Back-to-school shoppers have been getting a head start in recent years. According to the National Retail Federation, 67% of back-to-school shoppers had already begun purchasing items by early July in 2025, up from 55% the prior year and the highest level since NRF began tracking early shopping in 2018.
That early start is about more than enthusiasm for fresh notebooks and perfect pencil cases. It reflects a more deliberate shopping pattern. Families are spreading costs across multiple months, timing purchases around promotional events and watching for deals before school-related demand peaks. eMarketer also notes that shoppers are beginning as early as July to take advantage of mid-summer sales.
Brands can no longer treat back-to-school as a short-burst campaign window. The consideration phase now begins earlier, which means campaign planning, audience identification, and messaging need to move upstream.
For marketers, this creates three priorities:
Early audience activation can help brands engage families, students, and other back-to-school shoppers while they are still building lists, comparing options, and waiting for the right promotion.
Value has become a central force shaping what shoppers buy and when they convert. Deloitte’s 2025 back-to-school research found that 4 in 10 consumers are showing signs of value-seeking behavior, which includes making cost-conscious choices and being willing to concede convenience tradeoffs. Deloitte also notes that parents plan to focus purchases around July promotional events, spread expenses over a longer period, trade down to more affordable brands and retailers, and scale back on speedy delivery in favor of lower-cost shipping.
This shift does not mean shoppers are only looking for the lowest price. It means they are evaluating value more carefully across essentials, apparel, technology, school supplies, and household needs. A parent may still splurge on the first-day outfit, while cutting back on tech upgrades or choosing private labels for everyday supplies.
Value-driven messaging needs to move from the margins to the center of the campaign. Brands should speak to affordability, utility, durability, convenience, and savings without flattening every message into a discount.
Audience strategy matters here. Budget-conscious shoppers are not a niche segment during back-to-school. They are a core audience.
Marketers should consider targeting:
The brands that make the most of the back-to-school season will not just shout “sale.” They will understand which shoppers are most value-sensitive, when they are likely to buy, and which message gives them confidence to act.
Back-to-school shopping does not live in one channel. It ricochets from mobile research to connected TV exposure, from digital carts to store aisles, from social discovery to retail media and display retargeting.
In 2026, eMarketer forecasts $53.06 billion in physical retail back-to-school sales and $32.36 billion in ecommerce sales. That split is the real story: Consumers are fluid. They may discover a product on mobile, compare prices online, watch a brand message on CTV, and still complete the purchase in-store. A single-channel plan risks missing the connective tissue between those moments.
Back-to-school campaigns need consistent audience strategies across channels. Upper-funnel channels like CTV, video, audio, and digital out-of-home can build awareness early, while display, mobile, social, and retail-focused tactics can support consideration and conversion.
The key is continuity. Brands should be able to identify and reach relevant audience groups across multiple environments rather than rebuilding the campaign from scratch every time the channel changes.
That is where audience data becomes the season’s compass. It helps marketers connect with shoppers across channels based on signals that reflect who they are, what they need, and how they are preparing for the school year.
The back-to-school journey is becoming longer, more fragmented, and more audience-specific. First-party data remains valuable, but many brands will not have a complete view of every student, parent, educator, or deal-seeking shopper they need to reach.
Third-party audience data helps fill that gap. It can help marketers identify high-intent audiences earlier, extend reach beyond owned customer files, and activate segments across channels where first-party signals may be limited.
For back-to-school campaigns, third-party data can help brands:
Eyeota’s Back-to-School Audience Guide is built around this exact challenge, helping marketers reach audiences based on life stage, education status, seasonal shopping behaviors, purchase intent, and interest signals across major activation channels.
To win the extended back-to-school season, marketers need to move beyond broad seasonal targeting and build strategies around who consumers are and what they need for the year ahead. Here are some key shopper groups to consider.
Families with school-age children remain one of the most influential back-to-school segments. They drive demand across essentials like school supplies, apparel, footwear, lunchbox staples, personal care, electronics, and household items that support the school-year routine.
Marketers can use audience data to reach households with children across early education, elementary, middle, and high school stages, as well as parents showing seasonal shopping and education-related purchase behaviors.
This audience is especially valuable for brands promoting:
College shoppers represent a high-value, high-engagement back-to-school audience. They are preparing for much more than classes. They are shopping for independence, campus life, dorm rooms, tech upgrades, apparel, food, personal care, financial products, entertainment, and lifestyle essentials.
Eyeota audiences can help brands reach undergraduate and postgraduate students, consumers preparing for enrollment or returning to campus, and digitally connected audiences showing interest in tech, lifestyle, and education-related purchases.
This audience is especially relevant for:
Educators, administrators, professors, and institutional decision-makers are often left out of back-to-school planning, but they can be valuable audiences for both B2B and B2C campaigns. These professionals influence purchasing decisions across K-12 schools, colleges, universities, departments, classrooms, and education systems. They may be evaluating technology, classroom supplies, software, professional development, furniture, office products, or tools that support students and staff.
For marketers, these audiences can support campaigns focused on:
Budget-conscious shoppers are playing a central role in back-to-school demand. They are looking for promotions, comparing prices, using coupons, shopping discount retailers, and timing purchases around major savings events. Eyeota’s audience options include shoppers prioritizing savings and value, including those engaging with bargains, coupons, discounts, and deal-seeking behaviors.
This audience is especially useful for campaigns built around:
Back-to-school demand is predictable. The audience journey is not.
Families start early. Students shop across categories. Educators balance professional needs with personal routines. Value-seeking consumers compare every offer. And all of them move across channels before they make a purchase.
Eyeota helps marketers turn that complexity into actionable audience strategy. With curated back-to-school audiences built from interest and intent signals, behavioral patterns, demographic attributes, life-stage data, and education-related indicators, brands can identify and activate relevant audiences across channels including connected TV, display, digital out-of-home, audio, mobile, and social.
Whether your goal is awareness, consideration, conversion, or full-funnel reach, audience-first targeting can help brands show up earlier, stay relevant longer, and connect with the shoppers most likely to drive seasonal performance.
Ready to turn seasonal demand into performance? Download Eyeota’s Back-to-School Audience Guide to discover how to reach high-intent shoppers at scale.
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