Late summer is in most countries a back to school period, for children, teenagers, college students, and for parents most often paying for it. New school year asks for new school supplies that most often pass the necessity. Apart from school supplies, clothes and devices are also bought in this period. Most importantly, the majority of consumers spend a lot on back to school shopping. Just in the US, a household spends from 700 up to 1000$ on everange on school supplies, with college students’ households spending even more. Sounds like a train worth catching, right?
If you wish to embark on the journey of dropshipping in the back to school season you have to choose just the right products for your shop.
Backpacks
This one sounds obvious but everyone needs backpacks for school. Add lunch boxes and laptop cases and you have covered everyone from grade one to college. Backpacks can be sold for larger prices than some other smaller school supplies, so they are worth being chosen as the micro niche you want to dropship in. Here you can also aim for a trendy backpack like those holographic ones that are a real hit among Gen Z. These backpacks first arrived on Instagram and were promoted by influencers and various pages. They were such a hit, that they have even arrived on TikTok,where they sell in even greater volume.
Laptops and tablets
Especially this year when most of the schooling will be done virtually students need electronic devices. Laptops and tablets are more common options than computers for their mobility and lack of need for strong computing power. This is definitely the most expensive category so if you are into that selling technique, electronics are the right choice with you. However, they do not take the first place for money spent overall in back to school haul. You can broaden your product range with mouses, mouse pads, keyboards for tablets and even tablet cases. When choosing these accessories look for thendy and nice looking ones. You can offer these accessories to customers after they purchase a tablet or a laptop via email marketing.
Clothes
This one may come as a surprise but have in mind that many people see this as kind of a new cycle in their life so they also buy new clothes. Plus the season is changing so autumn/winter clothes are on the way. However, have in mind that a lot of back to school shopping is done in physical shops, rather than in the online one. For clothes assortment choose school appropriate clothing. Crop tops, shorts and tight dresses are not going to be anyones back to school choice. If you have a local shop choose clothes that are appropriate for the upcoming weather in the region your shop is located.
Small supplies
Try selling pencil cases, cute pens, stickers and other smaller supplies. If you opt for dropshipping this category, you can make bundles with matching items offered at discounted price because most customers are going to buy all of those items so be sure they take them all from you. If you have a broader niche including backpack, too, try to also find those that match. When looking for these small supplies look for something either trendy, very cute or unusual.
You should have in mind who is your target audience, who you are selling to. Make a customer profile for a back to school seasonal shop. You can have few profiles – moms, dads, kids and teachers. Although moms do the majority of back to school shopping, dads spend more on it. Kids have a double role, they can push their parents into buying a certain product or use their own money to do so, especially when they are 15 and older. Teachers are a special category because they buy slightly different supplies. They want to decorate their offices and classrooms, but still need stationeries like pens, stickers and notebooks.
Marketing
For seasonal shops especially, a good marketing campaign is a must. First, you have to start marketing at least a month before the back to school haul starts. Its exact start varies in different countries, and even in different states in the US. Make ads targeted for your customer profiles using the media they are most present at. For the best tailored ads use Facebook Ads. When making a campaign think of school themes and symbols. You can also play on emotions because to most of the customers it is an emotional period where parents see how fast their children are growing up.
Do not forget to go and apply what you have learnt today!
