Discounters get high marks in BTS, but miss the bus on home office - back-to-school - The DSN Productivity Report

Discount Store News, August 5, 1996

Discounters have yet to make the most of the stationery category, a $5.3 billion industry that grew 18% last year. Parents love the mass market for Back-to-School supplies, but chose other venues like drugstores for out-of-season school supply shopping and increasingly opt for specialty office supply stores for the explosive home office needs category.

Back-to-School, despite a slow start, turned out to be a healthy category, producing at least moderate gains in the 1995 season.

The School and Home Office Products Association is optimistic about increasingly profitable Back-to-School seasons in the future. Its consumer research foresees the rise of the child population (up 1% per year after the decline of the 1970s and early 1980s) as having a meaningful impact on the fall seasonal supplies category.

More aggressively displayed licensed goods are on their way, with Goosebumps, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and professional sports licensed goods taking the spotlight in the near term, and the 101 Dalmations property likely to have a big presence in the upcoming months.

Corporate licenses, just in their infancy, are ready to grow rapidly, including properties such as the Coca-Cola polar bears, which will be prominently displayed on binders, portfolios and folders.

Innovative designs, textures and construction are also cropping up in the BTS category, such as binders that feel like the surfaces of footballs or basketballs.

Day planners for children, girls especially, will come onto the shelves with force. But the category still remains an untapped market.

Office supplies is the other reliable winner in the category. From ergonomic pens, chair pads and computer screens to computer papers designed for all the different small office/home office functions, the office category is big and growing bigger.

           Stationery
          Productivity