Back to School Shopping 2017

The Back-to-School spending season is just around the corner.

Did you know that it ranks as the second biggest shopping season, after the winter holidays?*

Last year families spent $75.8 billion stocking up for school.

I couldn’t believe the number either.

But, when you start adding up electronics (purchased by 50%), clothing (70%), dorm furnishings (43%), food items (69%), personal care items (72%), and school supplies (81%), it is easy to see how the average family spends $888.71.

In 2016, 73% of parents started shopping 1-2 months out from the beginning of school, up from 62% in 2015.Parents are already starting to shop for Fall 2017.  

According to Google, searches related to “back-to-school” started spiking the week of July 11, a full week earlier than 2015.*

On UniversityParent, we’re already seeing our website traffic shift from graduation gift ideas, to our popular college packing checklists.

How to maximize your share of the $75B Back-to-College market

First, is it easy for parents to find your business?

This may seem obvious, but I’ve worked with hundreds of small business owners that thought their company appeared prominently in an online search, but were shocked once we did a full review.

According to a study by BIA/Kelsey, 50% of potential sales are lost because consumers can’t find information they are looking for.

Further, 97% percent of consumers go online to search for local business information.  

What they learn determines whether or not they’ll become customers. 

To do a quick (free) search to see how your company ranks online, enter your company’s name here and to see your business’:

• Reputation score – based on positive and negative and volume reviews
• Business listing score – based on local listing data and directory presence
• Social marketing score – based on social presence
• Website score – based on mobile optimization and SEO
• SEM score – based on search engine marketing efforts

 Stay tuned for more ideas on how to capture your share of the $75B spending opportunity.