Hello foss-ga,
As the mother of an elementary student and the daughter of a teacher I
find this a very interesting question. It's a fairly broad one, but
I'll try to provide as much information as I can and point you to more
resources for even further information.
Just in time for your question, a new report issued by Quality
Education Data, Inc. title "Teacher Buying Behavior and Attitudes" was
presented at the recent Association of Education Publishers meeting in
Washington, DC. The report focuses on K-8 public school teachers.
A brief overview of some of the findings from that report is available
on the Web site of the National School Supply and Equipment
Association (NSSEA).
"The report found that:
Each year K-8 teachers spend over a billion dollars of their own money
on classroom materials.
They spend another $700 million of discretionary funds given to them
by their school and/or district.
Teachers who spend more than the average were in schools with 50%_
Hispanic students, poor schools, and those in the Western U.S.
The typical new K-8 teacher spends $701.
Each year, the typical K-8 teacher spends $520 out of their own
pocket."
The entire report, including information on how elementary teachers
research products, how they prefer to purchase and pay for products,
and the demographics of information and ordering venues is available
for purchase from QED:
http://www.qeddata.com/pubs_Buyingbehaviors.htm
QED also offers a nice variety of free market research brochures
covering such things as School Market 101, 10 Innovative Direct Mail
Production Ideas for Education Marketers, and Key Accounts Report (Top
223 U.S. School Districts):
http://www.qeddata.com/freemarket_order.htm
The NSSEA offers a good selection of market research publications for
purchase (scroll down the order form page to find descriptions):
http://www.nssea.org/content/IndustryResearchandPublications/OrderForm/pubform.pdf
The trend seems to be moving toward Web-based school purchasing
systems because they "eliminate much or all of the paperwork in this
process, enhance the purchasing director's ability to cost-effectively
see related items being purchased, cut through inefficiencies and red
tape, and help purchasers obtain better prices than the typically high
ones that accompany smaller orders. Typically, schools need only an
Internet browser and no additional software of any kind. When a school
district signs up, the service provides a list of their currently
approved vendors, and the service may approache additional desired
vendors to provide their products online. Web-based procurement
services facilitate a school purchaser's ability to combine purchases
with those of other districts in their region or across the country in
order to realize volume discounts."
From "The Internet Hosts Online Players in School
Purchasing...Industry Peers or Potential Peril for Your Business?" an
article from NSSEA:
http://www.nssea.org/content/EdTech/ArticlesandResources/InternetHosts.htm
One of the players in the Web procurement field is eSchoolMall, an
Internet procurement system which allows schools to purchase all of
their supplies and equipment from their preferred vendors in one
location through eSchoolMall.
http://eschoolmall.com/
According to this press release, eschoolmall offers a 15,000-name
vendor directory for its school customers that buy goods and services
online.
http://www.eschoolmall.com/large_list.asp
Here's another Web procurement site with a collection of 1200+ school
supply vendors.
http://www.schoolcatalogs.net/
I've located a number of statistics on sales in the retail industry,
but they don't distinguish elementary vs. high school, or
catalog/Internet vs. retail. I've included this one here in case you
may find it useful, however.
According to the "Markets and Opportunities" report from
Eduventures.com, Inc., education industry revenues were $95.8 billion
in 1999, increasing 11% over 1998 figures. The report also says that
"K-12 education ... is fueled by $350 billion in government
expenditures annually."
(Eduventures.com requires a subscription to access a lot of their
content)
http://www.eduventures.com/research/industry_research_resources/MO_2002.cfm
I spoke with my mother and two friends of mine who are in education
and they all concur that catalog/Internet is the preferred method of
shopping for supplies. The primary reason is that school use purchase
orders for most purchases and unless the school district has an
account with a store, they don't accept purchase orders. There are a
number of teacher stores with retail outlets, but most of them also
sell products via catalog. Teachers primarily use these stores to
purchase small-ticket items that are needed quickly, otherwise they
can often find better deals elsewhere. Many also report shopping in
the stores for ideas/hands on, and then going elsewhere for a better
price.
On the flip side, TeacherStores.com, an association of 1,000+ NSEEA
member stores report "Over 93% of teacher customers prefer to shop in
a retail store rather than by catalog or online. Nothing beats the
ability to handle and examine a product in person."
http://www.teacherstores.com/content/WhyShopatParentTeacherStores/WhyShop.htm
Scholastic is one of the largest suppliers of education products, if
not the largest. They sell products via retail stores, catalog, and
Internet.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/
From their Web site: "Scholastic is a $2 billion multimedia company
with 10,000 employees operating globally in education, entertainment
and publishing businesses marketing to children, parents and
teachers."
Since they are a multimedia company and generate a lot of revenue
through publishing and other ventures, it is next to impossible to
sort out how much of their earnings come through catalog sales. Here
is a link to the Earnings Statement section of their Web site:
http://www.scholastic.com/aboutscholastic/investor/01-02/q3sop.htm
Lakeshore Learning is another big school supply vendor who sells via
catalog, Internet and retail stores.
http://www.lakeshorelearning.com
From their Web site:
"Lakeshore began as a single toy store in the 1950s…and we haven’t
stopped growing since! Today Lakeshore is a multimillion-dollar
company with a growing network of retail stores and a successful
mail-order business that serves teachers, parents and children all
over the globe. Lakeshore offers a wide variety of top-quality
educational products, from furniture and art materials to puzzles,
hands-on learning kits…even products that focus on multiculturalism
and special needs."
Another large school supply vendor:
Discount School Supply
http://www.earlychildhood.com/Store/
Here's a link to the annual report of their parent company
LearningStar Corp:
http://biz.yahoo.com/e/020329/lrns.html
Delta Education
http://www.delta-education.com
If you are interested in more research on how to start your business,
the NSSEA site offers some helpful tips for selling educational
technology products via:
Retail Stores
http://www.nssea.org/content/EdTech/ArticlesandResources/TeacherStore.htm
Catalog
http://www.nssea.org/content/EdTech/ArticlesandResources/Catalogers.htm
And here is a wonderful article on how to start your own teacher
store:
"Who, What, and Why? A Portrait of Successful Retail Start-ups in the
School Market"
The article profiles the characteristics of a typical retail store
including:
"Typical annual sales are $594,944, rising to $700,000 with a
catalog."
"Typically two or fewer education product stores operate in the same
market. Most customers travel from 5-20 miles."
http://www.teacherstores.com/content/StartYourOwnTeacherStore/StartYourOwn.htm
The Teacher Store Web site also offers a search engine for NSSEA
member catalog retailers:
http://www.teacherstores.com/IntTemplate.cfm?CatalogSearch=1
And you can do a Store search from their home page:
http://www.teacherstores.com/
I'm unable right now to find statistics on the number of catalog
suppliers versus retail suppliers or their annual sales, but I will
keep looking and post as a clarification to this answer if I find
something. I'm not sure that research has ever been done in this area.
It's probably too hard to sort out, since a large number of the
companies who operate retail stores also sell via catalog and/or the
Internet. Some of the sales numbers are available in the market
research reports I linked to above (some of which you will need to
purchase or become a member of the organization to obtain).
Search Terms Used:
elementary school supply retailers
school market research
school supply vendors
education industry
education retail sales
education retail sales figures
teacher stores
"teacher stores" annual sales
I hope this helps to answer your questions. If you need further help
or clarification, please ask!
inquisitive-ga |
