Top Retail Stores For College Students

Retail stores have finally caught on to the fact that college students are their tickets to current and future profits for their companies. College students are a much more tech-savvy generation than any generation that has come before them. More importantly, the college generation has more disposable income than other teenagers. This tech-savvy generation with disposable income has led the smart retailers to make college students their target market.

The National Retail Federation expects that college students will spend $36.6 billion on school supplies, books, and furniture for the 2006-2007 school year. This is almost a 6.5 percent increase in spending over last year. And of the college students shopping for back-to-school items this year 29 percent of them will do their shopping online.

And what exactly are college students shopping for in this back-to-school 2006 season? It seems that the main categories that are attractive to college students is furniture, electronics, and computers. This has led to the creation of entirely new websites that are directed toward college students. One of these sites is simplysearscollege.com. This site was created by Sears Holdings, which owns stores like Sears, Kmart, and Lands' End, and has product offerings that appeal specifically to college students. With the creation of this site Sears Holdings hopes to tap into the untapped market and untapped wallets of college students.

This site not only offers great products that fit the needs of college students, but it also offers informational articles about college life. For example, it features an article on how to avoid gaining the ill-fated freshmen 15. In a stroke of genius, the site couples the article with products that will help young college women to avoid gaining those extra 15 pounds their first year of college -- running shoes, a bicycle and an MP3 player. The other genius idea of this site is that it combines the products sold by the Sears Holdings companies - Lands' End, Kmart and Sears -- all on one site! So college students do not have to visit three different sites to get all of the products they need. They can shop on one site and it's really like shopping on three sites at the same time.

Walmart.com is another site that is extremely popular for college students. The site is focused on furnishing college dorm rooms and college student apartments. The products range from blankets and pillows to stereo systems and electronics. By arranging the site in a theme pattern directed at college students, walmart.com has increased sales by 40 percent over last year's sales.

The number one site for college students who are shopping for electronics is bestbuy.com. For the first time, Best Buy is featuring a back-to-college section. This first time move is in response to college student and parent needs for college student specific technology products. Best Buy also took this move a step further by having product demonstrations that were directed toward college students returning to or going off to college.

Retailers have finally realized that college students are big tickets for them and they are concentrating their efforts on winning their business. This is a win-win situation for all of the parties involved, from the stores themselves to college students and parents.

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