By Samuel Dangremond
The Daily Pennsylvanian
The back-to-school crunch will result in at least $36.6 billion spent by college students, but forget long lines at Target as you put the finishing touches on your dorm room. College students are spending their money online.
And they're a group Internet merchandisers are increasingly interested in targeting.
Students will spend those billions on products ranging from furniture to books to office supplies, and almost one third of them will make their purchases online, according to the National Retail Federation - a 6.3 percent increase from last year.
Retailers are responding by using more and more online forums to target college students.
Bed, Bath and Beyond, for instance, features a "Shop For College" tab on its Web site. Walmart.com has a "Back to College" section and ad campaign with the slogan "College Happens."
Wharton senior Sebastien Hutchinson said he bought his computer monitor off the Internet and frequently shops online for clothing.
"It makes life a lot easier," he said. "There's a bigger selection online."
College and Wharton sophomore Clay Lechleiter had never actually seen the mattress he purchased for his new room before it was delivered when he moved in two weeks ago.
Evan Saks, director of marketing for Dial-A-Mattress/1-800-Mattress - the company from which Lechleiter purchased his new bedding accessory - said the back-to-college rush offers them a significant business opportunity in a very narrow time frame.
During the back-to-college rush, Saks said, the percentage of mattress orders placed online spikes dramatically.
There is "definitely a willingness on the part of younger buyers to purchase through new e-commerce technology," Saks added.
Even the University is getting involved in the e-commerce phenomenon.
CampusExpress, for example, allows incoming students to purchase computers and textbooks online before they arrive on campus.
This year saw a 20 percent increase in online textbook orders compared to last year, according to Rhea Lewis, a spokeswoman for Penn Business Services.
She declined to provide specific sales figures.
And spending large sums of money online on products like mattresses and televisions is also a new phenomenon, he said.
"To be able to [spend hundreds of dollars] over the Internet and feel comfortable is definitely a younger phenomenon," Saks said.
For college students traveling long distances to get to school, online shopping simply makes more sense than lugging large items from home.
"A lot of people who are sitting in their homes in Phoenix, or Paris, France . they're using the Internet because they're so unfamiliar with the local landscape," he said.
