School districts across the country are rolling out reopening plans and one thing is clear: going back to school will look vastly different this year. Remote learning or hybrid schooling will be the norm. This reality has left many consumers scrambling to build home classrooms for their kids before the school year starts — and has made “kids desks” the latest hot ticket item during the pandemic.
Sarah Hofstetter, president of Profitero, recently shared some eCommerce data and tips on back-to-school shopping with Good Morning America (excerpt below). You can see even more in depth coverage of trends in USA Today, Adweek and Fox Business, where Profitero was also cited.
eCommerce highlights from the back-to-school season
Profitero analyzed search, availability and pricing trends for kids desks and other essentials for home schooling during the past few weeks to understand how this unconventional back-to-school season will play out.
- Demand for ‘desks’ is surging — From June 6 to July 25, the search rank on Amazon for “kids desk and chair set” rose +17x, “kids desk” +14x, and “school supplies for kids” +31x.
- ‘Desk’ climbed to the #2 search term — Of the 1 million keywords tracked on Amazon, “desk” rose 600% to the #2 spot in search rank (for the week ending August 15) coming in just behind “face mask.” The term “kids desk” rose +3,783% to the 58th spot. In comparison, the school supply classic “crayons” rose 197% and ranked #897.
Lessons for all brands
The pandemic is continuing to drive rapid demand swings for consumer categories online, reinforcing the need for brands to adapt daily. What we see happening in back-to-school is just the latest example. Here are 3 pro tips for every brand:
- Track supply & demand daily. Demand for buying products online is surging, driving the need for daily tracking of out-of-stock rates for your brands so you can replenish supply faster and divert sponsored advertising dollars away from out-of-stock products.
- Stay on top of trending search terms. You need to stay on top of trending searches in your categories so you can capitalize on the keywords that will get you the biggest traffic boost from your paid and organic SEO efforts.
- Optimize your product detail pages. You need to examine the effectiveness of your product pages (content + reviews) so you can optimize conversion rates for your product pages, when they do get a surge in more online traffic.
For resources that can help your brands adapt quickly to trends, check out:
- The Cheating Consumer eBook
- The Master Lock Company: Key metrics every brand should monitor blog post
Contact Profitero to learn how you can get the eCommerce data and performance analytics you need to monitor and adjust your seasonal event strategies in real time.