The back-to-school shopping season is one of the busiest times of the year for many brands. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, ecommerce back-to-school shopping has soared to new heights. In this blog, dive into what the industry saw during the 2024 back-to-school shopping season and explore answers to some common ecommerce back-to-school shopping season questions.
2024 Ecommerce Back-to-School Shopping Update
Labor Day weekend and the arrival of September means that regardless of the part of the country you live in, one thing is for certain. Kids are now back in school. For many brands, that signals the end of a major shopping season and the start of the next. But to hurry on to the 2024 holiday season without digging into the 2024 back-to-school shopping trends and what worked and what didn’t is a huge, missed opportunity. There is no shopping season closer to the holidays than the back-to-school season to gather data about this segment of customers.
2024 Back-To-School Shopping Trends
Overall sales are down after 2023’s record-breaking $41.5B back-to-school shopping season total. This year sales are looking to cap out right below $39B. NRF has cited a couple of possible reasons for this including last year’s major increase in electronics sales and the trend to not replace those types of purchases each year.
Many retailers are also noticing that ecommerce or online shopping methods are continuing to capture more and more of the total sales year after year. This year is no different as in-store purchases remained stagnant, and in some cases, dropped year over year while ecommerce sales have captured a larger portion of the overall share of the back-to-school spend.
Why? General shopping trends and a generational shift are likely culprits. With the generational groups, both parents and students, that are doing back-to-school shopping this year trending younger and newer, it’s no surprise that brands hoping to benefit from increased sales during this shopping season had to cater to this shift. These generations are not only more likely to shop online for convenience and in search of low prices, but they are also generations that are more heavily influenced by online creators and social advertising. For these reasons, it is not surprising that influencer-driven, online conversions are up, while in-store purchasing has remained the same or lost market share for most brands this year.
What do these 2024 back-to-school trends mean for brands planning their 2024 holiday strategy?
Convenience is here to stay and so is the power of influencer marketing and social media.
Focusing on convenience and the ease of the customer experience on your site is something to not be overlooked during the holidays, especially for generations that will be purchasing for school-age kids. The holidays, with the increase of traffic to most brands’ websites, is a great time to implement A/B testing that focuses on optimizing your site to improve conversion rates and your website’s UX. This will be especially important as you target parents this holiday season.
Not confident that A/B testing is worthwhile for your brand? Schedule a call with our team and let our conversion rate optimization experts give you a comprehensive custom conversion rate audit with the projected revenue lift you could expect from A/B testing.
The second major insight that brands should take away from the 2024 back-to-school shopping season is that consumers are using online shopping to quickly compare prices and promotions across competitors sites. Studying what promotions worked for your brand and your competitors in Q3, and being ready to supercharge those for Q4 will be key to your brand’s success over the holidays. This is especially true for brands selling on Amazon. Check out this blog from our experts to learn how Q3 learnings should be influencing your Q4 Amazon strategy.
Lastly, the 2024 back-to-school shopping season showed us that social advertising and influencer and user generated content should be a critical part of your strategy this holiday season. School-age kids and their parents are heavily influenced by this type of marketing, so brands that do not have a dedicated focus here will lose out. The increase in online shopping trends that we saw during the 2024 back-to-school shopping season support this.
Need help supercharging your social media strategy ahead of the holidays? Let our paid media experts serve as your one-stop shop this holiday season. Book a call now to harness the power of social media this Q4.
Ecommerce Back-to-School Shopping: A Q&A
Every business with back-to-school seasonality wants success during this important time of year, but not every business knows how to get there. Looking at the data from past years is a great starting point.
Should social media be part of my ecommerce back-to-school shopping strategy?
This year, almost 34% of consumers said they planned to use social media sites to assist their back-to-school shopping to browse products, read or post reviews, find out about promotions, or receive coupons. To dive more into social media strategies, explore these resources from our social media experts:
- How to Create a Strong Influencer Marketing Strategy
- Metaverse Marketing: The Latest Updates & News
- Meta vs. Amazon vs. TikTok: Building your Cross-Channel Strategy
- 13 Ways to Harness Email Marketing to Boost Your Social Media & SEO
How is price sensitivity impacting consumers’ buying behaviors?
With rising inflation rates and an impending recession, many consumers are being cautious with their spending. Last year 43% of back-to-school shoppers said they did more comparative shopping online than the previous year, with 42% saying they shopped for sales more often than the year before. 35% said they would buy more store brand/generic products based on their lower cost.
With shoppers feeling concerned about rising prices, Prime Day could be the perfect opportunity to give your customers exactly what they’re looking for right as the ecommerce back-to-school shopping season starts warming up. Don’t miss your chance to make the most of it!
When do most shoppers do their back-to-school shopping?
August is the most popular month for back-to-school shopping, with 41% of consumers saying they shop for back-to-school supplies during this month, followed by 34% in July, 19% in June, and 6% in September.
Where do back-to-school shoppers do most of their shopping?
50% of consumers say they plan to shop for back-to-school items online and 45% plan to shop in department stores. 40% say they plan to shop at discount stores.
How much do shoppers spend on back-to-school items?
Back-to-school shopping spend has surged since the COVID-19 pandemic. US shoppers spent an estimated $36.9 billion on back-to-school items last year.
| Year | Back-to-School Shopping Spend in the US |
| 2019 | $26.2 billion |
| 2020 | $33.9 billion |
| 2021 | $37.1 billion |
| 2022 | $36.9 billion |
| 2023 | $41.5 billion |
| 2024 | $39 billion |
Let’s break that down by category and individual households. In 2022, back-to-school shoppers spent:
- $12.5 billion ($293 per household) on electronics or computer-related equipment
- $11.3 billion ($264 per household) on clothing and accessories
- $7.2 billion ($168 per household) on shoes
- $6 billion ($140 per household) on actual school supplies
The average US household spent over $860 on back-to-school shopping in 2022.
| Year | Back-to-School Shopping Spend per US Household |
| 2019 | $696.70 |
| 2020 | $789.49 |
| 2021 | $848.90 |
| 2022 | $864.35 |
| 2023 | $890.07 |
| 2024 | $875.00 |
Do back-to-school shoppers favor certain brands?
In 2023, Nike was the top brand among US teenagers, followed by American Eagle, lululemon, Adidas, and H&M. 75% of parents say their children have a moderate to high influence on their back-to-school shopping purchases.
48% of shoppers say brand familiarity is likely to drive their purchase of a specific brand during the back-to-school shopping season. If a brand they’re seeking isn’t available, 50% of back-to-school shoppers say they’ll buy from a different brand at the same retailer. 34% say they’ll go to a different retailer to find the brand they’re looking for.
The majority (60%) of back-to-school shoppers say they visit 2-3 stores for back-to-school shopping, with 24% saying they visit 4-5 stores and 12% saying they visit more than 5 stores.
Tying It All Together: Ecommerce Back-to-School Shopping
Don’t let one of the biggest shopping seasons of the year pass you by – especially if you’re in the electronics industry or the apparel industry. If you’re looking for some inspiration, check out some of the exciting wins our clients in these industries have achieved:
- Peter Millar Leverages Programmatic Ads for 2.6x CTR & 7.8% Brand Lift
- Footwear Brand Sees 39% Increase in Traffic After Site Replatform
- PUMA Drives Increased Conversion Value & ROAS Through Facebook Attribution
- Electronics Brand Increases Clicks by 84% & Conversion Value by 105% Using Google Smart Shopping
When you need a strategy to help you drive important seasonal wins, passing things off to a digital marketing agency that you actually trust can be a daunting task. At ROI Revolution, our experts act like a dedicated extension of your internal team so that you don’t have to worry about achieving your business objectives. To explore the untapped opportunities we could discover for you, send a message to our team today.
Sources
- Statista, Do you plan to use social media sites to assist in your back-to-school shopping?
- Statista, Back-to-school shoppers implementing savings-focused shopping behaviors due to the state of the economy in the United States from 2019 to 2022, by method.
- Statista, When consumers planned to shop for back-to-school supplies in the United States in 2022, by month.
- Statista, Most popular shopping destinations for back-to-school consumers in the United States in 2022.
- Statista, Total planned back-to-school expenditure in the United States from 2006 to 2022.
- Statista, Average planned back-to-school spending per household in the United States from 2004 to 2022.
- Statista, Top clothing brands amongst teenagers in the United States as of Spring 2022.
- Statista, Extent of children’s influence on back-to-school expenditure by parents in the United States in 2021, by product category.
- Statista, Which is most likely to drive your purchase of a specific brand during the 2022-23 back-to-school (BTS) season?
- Statista, Leading course of action if preferred brand for back-to-school (BTS) shopping is not available among consumers in the United States in 2022.
- Statista, Number of stores households with children plan to visit for back-to-school shopping in the United States as of June 2022.
