Popular back-to-school shopping product categories in Canada 2020

According to a back-to-school survey carried out in July 2020, food for packed lunches was the category which most Canadian mothers with children entering K-12 in 2020 were likely to purchase – some 92 percent of respondents were planning to food. Footwear and clothes were also among the most popular back-to-school shopping categories.

The back-to-school market in Canada

In the academic year 2017/18, there were over 4.85 million students enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools in Canada, creating a huge market for back-to-school supplies. Over two million of these students were enrolled in schools in Ontario.

Footwear in Canada

Total footwear sales in Canada were forecast to reach around 8.1 billion U.S. dollars by 2020, a projected increase of over three billion dollars over a ten-year period. As of December 2018, there were almost 3,000 shoe stores located across Canada to cater for parents’ back-to-school needs.