STRETCHING A BUCK

SEARCH: A GROWING PLACE TOFIND BACK-TO-SCHOOL SUPPLIES

BACK-TO-SCHOOL VS. HOLIDAYHOW DO THEY COMPARE ANYWAY?

TOP 4 SEARCHTERMS:

82%

58% OFPARENTS

OFSHOPPERS

Unpack your notebooks and sharpen your pencils, because the back-to-school shopping season is heating up. Don’t believe us? The second largest retail season of the year—which brought in a cool$26.5 billion in revenue in 2014—begins this month.

How long it runs, though, is anybody’s guess, because consumers are already indicating they’ll be changing their shopping behaviors. If you want to know how, we suggest you read on and study up.

No surprise here, but an overwhelming majority of back-to-school shoppers say their purchases will be influenced by how much money they can save. What is surprising, though, is how that focus on savings is changing behaviors.

Though search is a major lifeblood for any retail season, its influence on back-to-school has only grown over the years. Shoppers aren’t abandoning the one-stop brick-and-mortar approach to the season, per se, but they’re more willing than ever to look online.

Aside from the obvious overall revenue impact, back-to-school and Holiday have some nuanced differences. The lengths of the shopping seasons are one, but there are others, too.

Here’s an equation for you:

say they always look for deals before shopping.

will buy only the necessities during the traditional back-to-school season. As for the

rest of the traditional haul? They’ll wait untilHoliday Season (when the deals are better).

(AND THE SHOPPING SEASON)

“back to school”“school supplies”“school shopping”“back to school sales”

ALL ABOUT THE HAUL

Though shoppers are searching for deals, they also planned to spend more last year— $669.28 per household —than they did the year before—$634.78. That adds up to a pretty full backpack.

(WHAT’S IN THE BAG?)

81% of parents say it’s most important for students to have their school supplies on the first day of school

73% of parents say students heavily influence clothing and school supply purchase decisions

29%

$112.83$101.18SCHOOLSUPPLIES

$231.30CLOTHING &ACCESSORIES

$124.45SHOES &SNEAKERS

$212.35ELECTRONICS

of shoppers say they plan to spend more in 2015

average order value during

Back-to-School shopping season

AVERAGE HOUSEHOLD SPENDING PER

CATEGORY

31%BEGIN ONLINE SHOPPING

2 MONTHSBEFORE SCHOOL BEGINS

48%BEGIN ONLINE SHOPPING

1 MONTHBEFORE SCHOOL BEGINS

18%BEGIN ONLINE SHOPPING

2 WEEKSBEFORE SCHOOL BEGINS

Welcomeback!

months

month

WEEKS

38%of shoppers say they’ll do back-to-school shopping online this year

31%planned to use a tablet to make a

purchase in 2014

21%planned to use a

smartphone to make a purchase in 2014

1/3 Amount of shoppers who say online advertising helps them find back-to-school items

BACK-TO-SCHOOL

HOLIDAYSEASON

Discount Store: 64.4%Department Store: 59.1%

Clothing Store: 53.8%Office Supplies Store: 42%

Online: 38.2%

Final two weeks in August

Discount store: 61.9%Department Store: 59.7%Online: 56%Supermarket: 51.2%Clothing Store: 36.7%

Cyber Monday, Black Friday& Thanksgiving

$669.28 per household $804.42 per household

1.86% 2.29%

Desktop: 65.68%Mobile: 20.78%

Tablet: 13.54%

Desktop: 64.86%Mobile: 19.8%Tablet: 15.34%

WHERE THE SHOPPING HAPPENS

RED-HOT SHOPPING DAYS

OVERALL SPENDING

CONVERSION RATE

DEVICE SHOPPING

ACING BACK-TO-SCHOOL:THE ONE ANSWER YOU NEED

VOLUME VOLATILITYNIGHTMARES

FOR MARKETERS

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If you’re trying to ace productlisting ads during the back-to-schoolon your own, you’re doing it wrong.

That’s why we’re here. Sidecar is the first and only technology that fully automates Google Shopping campaigns at the product level. Retailers that use Sidecar drive

millions of dollars of measurable revenue and save time and internal resources, while maximizing ROI and improving the search-to-transaction journey for customers.

LEARN MORE AT: WWW.GETSIDECAR.COMSOURCES: NRF | SEARCH ENGINE WATCH | CNBC | EXPERIAN | AOL | MARKETWATCH