An increasing number of parents in Romania are choosing to purchase school supplies and other back-to-school items online, seeking to avoid the crowds in shops ahead of the new school year, while also taking advantage of the wider range of offers and the convenience of fast delivery.
According to a national survey conducted by Cargus on a sample of more than 870 respondents from urban areas, over 47 percent of parents opted this year to buy school supplies online, with shopping baskets exceeding 500 lei for nearly 58 percent of them and even surpassing 1,000 lei for around 22 percent of families. More than 49 percent of parents reported having to increase their back-to-school budget due to rising prices and the VAT increase, with 23 percent of them allocating over 20 percent more compared to last year.
Although Romanians are increasingly cautious with costs in the current economic context, quality was the key criterion for parents preparing for the new school year: 58.4 percent prioritized durability and reliability, while only 33.4 percent based their choices mainly on price. School supplies clearly dominated this year’s shopping lists (88.9 percent), followed by clothing and footwear (79.2 percent) and backpacks and bags (48.6 percent). By contrast, electronic products such as laptops, tablets, or printers were purchased by just 6.6 percent of respondents.
For online purchases, parents focused on speed and flexibility. While most started shopping early – at least two weeks before school began (57.4 percent) or even more than a month ahead (22 percent) – more than a quarter of online shoppers expected delivery within 1-2 days, while 52.3 percent were willing to wait up to 4 days, the survey shows. Over 68 percent placed at least two online orders for their children’s school needs, with roughly half choosing to collect parcels from proximity points and 38.2 percent opting for home delivery.
“Online shopping has already become a widespread habit for families in Romania, especially during busy periods such as the back-to-school season. Parents are looking for simple, fast and accessible solutions that give them confidence that the products they order will arrive on time. For us, this translates into ongoing investments in infrastructure, technology and proximity networks, to ease the stress of shopping and provide our customers with predictability, reliability and flexibility even when volumes increase significantly. In this respect, we are strengthening our national proximity delivery network, Cargus SHIP & GO, which complements the home delivery service and is now in the process of expanding through new retail store networks”, explained Belgin Bactali, CEO of Cargus.
At the start of this school year, parents highlighted two major sources of anxiety: last-minute shopping, mentioned by almost 30 percent of Cargus survey respondents, and the risk of teachers’ strikes, which concerned around 24 percent of them. These findings point both to the logistical pressure felt by families during the back-to-school period and to the uncertainty created by the broader educational context.
The Cargus survey was conducted in August-September 2025, on a nationally representative sample of 876 respondents from urban areas. The study analyses consumer behaviors and expectations regarding shopping and deliveries for the new school year, providing insights into both online and offline purchasing trends.
