Consumers are increasingly finding back-to-school supplies through Google Shopping Product Listing Ads. Study up on how to capture traffic during the second biggest shopping season of the year.

1. STRETCHING A BUCK
SEARCH: A GROWING PLACE TO
FIND BACK-TO-SCHOOL SUPPLIES
BACK-TO-SCHOOL VS. HOLIDAY
HOW DO THEY COMPARE ANYWAY?
TOP 4 SEARCH
TERMS:
82%
58% OF
PARENTS
OF
SHOPPERS
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 until
Holiday 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
$101.18
SCHOOL
SUPPLIES
$231.30
CLOTHING &
ACCESSORIES
$124.45
SHOES &
SNEAKERS
$212.35
ELECTRONICS
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 MONTHS
BEFORE SCHOOL BEGINS
48%
BEGIN ONLINE SHOPPING
1 MONTH
BEFORE SCHOOL BEGINS
18%
BEGIN ONLINE SHOPPING
2 WEEKS
BEFORE SCHOOL BEGINS
Welcome
back!
monthsmonthWEEKS
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
HOLIDAY
SEASON
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 VOLATILITY
NIGHTMARES
FOR MARKETERS
+
=
If you’re trying to ace product
listing ads during the back-to-school
on 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.COM
SOURCES: NRF | SEARCH ENGINE WATCH | CNBC | EXPERIAN | AOL | MARKETWATCH