Customer Segmentation Examples for Back-to-School 2025

In $33B Market, Meijer Tracks Trends for Shopping Earlier & In-Store

New back-to-school shopping trends for 2025 buck expectations, as certain consumer groups prefer to shop earlier and in-store, instead of online procrastination. In 2023, we explored “Customer Segmentation Examples for Back-to-School,” which focused on three different segments of moms: public school, private school and homeschool. This year, we’re highlighting families by generation and income level.

Customer Segmentation Examples: Back-to-School Spending Gets a Boost

Before detailing our customer segmentation examples, let’s get an understanding of overall back-to-school spending expectations for 2025. Coresight Research US Back-to-School 2025 reports growth in spending this year.

Considering the slowing US birth rate, there may be fewer students now than previously, which could explain a higher growth rate for per-student spending compared to overall market growth. The most recent enrollment data is from 2021, which does show a decrease from enrollment highs in 2017.

To learn how parents are spending their back-to-school budgets, we turn to more recent research. Between May 6 and May 8, 2025, Big Four accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) surveyed 1,198 parents. Results were published in the PwC 2025 Back-to-School Survey.

Most parents expect some difficulties from tariffs and inflation, including price increases and product shortages. PwC shares how parents plan to work around the challenges:

Customer Segmentation Examples:
Buy Earlier Trends & Challenges

Back-to-school research from the National Retail Federation (NRF) shows that consumers want to buy earlier but are limited by when schools release supply lists.

55% start back-to-school shopping by early July, although 42% don’t expect to receive their school lists by end of July (a mere 13% had already received school lists).

Two common back-to-school customer segmentation examples are Back-to-K-12 and Back-to-College. In this case, the segments shop on a remarkably similar timeline:

Reasons for shopping early aren’t just to avoid procrastination:

• 65% wish to “spread out their shopping budget”
• 47% claim “prices and promotions are too good to pass up”

As a school shopping mom myself, I would add that shopping early guarantees items will be in-stock. In recent years, retail stores often don’t re-stock popular items during the back-to-school shopping season, like white uniform shirts or red folders.

In 2025, early shopping starts even earlier, with 26% of consumers starting their back-to-school shopping by June (compared to 22% in 2024). Many of these consumers claim that tariff concerns drive this extra-early shopping.

Customer Segmentation Examples:
In-Store Shopping On the Rise with Two Important Segments

Gen Z and lower-income parents are driving a push back to in-person shopping for back-to-school. PwC breaks down shopping by generation:

• Boomer: 54% hybrid in-store and online, 30% in-store only
• Gen X: 73% hybrid
• Millennial: 71% hybrid
• Gen Z: 57% hybrid, 27% in-store only

Boomers and Gen Z are more likely than others to complete all back-to-school shopping in-store, although hybrid shopping is the most popular choice across generations.

Gen Z is only now growing old enough to have school-aged children. In 2025, this cohort is aged 13-28, so many of them are still in school themselves. As they grow up and start families, their shopping behavior will become increasingly important for back-to-school.

Shopping preferences by income gap show that higher-income families are more likely to choose exclusive online shopping compared to lower-income families. Conversely, lower-income households are more likely to choose exclusive in-store shopping.

• Exclusively Online: 14% of households earning $75k+ vs. 8% of households earning less than $75k
• Exclusively In-Store: 17% of households earning $75k+ vs. 30% of households earning less than the median income

Insight to Action covered in-store shopping trends in “8 Brand Strategy Examples Fueling Growth with Bricks-and-Mortar.” In another growth strategy marketing article, we confirm that Millennial and Gen Z consumers are increasingly lured by in-store shopping. These customer segmentation examples are growing to appreciate the in-store experience for several reasons:

• Getting to touch the merchandise and know exactly what they’re buying
• Trying on clothes before buying them
• The convenience of taking their purchases home right away
• The experience of shopping in a well-designed environment

Back-to-school in-store shopping could be a growth area for retail brands that get it right. Curating a well-designed shopping experience that has all the items a family needs will earn loyalty. Currently, the expected big-box in-store shopping experience is a hectic environment, with no help from retail staff and items that are out-of-stock if consumers don’t shop early enough in the season.

Meijer Appeals to Back-to-School Customer Segmentation Examples

Meijer is on its way to achieving a better in-store back-to-school shopping experience for these customer segmentation examples. In the back-to-school section, the aisles are well-organized and spacious, giving families plenty of options and room to navigate. I’ve found the shopper still needs to shop early for the best selection.

Online, the regional big box retailer is also hearkening back to days gone by, when office supply stores would stock shelves based on local school supply lists. With its School Supply List feature, parents can shop by ZIP code. When I entered my ZIP, a fairly comprehensive selection of public and private schools in my area appeared. Somehow, Meijer is accessing school supply lists before the end-of-July deadline that parents have come to expect. Early shoppers will appreciate the convenience.

Insight to Action tracks back-to-school trends for retailers. Our 2024 emphasis was on technology brand strategy examples from Lenovo, Apple and Texas Instruments. Our Brand Strategy Template for Back-to-School gets to the basics of what brands need to know about this growing market. Contact us for personalized research and recommendations.