Merchants Gear Up To Take On Fall

Pumpkin (spice) lovers rejoice — summer is on its way out, and autumn is quickly making an appearance.

Look no further than retail shelves to see fall decorations on display and pumpkin spice-flavored products as far as the eye can see. Though many consumers may be happy to see the leaves turning and the weather cooling, it may not be such a wonderful time for retailers.

The fall itself has a lot going on.

From back-to-school madness to preparing for the year’s biggest holiday shopping days, merchants rarely get to take a summer break. If how merchants have prepared for omnichannel commerce so far this year is any indication, they may have a lot more work in store to get on the ball.

The Truth About Readiness

Research from the June edition of the PYMNTS.com OmniReadi Index™, powered by Vantiv, showed that there is an ever-widening gap between merchants who are the most and least prepared to support commerce across the online, mobile and in-store channels.

The index is based on two key components: a merchant’s ability to add value through a mobile app or website and how consistent online and in-store experiences are for consumers as a result. This means that those merchants that are behind the scale in “omnichannel readiness” — “omnireadi” for short — may not be able to deliver on the consistent, frictionless experience consumers are demanding.

At the end of the day, shoppers want to be able to browse both online shops and physical aisles whenever and however they choose, while knowing they can pay the way they want and receive their products via a method that fits into their busy lifestyles.

The good news is that retail segments, like sporting goods, apparel and mass merchants, are leading the pack for the best omnichannel strategies and executions. Those that are the most omnireadi seem to be maintaining that status. Scores for most merchants increased from Q2 2015 to Q4 2015 before stagnating in Q1 2016.

Unfortunately, the latest data found those considered to be the least omnireadi are falling further behind. Index scores for the bottom 10 percent of companies rose briefly during Q2 2015 before plummeting by nearly 20 percent between Q3 2015 and Q1 2016.

The interesting thing is that size really doesn’t matter.

Though it’s easy to assume bigger merchants may have the upper hand when it comes to offering advanced features, such as mobile apps, in-store pickup, free shipping and wish lists, the truth is that big companies did not fare any better than smaller ones in their omnichannel strategies.

Jumping In For Back-To-School

Things looked more cheerful when it came to back-to-school shopping projections.

According to a joint report by Yahoo and Ipsos Connect, the average shopper looking for back-to-school or back-to-college items would spend 37 percent more this year ($470 compared to $343 in 2015).

While about 46 percent of participants said they would start shopping about two months before the new school year begins, much of the shopping was expected to be done by the students themselves, versus their parents.

It seems as though Target kept this in mind for its national back-to-school sales season by letting kids call the shots.

Several media reports stated that Target hoped to build on the success of its kid-inspired product lines by keeping kids involved in its back-to-school shopping season campaign in every way possible — from allowing children to choose which school programs to fund in their specific communities to seeking out their input on Target’s national ad campaign.

“Kids and families are incredibly important to Target, and just as parents recognize the potential in their kids, Target does, too,” Jeff Jones, Target’s chief marketing officer, said in a statement.

“We were inspired to work even more closely with kids after seeing the difference they made in the development of our new Cat & Jack and Pillowfort lines. Now, we’re taking things a step further, allowing kids to put their mark on Target’s community-giving and marketing campaign for the back-to-school season. Both are not only inspired by kids but completely created by kids,” Jones continued.

It looks like back-to-school shopping is also becoming increasingly omnichannel, with 55 percent of shoppers showing an interest in going online for product research and 30 percent using online videos. A staggering 90 percent of study respondents said they find mobile devices useful for school shopping, and 30 percent use their phone to complete a purchase.

In an effort to boost sales and keep pace with Amazon through improving its eCommerce marketplace, Staples looked to make a big comeback during the coveted back-to-school shopping season.

The retailer added over 1,000 products to its eCommerce store, including higher-end tech products, like fancy headphones and tablets, and also looked to increase delivery times and offer same-day shipping as well. Staples hoped these new initiatives would be enough to bump up its sales and also help it keep pace with and compete against an ever-expanding Amazon, which has slowly begun selling pretty much everything that one can find at a brick-and-mortar Staples store or other office supplies retailers online and usually at a steeper discounted price (plus free shipping if you’re an Amazon Prime member).

A robust back-to-school shopping season is imperative for any merchant looking to take advantage of a huge revenue opportunity. In 2015 alone, the back-to-school shopping season accounted for $68 billion in revenue from kindergarten through 12th grade (well, mostly their parents) and college students (mostly the college students themselves), with college students making up the bulk of the spending at $43.1 billion, despite only accounting for 19 percent of total enrollment.