunchboxes, backpacks, crayons, glue and other school supplies in late June. The back-to-school shops, located at the front of Toys “R” Us stores, remain in place into September.

“Over the last several years, we’ve actually seen a demand for backpacks and lunch boxes start as early as June for the little ones heading off to summer camp,” said Jamie Uitdenhowen, vice president and general manager for the company. “As we get closer to the start of the school year and into the first few weeks, that’s when we typically see a spike in traffic as parents begin stocking up on back to school essentials."

Cathie Mattei, who owns Ped-Agree Shoes with her sister, Luann Rush, are pretty confident that they will have a good back-to-school season this year -- largely because so many other neighborhood shoe stores with personalized service have closed.

Children’s shoe retailer Stride Rite has closed more than 180 stores this year, with more closings expected before the end of the year. Both Gibling’s and Ped-Agree have gained new customers this year as a result of the closing last summer of Richard’s Shoes in Wayne.

“I think we’re riding a wave right now,” Mattei said in the middle of a busy morning of selling water shoes, sneakers and a pair of black oxfords required as part of the uniform at the local Catholic school. “We’re doing better than we’ve ever done."