Back to School $50 Prepaid VISA Gift Card Giveaway (Can)

Are you feeling the back to school stress yet? If you are, then you are not alone. Many Canadians share the same feeling during this hectic time of year. For myself, I definitely prefer online shopping vs in store shopping. I hate crowds and it’s almost an hour drive to our nearest Walmart. It ruins my whole day to have to go there because of all the travel and it’s always so busy!

I wanted to share with you the findings of study that VISA Canada recently conducted to find out about Canadians back to school spending.

Here’s some of their findings about back to school online shopping:

• Canadians plan on spending an average of $240 for online back-to-school purchases between now and Labour Day. Shoppers in the Maritimes are planning on spending the least online at $181, while Ontario shoppers are planning to spend the most at $259.

• Online and in-store shopping combined for Canadians is estimated to average at $403.89. Ontario residents are planning to spend the most, on average, at $447; British Columbians are planning on spending the least, at $362. Clothing (48%), travel (45%) and school supplies (41%) are the top three items which shoppers plan on purchasing online before Labour Day.

• Just over half (54%) of shoppers cite cheaper prices as the main reason for shopping online rather than shopping in-store. 93% of back-to-school shoppers look for sales and special offers when shopping for back-to-school items.

• On average, 73% of purchases online will be from Canadian retailers.

•  Almost half (49%) of back-to-school shoppers plan on making at least two online purchases prior to Labour Day. The average number of purchases for Canadians doing online shopping is four separate items.

• Males are more likely to shop online for back-to-school, with an average spend of $280, compared to $196 on average for females. In total, males plan on spending an average of $451 on back-to-school shopping this year, compared to $353 for females.

• Most shoppers begin back-to-school shopping in August – with 34% starting in the first two weeks, and 28% starting in the last two weeks. Only 4% of students begin back-to-school shopping in June. Many advise that starting early (45%) is the best suggestion for making back-to-school shopping stress-free, and online shopping is the second most popular suggestion, at 27%.

Here are the study findings about back to school in store shopping:

• Back-to-school shoppers cite two main reasons why they dislike in-store purchasing – crowds and expense (58% combined)

• 85% of back-to-school purchases in-store will be from Canadian retailers. Just over half of Canadians (53%) plan on purchasing 100% of their in-store purchases from Canadian retailers. 43% of females point to lack of accessibility (store not available in my area) as a key driver for shopping in the U.S., compared to 31% of males.

And finally, some info on Canadian shopping trends:

• 50% of back-to-school shopping is done by mom, and 38% is done with parents and children together.

• The average number of purchases Canadians intend to make before going back to school this Labour Day is 8.2. Younger shoppers plan on buying more items, with 18-24 year olds averaging nine separate items, compared to seven items for those aged 55-64.

• Clothing is considered the most important item when shopping for back-to-school (43%), while books (24%), pens and pencils (17%), and computers and computer-related items (17%) are considered less important to shoppers.

Note: For the Visa survey, conducted by Pollara, a total of 1,459 online shoppers were surveyed online between July 18-22, 2011. In order to qualify for this, survey respondents had to be 18yrs+, reside in Canada and have purchased something over the internet in the past 6 months. An unweighted probability sample of this size, with 100 per cent response rate, would have an estimated margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Margin of error for subgroups will be large.

Giveaway

One lucky Canadian reader is going to win a $50 Prepaid VISA Gift Card to help with your back to school shopping! The gift cards can be used at any retail outlet that accepts VISA payments including VISA’s deal website visaperks.ca. At visaperks.ca you can get discounts on all your back to school essentials like new shoes from SoftMoc, some fall fresh fashions from Gap Kids and school supplies from Scholar’s Choice.



Check out the list of all my current giveaways!

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*I received a VISA Gift Card as compensation for this post. This giveaway is not related to Facebook in any way. The opinions are based only on my experiences.*