In what is surely a sign of things to come, a new survey from the National Retail Federation shows families with school-aged children are hitting stores and websites ready to tackle their back-to-school lists armed with their smartphones and tablets. The NRF's 2011 Back-to-School and College surveys conducted by BIGresearch reports that consumers with smartphones and tablets will use their devices to research products, redeem coupons, look up store information, and even make purchases.

"Retailers are using everything in their arsenal to attract customers whenever and wherever they want to shop — and mobile retailing is a big part of that strategy," said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay. "Consumers looking to save time and money while shopping for school items will be able to find their favorite brands in an instant, complete their checklists, and purchase what they need all with a swipe of their finger."

Though shopping via a smartphone or tablet device is still an emerging trend, many Americans are already keen on the concept. The survey found four in 10 (39.6 percent) college shoppers and three in 10 (30.2 percent) K-12th grade shoppers with tablets say they plan to use their tablet devices to purchase products for back to school this year.

When it comes to smartphone shopping, nearly one out of five (18.8 percent) K-12 grade shoppers and 16.8 percent of college shoppers with smartphones say they will make purchases via their device.

Of the college shoppers with tablets, juniors, graduate students and freshmen will be the ones using tablet devices the most to purchase their school items. Nearly half of surveyed juniors (47.5 percent), graduate students (47.4 percent) and freshmen (47.2 percent) say they plan to purchase school products via their tablet.

If using a smartphone or tablet to shop for back-to-school is big, what's the holiday season going to look like? 

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