As summer winds down, the excitement of the first day of school builds for both parents and students, but finding the right supplies to ensure your child starts the school year off on the right foot can prove to be difficult without heading back to your home country for a shopping spree. TALK has compiled the best places to stock up on all the back to school essentials in Shanghai, so get out your shopping lists and start equipping your child for the classroom.

Lunchboxes & Backpacks

Lollipop, a children’s boutique full of imported designer strollers and baby blankets, has the cutest selection of lunchboxes for primary school students in town. The colourful Zoo Lunchies feature the friendly faces of monkeys, mice and more on these insulated lunchboxes. This boutique store has also cornered the market for adorable backpacks. Designed for the frame of younger children, their bags showcase the animal kingdom with tigers and butterflies. Environmentally conscious kids can also store their books in Lollipop’s planet friendly messenger bags. No-spill water bottles are on hand to ensure a leak-free drinking experience for young children. And the best part about Lollipop’s goods is that they conform to European and American safety standards so parents can rest easy.

Fans of Thomas the Tank Engine, Disney princesses and Hello Kitty can head to Pu’an Children’s Market for all their lunching needs. This underground market also has a wide selection of backpacks – from Le Sportsac for older students to High School Musical and Transformers branded bags for elementary and middle schoolers – that are sure to satisfy even the pickiest children. Most of the merchandise at this market are knock-offs of name brands, so parents should make sure to examine the quality of the products and bargain hard to get the best deals.

Carrefour offers the largest variety of unadorned lunchboxes. For solid-coloured and basic-print purchases, the French hypermarket boasts a good, if limited, selection – it’s also the best bet in town for backpacks that don’t feature a cartoon character.

Shoes

Decathlon is a top-notch option in Shanghai for quality shoes. With six stores around the city, the French sporting goods chain offers a vast assortment of brand name and sport-specific children’s shoes, as well as sandals and boots for all occasions. The Pu’an Children’s Market has several stalls dedicated solely to kid’s footwear. Head to B45 for copies of brands like Teva, Champions and Stride Rite. Lollipop also sells black shoes that meet the uniform requirements for several of Shanghai’s international schools, but only up to sizes for six year olds.

Electronics

Electronics City and CyberMart have a variety of new and secondhand electronics, from laptops, digital translating tools and calculators for bargain prices, but the quality can be questionable. Head to Staples for internationally-renowned brands and great customer service – or check out their website for easy online shopping.

Stationery & School Supplies

From pencil sharpeners to protractors, students need a variety of tools to succeed in the upcoming semester. Carrefour offers one stop shopping for pens, paper and rulers, while the Yuyuan Commodities Market has one-of-a-kind stationery sure to make essays stand out from the pack, as well as enough pens, markers and stickers to last the rest of the school year. Fuzhou Lu is the city’s Art Street, so budding artists can head there for everything from paints to easels. Staples also offers up a slew of organising tools to help students get their academic lives in order.

• Carrefour. 268 Shuicheng Nan Lu (as well as many other locations in Shanghai). Tel: 6209 8899.

• CyberMart. 1 Huaihai Zhong Lu. Tel: 6390 8008

• Decathlon. 600 Lantian Lu (as well as many other locations in Shanghai). Tel: 5030 7558. Web: www.decathlon.com.cn

• Electronics City. 218 Xiangyang Nan Lu. Tel: 6467 9994

• Lollipop. 86 Wulumuqi Zhong Lu. Tel: 5403 2582; 3211 Hongmei Lu. Suite 606. Tel: 6406 8220; 566 Biyun Lu (due to open in September). Web: www.shanghailollipop.com

• Pu’an Children’s Market. 10 Pu'an Lu.

• Staples. 33 Guangshun Lu. Tel: 800 820 8056. Web: english.staples.sh.cn

• Yuyuan Commodities Market. 427 Fuyou Lu.