US Back-to-School 2018 Digital Trends: Shoppers Turn from Social Media to M-Commerce

Executive Summary

This is the second report in our US Back-to-School series for 2018. Here, we review the digital trends that we expect to see this back-to-school shopping season.

• Social media is losing its influence over back-to-school shoppers. Fewer consumers plan to use it in their shopping for this season. Retailers continue to push their campaigns, incorporating more content from unpaid customers who seem authentic and reach a market beyond the stores’ follower bases.
• Well over half of back-to-school shoppers will buy online this year, with survey data suggesting that we will see a big year-over-year leap in online shopper numbers. We expect m-commerce to drive growth in online retail sales as consumers seek out convenient ways to shop.
• Voice assistants are likely to be used more for research than for purchase and will complement shoppers’ use of other channels this back-to-school season.