The National Retail Federation has issued its 2009 back-to-school spending survey and the results show that the ringing of school bells won’t necessarily translate into the happy ringing of cash registers.

But the one part of stores where parents and students expect to boost their spending despite the ongoing recession is electronics.

The average family plans to spend $167.84 on consumer electronic purchases for back to school this year, up from $151.61 last year, according to the NRF survey.

Among college kids, spending on electronics or computer-related items is expected to increase to $266.08 from $211.89 last year.

Those trends are not lost on Wal-Mart.

On its own blog, Wal-Mart is talking about its plan to win sales from back-to-school shoppers:

“This year Wal-Mart Stores and Walmart.com have teamed up with Dell to offer you a Great deal on Laptops.

Starting this week, when you go and visit your local store you will see Colors everywhere, from Pink, Blue, Red, Indigo, Green, Yellow, White, Orange and everyones new fav. Purple! In total you will see allot {sic] of colors spread out into a array of products from everything needed in the dorm, apartment, bedroom, or the complete house!”

For those who many not want or may already have a purple laptop, Wal-Mart is also ready to wow shoppers with “color matching accessories” like speakers, mice, USB flash drives and hard drives.

Looks like even if overall back-to-school sales won’t be cheery, the consumer electronics sure will be!

(Screenshot of Walmart.com)

Shoppers eager to secure a copy of the hottest new video game can soon walk into a Target store and pay $1 to reserve a copy ahead of its release.

Starting April 19, Target is launching a “reservation program” for what it expects will be the best selling video games.

That means shoppers can purchase a $1 reservation card in the electronics department of its stores.

When they bring the card back to the same store within 7 days of the video game’s release the can buy the title. They will also receive a $5 Target gift card that can used for a future purchase.

“We will hold inventory so in essence, it does guarantee you the product within the first seven days,” said Target spokesman Joshua Thomas of the program.

Target already lets customer place preorders for video games on its website. But Thomas said it the in-store reservation program has an added benefit  — it will hopefully bring shoppers into its stores more frequently. They can come into its stores to make the reservation, to pick up the game when it’s released, and then again to use the gift card.

Target said the reservation program will kick-off with titles such as “Punch Out!!” from Nintendo , “Ghostbusters” from Atari, and “Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings” from LucasArts.

(Image provided by Target)

As retailers look for ever-cleverer ways to spur sales, Wal-Mart has teamed with Disney to offer free wake-up calls from Hannah Montana, (a.k.a. Miley Cyrus), as part of its back-to-school marketing push. 

How can a wake-up call spur sales?

Well, not only are parents given the option to sign up to send their child a wake-up call, they can also send their child a reminder that it is time to do some back-to-school shopping.

“Be a Superstar and get your things together!” states the website where parents can sign up for the alerts.

Wal-Mart has taken a big bet with Hannah. It has teamed with Disney to be the “retail headquarters” for Hannah Montana merchandise and has set up ”Hannah Montana Shops” in 750 Wal-Mart stores across the U.S.

Wal-Mart says parents can buy an entire back-to-school Hannah Montana-themed wardrobe for their child in its stores, including enough tops,  shorts, socks and accessories for one week of school.

Wal-Mart said that in order to sign up to send the wake-up calls, registrants must be 18 years or older. While there is no cost to sign up for the calls and they’re available anytime through Sept. 15, standard mobile phone charges may apply.

(Photo: Reuters)