Your E-Commerce Back-to-school cheat sheet

It’s that time of year again, back-to-school is here, and it presents a huge opportunity for online retailers with 2018 research from ‘Mintel’ putting back-to-school spend at almost £1 billion; the third largest shopping event behind Black Friday and Christmas.

We’ve done our homework and put together a back-to-school cheat sheet to ensure your e-commerce business has all it needs to benefit from this lucrative sales period in time for the September rush.

Know your customer

First things first, it’s crucial to make sure your merchandise is on point. Your campaigns won’t be effective if you’re marketing the wrong products. Before designing any campaigns take a look at your site’s historical data to figure out which products were the highest performing this time last year to help determine which products you should be pushing this summer.

Understanding who your customer is and what they are looking for is another major factor for back-to-school success; a crucial customer over summer will be the busy parent. Keep the process simple and easy by launching back-to-school bundles with everything they’ll need in one place.

Think outside the (lunch) box

Consumers have back to school on their brains so why not feed their appetite and design your content around the occasion. Make it easy for consumers to shop your back-to-school must-haves by creating a designated landing page on your website for customers directed from social channels and email campaigns. Present your promotions at the right place in the customer journey to the right audience for maximum impact.

Although it’s the parents pulling the purse strings, the kids are the ones calling the shots and with 23% of 2018 back-to-school spend taking place online (Deloitte,2018), traditional marketing is a no-go. This season its beneficial to put a big focus on social media marketing to really grab the attention of a younger audience. Create scenes displaying your products in a back-to-school setting and launch giveaways to generate a buzz and get them excited about your products.

Offer value

Your campaigns shouldn’t just be about getting people to buy; you should also make it a point to offer a benefit to your customers. Find ways to become a helpful resource for your back-to-school customers, offering things such as tips and tricks for school survival will help build a stronger connection with your shoppers and keep them coming back for more. Going beyond this you could provide tools such as downloadable planners and templates as an extra incentive for kids and parents alike.

So, hopefully we’ve answered a few of your back-to-school questions but if you still need some help Kelkoo Group has 20 years’ experience in ecommerce, digital advertising and consumer analytics. We can support your entire campaign, from set up through to tracking sales and conversion data to help you get the results your online store needs to succeed. Feel free to get in touch to find out more about how our product portfolio can drive quality traffic to your online store and improve your online presence.