3 Simple Ways to Get More Sales This Back to School Season

Mastercard SpendingPulse is forecasting a 7.5% increase¹ in back-to-school spending in 2022 compared to last year, indicating the industry is continuing to bounce back from the pandemic.

It’s also important to note that consumers plan to kick off their back-to-school shopping sooner rather than later. According to Statista, the majority of customers (62%) buy back-to-school supplies in the first two weeks of August 2.

All to say that it’s high time to start prepping your business for back to school. Fortunately, Lightspeed makes it simple.

Here are 3 easy (but powerful) ways to drive even more sales this back-to-school season.

1. Sell everywhere

Make no mistake, this year’s consumers will be using multiple channels in their back-to-school shopping journeys.

While many shoppers will continue to shop in-store, a good chunk of consumers will make purchases on e-commerce sites and social media. Industry data shows that 48% of consumers³ are planning to shop online for back to school, making the internet a top retail shopping destination this time of the year.

To maximize your back-to-school sales, you need to meet consumers where they’re at. And when it comes to the internet, where they’re at is everywhere.

If you haven’t done so yet, set up your eCom store on Lightspeed. This enables you to connect your web store with your point of sale system to ensure your stock levels stay in sync across all your channels.

Lightspeed also integrates with Wix, WordPress, Amazon, eBay, and other platforms. This means if you have an existing online store, connecting it to Lightspeed is even easier.

And don’t forget to set up shop on social media.

More than half of social media users (55%) aged 18 to 24 say that they’ve purchased something via a social network⁴, so having a social selling strategy can definitely help drive traffic and sales back to school.

Lightspeed enables you to start selling on social media with just a few clicks. Connect your store to TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, so you can put your products in front of your brand’s fans and followers. The beauty of social selling is it empowers you to set up shop quickly. So if you don’t have time to launch a fully-fledged eCommerce store, you can still reach online shoppers through social media.

2. Maximize your retail data

Already have your store set up? Now it’s time to fill your shelves with the right products. With advanced reporting, it’s easy to figure out what products sell best and when based on how shoppers have purchased previously.

With Advanced Reporting, you’re able to access historical data and gain more in-depth information about your sales, inventory, and customers.

For instance, you can generate an Inventory Report for the previous back-to-school season, and identify the products that performed well.

Inventory Reports can be filtered based on the following parameters:

• Product
• SKU
• Brand
• Outlet
• Supplier
• Product Type

This lets you slice and dice your data and zero in on the exact metrics you need. For example, if you need to know which brands were most popular among BTS shoppers, you can simply select the “Brand” filter.

Or, let’s say you want to see how apparel is doing versus accessories. You can do that using the Product Type Report. Want to know which vendors are responsible for your best sellers? Choose the Supplier Report.

Another useful report for back to school is your Sales Report, which summarizes the revenue and profit generated during a specific period.

The Sales Report can be filtered based on:

• User
• Outlet
• Register
• Customer
• Customer Group

This makes it simple to view your top salespeople, highest-spending customers, and most profitable locations (i.e., outlets).

By gleaning insights into last season’s sales and revenue, you’re able to figure out what worked (or what didn’t) and apply that knowledge to the upcoming back-to-school season. This also helps you understand your customers better so you can prepare for other important seasonal events.

Let’s say you discover that one location significantly outperformed your other stores during last year’s back-to-school period. From there, you can identify what that specific store did and strive to replicate its results this year.

Or suppose you want to spotlight your top salespeople so they can motivate your team this back-to-school season. You can easily do that by using the “User” filter on your Sales Report.

You’ll also want to look at sales per customer. By filtering your Sales Report by Customer or Customer Group, you can quickly identify your top spenders and find ways to engage them this back-to-school season.

Plus, if you know which customers are the most profitable, you can tailor your marketing and attract similar shoppers to your store.

3. Focus on customer loyalty

While it’s essential to keep acquiring new shoppers, don’t forget to cultivate your existing customer relationships. Research shows that increasing customer retention rates by 5% can lead to a 25% to 95% boost in profitability.⁵

If you’re running a BTS sale, for example, simply set up an email campaign using the solution’s drag-and-drop email builder. You can even customize each email’s content based on user behavior, to deliver a relevant and personalized experience.

Rely on smart and updated restaurant POS software and the right people to manage your business operations smoothly while you prepare for the next steps of your business.

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3 Simple Ways to Get More Sales This Back to School Season, 3 Simple Ways to Get More Sales This Back to School Season.