There is Still Time to Catch the Back-to-School Shopper – Study Pinpoints Buying Habits of Late Shopper
The Back-to-school shopping season is one of the most diverse shopping seasons of the year with shopping beginning as early as June, and unofficially ending around Labor Day which has become symbolic as the unofficial “end of summer”.
In our study, “Back-to-School Shoppers – A Digital Behavior Report”, we analyzed these shoppers and determined that people shopping for back-to-school items in August represent the biggest opportunity for conversions. We took data from over 40 million visits and 460 million page views in order to understand this online behavior. Behind these numbers are insights that can have a huge impact on how you sell, insights that our CEO, Jonathan Cherki shared with Inc.
We divided shoppers into two categories:
- Early shoppers – from June 1 to July 15
- Late shoppers – from July 15 to August 31
Why are late shoppers the biggest opportunity?
Our study shows that late shoppers are much more engaged, and buy fewer items at a higher price. And although our studies showed that late shoppers have lower conversion rates, their average cart value is 35% higher. Now is the time to adjust your site to the late shopper buying habits and convert shoppers for the highest revenues of the season.
OUR BACK-TO-SCHOOL STUDY SHOWS THAT LATE SHOPPERS (LATE JULY = AUGUST) ARE MUCH MORE ENGAGED, AND BUY FEWER ITEMS AT A HIGHER PRICE.
The back-to-school shopper uses both mobile and desktop. The consumption of content on mobile needs to be understood in the context of very short browsing sessions. Most users on mobile are multi-taskers with short attention spans.
For the late shopper, our study revealed that 22% of parents who wait until the last month to purchase their items will use their desktop. A multi-device strategy across all back-to-school campaigns is essential for creating a seamless experience from any device. According to the type of items in their cart, late shoppers also prefer quality over quantity. Take this opportunity to highlight exclusive products in August, as the late shopper will pay the higher price, and pick up on even more revenue from the conversions of late back-to-school shoppers.
The digital journey of the late back-to-school shopper is clearly laid out in our new research paper “Back-to-School Shoppers – A Digital Behavior Report”. With approximately 50 million kids going back to school, and spending to reach $75.8 billion dollars, there is still time to pave the way for back-to-school consumers to finish their shopping on your site.
Read the full report here, and then adjust your site before you swap out your school supplies with upcoming Halloween merchandise that is just around the corner.
