Back to School 2025: Winning Strategies for Brands and Retailers
Marketplaces 10/09/2025
The 2025 back-to-school campaign is marked by a significant increase in spending and a further consolidation of e-commerce as the preferred purchasing channel for Spanish families. According to Webloyalty's Back to School 2025 report, the average spending on online school purchases stands at €178, 35% more than in 2024. This budget is mainly concentrated on electronics (52%), books (30%), and children's fashion (18%), reflecting the growing digitalization of school consumption.
Beyond the digital environment, the financial burden on families remains considerable. The Cetelem Observatory estimates that the total outlay amounts to €425 per household, including uniforms, school supplies, and other related expenses. The OCU (Spanish Consumer Organization) also warns that the annual cost per child varies between €1,200 in public schools and more than €8,000 in private schools, making September a financial challenge for many households. Faced with this situation, 54% of families say they will maintain their budget compared to the previous year, while 27% will reduce it by borrowing books, reusing materials, or buying secondhand items.
The conclusion is clear: the 2025 back-to-school season is one of the most demanding campaigns in recent years. Consumers are no longer limited to seeking low prices; they demand trust, personalization, speed, and an optimized digital experience. For retailers and brands, September becomes a true test where differentiation depends on the strategy implemented and the intelligent use of technology.
To successfully tackle the back-to-school campaign, every detail must be taken care of: strategically selecting priority categories, setting clear visibility and margin goals, and continuously monitoring the market and competition.
With DIP Insights, brands and retailers have a comprehensive platform that enables:
The return to school season in 2025 represents an unprecedented challenge: families are spending more, consumers are more demanding, and the online market is more saturated. In this context, differentiation is no longer just about price, but about the ability to anticipate, adapt, and react quickly.
With DIP Insights, brands and retailers have the intelligence they need to turn September into a growth opportunity: by monitoring in real time, optimizing the digital shelf, controlling the catalog, and transforming reviews into trust.
Ready to pass this campaign with flying colors? Request a free demo of DIP Insights and discover how to approach back-to-school with a competitive advantage.
Beyond the digital environment, the financial burden on families remains considerable. The Cetelem Observatory estimates that the total outlay amounts to €425 per household, including uniforms, school supplies, and other related expenses. The OCU (Spanish Consumer Organization) also warns that the annual cost per child varies between €1,200 in public schools and more than €8,000 in private schools, making September a financial challenge for many households. Faced with this situation, 54% of families say they will maintain their budget compared to the previous year, while 27% will reduce it by borrowing books, reusing materials, or buying secondhand items.
The conclusion is clear: the 2025 back-to-school season is one of the most demanding campaigns in recent years. Consumers are no longer limited to seeking low prices; they demand trust, personalization, speed, and an optimized digital experience. For retailers and brands, September becomes a true test where differentiation depends on the strategy implemented and the intelligent use of technology.
Six key strategies for tackling the return to school season in e-commerce
- Detect and react to competition in real time
- Smart pricing strategy and automatic repricing
- Avoid stockouts and optimize your assortment
- Improve the digital shelf in detail
- Global catalog and brand control
- Add reviews and reputation as part of the strategy
During these weeks, promotional activity reaches its peak. Monitoring prices, offers, and competitor movements on marketplaces and online stores allows for swift reaction, avoiding margin erosion and positioning the brand where consumers are looking.
Defining smart rules to adjust prices based on competitor behavior becomes essential. The ability to anticipate a price drop on a key product can make all the difference, while maintaining consistency and profitability.
Shopping cart abandonment due to stock shortages poses a huge risk in seasonal campaigns. Continuous monitoring of your own and competitors inventory helps you anticipate and adjust replenishment or pricing in a timely manner, ensuring you capture demand.
Consumers increasingly value clarity and transparency: quality images, optimized descriptions, visible reviews, and real availability. Analyzing each product listing and its internal search engine ranking reveals opportunities to improve relevance and conversion.
Ensuring distribution consistency is key. Identifying unauthorized sellers, detecting new products on the market, or locating gaps in the assortment prevents the loss of control over the brand image. Automated reports help you react quickly.
The opinions of other consumers have become established as a decisive purchasing factor. Analyzing ratings and comments allows you to strengthen product listings, improve arguments, and design campaigns based on trust, a crucial element in categories such as electronics and books.
How to prepare for your back-to-school campaign and maximize results with DIP Insights
To successfully tackle the back-to-school campaign, every detail must be taken care of: strategically selecting priority categories, setting clear visibility and margin goals, and continuously monitoring the market and competition.
With DIP Insights, brands and retailers have a comprehensive platform that enables:
- Set up real-time alerts for prices, inventory, competitor activity, and changes to product listings.
- Detect gaps in the catalog, such as missing references, incomplete descriptions, or low-quality images, optimizing the shopping experience.
- Automate price adjustments linked to competitor promotions or out-of-stocks, ensuring competitiveness without compromising profitability.
- Improve your digital shelf by optimizing titles, bullet points, images, and featured reviews to maximize visibility and conversion.
- Schedule daily reports, which facilitate intensive and agile management throughout the seasonal campaign.
Anticipate, adapt and compete with advantage
The return to school season in 2025 represents an unprecedented challenge: families are spending more, consumers are more demanding, and the online market is more saturated. In this context, differentiation is no longer just about price, but about the ability to anticipate, adapt, and react quickly.
With DIP Insights, brands and retailers have the intelligence they need to turn September into a growth opportunity: by monitoring in real time, optimizing the digital shelf, controlling the catalog, and transforming reviews into trust.
Ready to pass this campaign with flying colors? Request a free demo of DIP Insights and discover how to approach back-to-school with a competitive advantage.
