Back to school spending triggers 10% sales spike | Blog

Sean Sherwin-Smith, Product Director Post-purchase

It’s been a slow summer for retailers: wet weather across northern Europe has meant people haven’t rushed to refresh their summer wardrobes. According to the British Retail Consortium, sales in the UK for July only grew by 1.5% - well below the three-month sector average of 3.5%.

But the ramp up to Peak season, beginning with Black Friday, is just around the corner – and the start of the new school year will be the starting gun.

In 2022, spending in the run up to the new school year shot up over 10% across multiple categories, including clothing, stationery, and electronics.^{[1] [2]} A similar pattern is expected this year.

That makes the start of the new school year a great opportunity for retailers and ecommerce businesses to thoroughly test their systems and processes in readiness for Peak 2023.

Three focuses ahead of the new school year

A slick post purchase experience is vital for delivering ecommerce success at the start of the new school year. Families will expect real choice over when and how they receive their deliveries. And with the first day of term set in stone, they won’t have time to wait. It goes without saying the returns process should be just as easy.

There are three key elements that retailers should be considering:

• Getting ready for increased demand: families have even less tolerance for late or missed deliveries at this time of year. Meanwhile, warehouse teams can find themselves stretched by rapid increases in orders, leading to delays and packing errors
• Providing a slick customer experience: the checkout marks the beginning of the customer relationship. Everything that happens after the customer clicks “buy” needs to be branded and personalized – right down to communicating via shoppers’ preferred channels. This is key to ensuring repeat purchase
• Rethinking returns – as retention opportunities: around 10-20% of items bought online are returned, leading to significant revenue shrinkage for retailers. Offering exchanges and incentives for returning in-store, and swiftly restocking returned items, can turn returns into a powerful driver of revenues and loyalty

Processes perfected to perform

Making these changes can have a real impact. nShift customers see order values increase by 20%, reductions in cost-to-serve of 30%, and improved revenues by diverting almost 30% of returns to exchanges.

This summer has been a disappointment for many retailers. The back-to-school season is an ideal opportunity to get match fit for Peak 2023.

For more information, visit nShift’s 2023 Black Friday guide to learn more about preparing for this year’s peak season.

^[1] https://www.mastercard.com/news/europe/en/newsroom/press-releases/en/2022/september-2022/back-to-school-season-expected-to-boost-retail-sales-in-europe-according-to-mastercard-spendingpulse/

^[2] https://www.worldfirst.com/uk/marketplace-sellers/e-commerce-guides/back-to-school-e-commerce-guide/