Back-to-School Shopping Patterns 2024
Most holidays seem to have moved up in the calendar as opportunities for retailers and manufacturers to get a jump on back-to-school sales activities. In some warmer states, school starts in August. Parents sending their kids off to college need ample prep time to stock dorm rooms (and the closets and refrigerators within them). Amazon […]
Head of the Class — Back-to-School Marketing Language Trends
Very few seasons connote change the way the back-to-school season does. Even for those of us who are no longer in school, the shorter days and cooler mornings mean that a new school year (and, by default, autumn, if you live somewhere lucky enough to experience it) is soon upon us. And every time summer […]
Seedtag Analysis: Parents More Focused on Children’s Health for Back-to-School
As Managing Director, U.S., for Seedtag, Brian Danzis must be keenly aware of trends and changes in all aspects of digital and linear media to drive growth for the company’s clients, which have included Applebee’s, Gillette, JetBlue, and the NBA. For the past several weeks, he’s been focused on the back-to-school shopping season and how […]
Back-to-School 2023 by the Numbers
Although Halloween treats are already appearing on MULO (multi-location) retail shelves, let’s not forget that back-to-school shopping is still in season. Depending on where in the U.S. they live, students can return to academics as early as July these days. Although many schools still start after Labor Day, summer vacation ends early in many regions. […]
Snack Brands Lean Into Nostalgia this Back-to-School Season
The dog days of summer have arrived, and all around the country, parents are preparing kids for back-to-school in just a few short weeks. For snack and specialty food brands like General Mills, Conagra, and Nestlé, it’s go time. Despite often being overlooked during the back-to-school rush, when attention is generally focused on backpacks and […]
Back-to-School Shopping Is Happening Earlier Than Ever — Retailers Prepare
As kids across the country empty their desks and prepare for a long summer break, brand marketers are working overtime to solidify their 2023 back-to-school campaigns. With back-to-school sales seeming to start earlier and earlier each year, researchers at the digital insights firm Cint recently conducted a survey to gauge consumer interest around back to […]
Retailers Use AI to Mine Social Data for Back-to-School Trends
Students across the country are returning to the classroom this month — some for the first time in more than a year. While early indications show strong late-summer back-to-school sales, retailers aren’t leaving anything up to chance. Widespread confusion around health policies, safety protocols, and required supplies that can vary by school are leading retailers to rely on social media and artificial intelligence to collect information on emerging themes and trends.
How Burbio Is Turning Calendar Events Into School Reopening Data
Data for Burbio’s School Opening Tracker comes from more than 150,000 school and community calendars. Burbio is actively monitoring millions of events in these calendars, representing more than 35,000 schools, including the 200 largest school districts in the U.S. Events are dynamically updated daily and targeted to the zip code level. This allows retailers, brand marketers, and investors to quickly pick up on emerging trends—like schools in certain zip codes beginning to reopen for in-person learning—so they can make smarter business decisions based on local schooling data in real-time.
How Retailers Are Reaching Back-to-School Shoppers
It’s that time of the year. As summertime comes to an end, parents around the country have started filling up shopping carts with pencils, notebooks, and binders. Families in the U.S. are expected to spend an average of $696 on back-to-school supplies this year, the highest amount ever recorded by the National Retail Federation.
Back-to-school shopping has become an important event for retailers like Target, Walmart, and Office Depot. While ecommerce is king at other times of the year, parents shopping for their kids’ back-to-school supplies are just as likely to shop in-store as they are online.
Why Mobile Could Make or Break Your Back-to-School Campaign
The school year is right around the corner, which means that back-to-school shopping is already in full swing. Aside from the holidays, back-to-school is the second-largest selling season, so if retailers are not participating, they’re missing out. To be successful this school year, you need to know what trends are affecting how consumers are finding […]
How Marketers Can Use Mobile to Shape a Back-to-School Strategy
It’s that time of year again — time to get ready for school. This presents marketers with a huge opportunity to implement a back-to-school strategy, especially when it comes to mobile. According to a new report from Thinknear, 40% of customers spend at least an hour planning for back-to-school shopping on mobile…
Street Fight Daily: Amazon’s Local Ambition, The On-Demand Obsession
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Predicting Amazon’s Secret Plans in Physical Retail (Recode)… On-Demand Beauty Apps Are on the Rise (Wall Street Journal)… Airbnb To Reveal Names Of 124 Hosts To New York’s Attorney General (Fortune)
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Back-to-School Retailing Is Now All About Using Mobile Data to Help Your Customers
Back to School (BTS) is a $53 billion shopping season that’s entering its final stage as parents and college students take care of school supplies and clothing needs before Labor Day. And as we close out this decade and look to the 2020s, the combination of mobile technology, hyperlocal commerce, and consumer expectations make this a fascinating juncture in BTS history.
Fortunately, these complex market scenarios represent more of a golden opportunity than a paradox due to the promise of mobile. Here are two reasons why national and local brands should leverage data to bridge the online-offline gap and improve their BTS sales.