College dorm shopping is becoming a lucrative industry.

College dorm shopping is becoming a lucrative industry. According to a July report from Deloitte, $26.7 billion is expected to be spent on back-to-college items this year. In the past five years, outfitting one’s dorm room has become a life milestone for college students (and their parents) who see the venture as a way of bringing their identities to life via home decor, with some parents noting how it’s “like a second nesting phase.” Students are (no surprise here) discovering dorm necessities and styles via TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook groups, and are shopping from specialty retailers like OCM, DormCo, and Dormify to stock up on trendy products (YPulse’s back to school shopping research shows that 37% of college BTS shoppers plan to shop in-store and online this year). Target and Bed Bath & Beyond have started offering more aspirational dorm essentials complete with dorm registries and discounts, the latest effort coming from Bed Bath & Beyond’s Wild Sage brand that is designed to capture Gen Z’s attention with Anthropologie-esque styles. Dormify is even offering room “stylists” and virtual tools to transform how young consumers shop for their tricked out dorm rooms, on top of hosting IRL pop-ups. Meanwhile, Gen Z and Millennials are spending more in general as they “make up for lost time,” and say they are spending $1,016 more a month, on average, than they did last summer according to a MassMutual July poll of 1,000 U.S. adults. (Vox, CNBC)