Spanish families bring forward back-to-school preparations and concentrate their purchases in July and August
Some 61.9% of back-to-school campaign orders were placed in July and August 2025, compared with 58.4% in 2022. Stikets expects the final week of August to see the highest volume of purchases in 2026.
· 5 min read
Spanish families are preparing for the return to school increasingly further in advance. Data from The Stikets Company, covering the evolution of orders placed between July and October in 2022 and 2025, shows that the summer months have gained weight within the back-to-school campaign. In 2025, July and August accounted for 61.9% of orders, compared with 58.4% four years earlier.
The trend reflects a gradual change in household planning. Increasingly, families are trying to have a large part of their shopping sorted by the start of term and are reducing the number of decisions left until the first days of September.
July and August gain prominence over September
The shift in the shopping calendar is particularly apparent in the evolution of July and September. In 2022, July accounted for 15.3% of back-to-school campaign orders. In 2025, its share rose to 17.4%, representing an increase of two percentage points.
August remains the month with the highest volume of purchases and has also slightly strengthened its position. Its share rose from 43.1% in 2022 to 44.5% in 2025. As a result, the two summer months together accounted for almost two out of every three orders in the campaign analysed.
By contrast, September lost prominence. The month went from accounting for 34.8% of orders in 2022 to 32% in 2025, a fall of 2.8 percentage points. October retained a residual share and declined slightly, from 6.8% to 6.1% over the same period.
The trend is significant because the start of the school year was not brought forward over those four years. In 2022, most autonomous communities began Infant and Primary classes between 5 and 8 September. In 2025, the majority window fell between 8 and 10 September. In other words, families started shopping earlier even though the school calendar remained stable or was delayed slightly.
Fewer last-minute purchases
The data analysed by Stikets point to a sustained trend, rather than one-off behaviour in a single campaign. Since 2022, the combined share of July and August has increased progressively, while September and October have gradually become less significant.
Among the possible reasons for bringing purchases forward, the company highlights the desire to avoid last-minute stress, take advantage of summer promotions and have products ready before the start of classes. In the case of personalised items, the need to allow sufficient time for production and delivery before the return to school may also be a factor.
Stephanie Marko, CEO of Stikets, explains that families are seeking to organise their new-school-year shopping further in advance and avoid concentrating all the preparations in the days before returning to the classroom.
The final week of August will be the key period in 2026
The forecast for the 2026 campaign maintains the trend towards earlier shopping and identifies August as the main month for preparing for the return to school. The observed trend in previous years is accompanied by the 2026–27 school calendar, which is scheduled to begin between 7 and 10 September in most autonomous communities.
Specifically, classes will begin on 7 September in the Community of Madrid and on 8 September in Catalonia. According to the purchasing pattern observed by Stikets, most orders are placed between seven and 10 days before the start of classes.
On that basis, the company expects the weekly peak in orders in 2026 to fall between 24 and 30 August, during the final full week of the month. The forecast confirms August as the central point in preparations for the return to school.
Purchases of personalised products increase
Bringing purchases forward is not the only change detected. Stikets’ data also show increased demand for personalised products for the new school year. Over the past four years, sales of personalised children’s lunch boxes rose by 77%.
Within this category, lunch boxes with compartments stand out in particular, as they facilitate Baby-Led Weaning, according to information provided by the company. Sales of personalised backpacks and pencil cases also increased, by more than 30% compared with 2023.
The personalised stationery and arts-and-crafts category also recorded positive growth, rising by 19% over the same period. Taken together, these figures show that families are not only looking to identify school items after buying them, but are increasingly choosing to purchase them personalised from the start of the school year.
Personalisation is thus becoming part of back-to-school planning alongside more usual purchases. The aim is to have backpacks, pencil cases, lunch boxes and other products identified for each child from the first day, as part of preparations that begin earlier and are increasingly spread across July and August.
A campaign that begins before the start of classes
The trend recorded between 2022 and 2025 shows that back-to-school shopping has become a campaign that takes place increasingly further in advance. Although school start dates have not been brought forward over the same period, July and August have gained ground over September.
For 2026, the order forecast reinforces this behaviour: the final week of August is expected to be the period of greatest activity, with August once again the key month. In this way, families are approaching the new school year with earlier planning and a growing presence of personalised products among their school purchases.
The Stikets Company is headquartered in Barcelona and specialises in the design, production and marketing of personalised products. The company operates the Stikets, Camaloon and Original People brands, focused respectively on products for families, personalised merchandising for businesses and personalised gifts for end consumers.
