Each year, from Memorial Day to Labor Day, students, parents and teachers can count on a pretty regular routine: the school year ends in May or June, everyone enjoys a few months of summer, and in August and September school supplies are purchased, backpacks are packed and students are loaded onto buses to go back to class.
But 2020 has been anything but routine.
With coronavirus causing lockdowns across the US, most public schools went to completely remote learning back in March. Now, as the end of the 2019-2020 school year looms, parents, students and teachers are starting to think about what summer 2020 will look like, and how they will prepare for the 2020-2021 school year.
While we at Criteo don’t have all of the answers (no one does), we have analyzed data from the 1.9B shoppers on our network to predict how shoppers will behave this upcoming summer season, and how marketers can optimize their campaigns to these new buying habits.
1. Be Prepared to Create Your Own Shopping Events
Each year, the summer shopping period typically kicks off with the Fourth of July, and swiftly moves into more deals during Amazon Prime Day.
Last year, the ecommerce giant claimed that sales from Amazon Prime Day 2019 were higher than sales during Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2018 combined.
Businesses have been benefiting from a “halo effect” of sales and creating their own Prime Day deals for the past few years. However, due to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, it’s reported that Amazon Prime Day 2020 won’t take place until August – or at all.
Advertisers may need to create their own sales events to capture the demand of consumers who will no doubt be looking for deals at this time.
2. Look at Spring Data to Understand What Consumers Will Purchase this Summer
Typically, summer is a time where consumers will begin purchasing outdoor furniture and sprucing up their gardens for outdoor BBQs. However, with social distancing measures having kept so many people in their homes during the spring months, many Americans have already begun the process of updating their backyard space.
According to Criteo data, in April, gardening sales rose 364%, outdoor living sales rose 302% and chair and sofa cushions rose by 290%. In order to make the most of your summer marketing, it is important to understand what your customers have already purchased, so that you can provide them with complimentary product offerings in your advertising.
3. Get an Early Start on Back-to-School Advertising
In 2019, we saw back-to-school shopping begin as early as mid-July, with sales of items like books, backpacks and laptops taking off around Prime Day. While Prime Day is still uncertain for 2020, there is strong evidence that when parents see a deal for school supplies, they will take advantage.
And even though there is no telling what the 2020-2021 school year will bring, we can anticipate that parents and students alike will be anxious for things to return to normal, which could fuel their buying habits.
Want to learn more about how to optimize your Summer 2020 marketing campaigns?
Download our newest report “The Silver Quarter Report,” with even more data, tips and strategies for making the most of these key summer shopping holidays.
