850% rise in visits to school supplies: savvy shoppers save £100 by comparing online

Average 2010 basket of kit rises to £195, but hot deals online for just £94

UK consumers are shopping for back to school kit already, as rising prices make comparing the best deals essential, reveals Twenga, the next generation search engine. Visits to www.twenga.co.uk for calculators are up 850%, academic diaries are up 455% and school bags are up 307%, with a month to go before term starts.

Twenga research* shows that the average basket of school supplies costs £195 this year, 30% more than in 2009. But the average bargain basket is over £100 cheaper, at £94. Consumers can make huge savings by comparing online for the best deal.

Visits from 2^nd July to 1^st August 2010, compared with same period a month before

*Twenga’s school supplies research

On 21^st June, Twenga released its annual school supplies price study. It showed that a standard basket of school supplies costs £195 in 2010, compared to £153 in 2009, a dramatic rise of 30% during a time of shrinking household budgets.

The study was based on a basket of 16 standard supplies such as pencils, pens, erasers, notebooks, etc. It analysed the price of 181,446 back to school products for pupils in the UK, France and Germany and it shows:

• - a regular price of £195 – this is an average price, technically the median price – which rose by 28% since 2009.
• - a bargain price of £94 – this is the price of the bottom 25% of products, technically the first quartile figure – which rose by 29% from the 2009 price.

The marked difference between the average price and the bargain price shows that UK consumers should search carefully for the best deal before next term.

British prices are far higher than on the continent: in Germany the regular price is £130 and in France it costs just £99.