Dive Brief:

• Reuters Thursday reported overall same-store sales edged up in July although apparel retailers saw a .5% decrease and teen apparel retailers saw a dismal 8% decrease.

• Meanwhile, back-to-school shopping is expected to be muted, with parents feeling like their kids don’t need as much this year and shoppers blurring the back-to-school season to well past the first day of school.

• RetailNext Thursday also reported that while sales per shopper rose 4.7% in July, average transaction value fell .2%. The last week in July dragged down the better showing in the first three weeks of the month, according to the report.

Dive Insight:

There’s some evidence that consumers have reached at least a temporary plateau when it comes to their acquisition of electronics. That seems to be dinging back-to-school sales and may not be great for electronics retailers. 

But apparel retailers may benefit. It could help that retailers are trying hard to woo back their customers. Retailers from Uniqlo and Target to American Eagle Outfitters are bragging about the stretch their denim jeans now have. That added comfort, widely seen as a result of athleisure’s intense influence on apparel, promises to drive at least some consumers back into their jeans.

Overall, though, consumers look like they’re remaining fickle, happy to leave regular-price merchandise on the rack and wait till sales or free-shipping deals arrive. They’re getting a lot of help when it comes to price competition, with Amazon increasingly selling apparel and driving down the price (and speeding up the time) of delivery and the likes of Jet promising ever-cheaper prices on goods that can be found pretty much everywhere.