New York
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Lisa Ward was startled at the prices on sneakers when she recently went back-to-school shopping for her twin boys.
“All of them were at least $10 or $20 more than last year. That pissed me off, but I didn’t have a choice,” said Ward, a finance professional who lives outside of Atlanta.
After buying two pairs of sneakers for each of her growing 15-year-old boys, Ward was suddenly out $300.
“People are starting to realize how expensive stuff is. Before, the school would say, ‘You have the wrong calculator.’ Now, they’re saying, ‘Bring whatever you’ve got,’” Ward said, referring to math class.
Ward is hardly the only parent facing sticker shock as they shop for kids going back to school.
Online prices on apparel and accessories like shoes, bags and belts surged 9% year-over-year in July, according to data from marketing platform Klaviyo shared first with CNN.
Klaviyo, a publicly traded customer relationship management firm that examines billions of dollars of transactions each year, found that average order values have increased on nearly two out of three apparel sites (or 64%) this back-to-school season.
Not only are prices higher this time, but there are fewer deals. Discounts are four percentage points lower than last year, according to Klaviyo, which lists more than 170,000 brands as clients.
Jake Cohen, head of industry and insights at Klaviyo, told CNN the higher prices are an obvious consequence of the trade war.
“Tariffs have driven prices up. Brands are trying to create margin. The simplest way to do that is to raise prices,” Cohen said.
The Klaviyo executive noted that many articles of clothing and accessories are made outside the United States, leaving them exposed to the Trump administration’s tariff strategy. President Donald Trump has increased tariff rates on imported goods to levels unseen in nearly a century.
“The lagging impacts of tariffs are coming in,” Cohen said. “Raising prices is not a strategy brands implement often – unless they need to.”
The Klaviyo findings – a 9% increase in year-over-year prices on apparel and accessories – are far higher than the official statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Overall, prices increased by a more modest 2.7% year-over-year in July, according to the Consumer Price Index compiled by the BLS. Apparel prices were little changed overall (-0.2% in July), though some items including boys’ apparel (1.9%) and footwear (0.9%) did go up.
Klaviyo said that discrepancy could relate to the fact that its data is more heavily weighted towards e-commerce than the BLS, which is more focused on store prices.
However, monthly producer prices surged in July by the most in three years. Prices on apparel wholesaling climbed 5%, while the apparel, jewelry, footwear and accessories retailing category spiked 8%.
Alberto Cavallo, a professor at Harvard Business School, told CNN that 9% “doesn’t sound outrageous” based on his research into how tariffs are impacting prices.
Cavallo’s research has found that as of August 8, imported goods cost 5% more and domestic goods cost 3% more than pre-tariff trends predicted.
Price hikes for furniture, clothes and appliances
Some back-to-school items for college students moving into dorms and off-campus apartments are also getting more expensive.
For instance, prices for household appliances are up 6% from the pre-tariff trend, according to the Harvard Business School Pricing Lab.
Furniture is 5% above the pre-tariff trend. And the Harvard researchers found that prices for “other articles of clothing and clothing accessories” have jumped by 10% overall, including 12% for imports.
“Although tariffs are often expected to produce a one-time jump in price levels,” Cavallo said, “our research shows that firms rarely pass through the full cost immediately. Instead, they raise prices gradually, especially when there is uncertainty around how long the tariffs will last or how broad they will be.”
Those higher prices are forcing some Americans to alter their buying habits.
Almost one in three (30%) back-to-school shoppers say they’re changing the way they shop due to inflation, according to a Bankrate survey conducted in June of US adults who had already or who planned to back-to-school shop.
That’s down from 41% in 2022 but in line with 32% last year prior to the presidential election.
Ward, the Georgia mother of twin boys, said she has tried to save by opting for used clothes and getting a better sense of what school supplies they already have on hand.
“I think the higher prices are due to tariffs and just greed, to be honest. This is an opportunity for everyone to jack up their prices,” Ward said. “I just wish the prices would come down and make it easier for parents. You want to do right by the kids, but there’s only so much you can do.”
In a statement, White House spokesman Kush Desai said real wages have increased, inflation has cooled and prices for everyday essentials like gasoline and eggs have declined since Trump took office.
“As the Administration’s pro-growth policies of tariffs, deregulation, and The One Big Beautiful Bill’s tax cuts take effect and trillions in investments continue pouring into our economy, Americans can rest assured that the best is yet to come as we transition to a new golden age of American Greatness,” Desai said.
Trump’s aggressive trade agenda is unpopular, according to polls.
A 61% majority of Americans disapprove of the tariff hikes on imports, while 38% approve, according to a Pew Research poll released last week and conducted prior to tariff hikes that kicked in on August 7.
That same Pew poll found that more than twice as many Americans say tariffs will have mostly negative effects on the United States in the coming years (55%) than those who see mostly positive effects (26%).
Sam, a Georgia father who didn’t wish to share his last name, said he noticed higher prices “across the board” when shopping for appliances and other items his kids need to go back to college.
“Prices have definitely increased. Most people are not prepared because wages aren’t moving up fast enough,” he said. “The consequences of the election, for many people, are becoming clearer and clearer.”
