The back to school period of late Summer is always big for all retail and e-commerce shopping activity, but obviously this year is going to be different. We’re witnessing new market forces in an explosion of e-commerce activity as consumers and businesses engage in more online ordering than ever before. The purpose of this blog post is to provide some ideas on how B2B and B2C merchants can best take advantage of what’s happening, including changing behaviors during the back to school shopping period. We are also considering “back to school” “back to work” (or post-vacation period) for B2B industries as well. As the Summer ends, business typically heats back up, but things could be different this year.

Here are four key behaviors to observe and to keep in mind.

Furniture, Software, Home Furnishings will drive a lot of sales for B2C

Households with school age children will do their best to optimize their in-home and remote learning experiences. This will mean that families are going to be investing more on furniture, computers, software and associated devices in order to take advantage of remote learning better than they did in the Spring.

How will customer behavior change?

Household expenditures on furnishings, hardware, software to support remote learning. For budget constrained households this will be at the expense of apparel.

How can your e-commerce business capitalize?

We recommend that merchants in these sectors should modify their e-commerce experience algorithms to capitalize on the increased demand for these items.

Online Learning & Education Will Boom, Obviously

Okay, you don’t need to be an elite business strategist or the Nostradamus to predict that online learning is going to experience a big boom in the fall of 2020. The boom is going to come from two sources: Private institutions expanding their virtual classroom capabilities with tutoring and more one-on-one virtual experiences and then the continuing need from existing remote education.

Individuals that are looking for private instruction in a vast array of fields will find it with MasterClass and other online courses. People are getting used to Bluejeans, Zoom and online learning software and demand for these courses is going to go up both in formal education and ancillary education for children and adults alike.

Earlier in the year, Google and YouTube launched their Teach from Home platform to help with the coronavirus response to education.

How will customer behavior change?

People are taking up hobbies and teaching themselves versus depending upon in classrooms or in person. Platforms like LinkedIn Learning have seen pretty major usage surges as a result of the Pandemic – likely due to record unemployment levels and those impacted trying to upskill quickly.

How can your e-commerce business capitalize?

If you are a B2C or B2B merchant there is an opportunity to engage more users by using education modules or classes to teach the skills associated with your products. Set up a Youtube education channel that serves as a demo hub. Integrate online learning software to teach product usage and to market product features. For B2C products related to hobbies teach your customers how to be the best at those activities associated with your products. Think MasterClass for your own product offering.

In terms of marketing opportunities, if you don’t already, consider allocating some ad spend towards the platforms seeing the increased usage, such as YouTube and LinkedIn.

B2B is All About Self-Service

Since customers can’t get together with their reps, B2B-oriented businesses are ramping up their self-service e-commerce. Understanding that business is going to remain remote and “out of the office” for another six months to a year (or maybe even longer), many B2B companies understand the need to ramp up and improve self-service e-commerce experiences and they are doing so quickly.

What does “Self-Service” e-commerce mean for B2B?

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