According to the National Retail Federation, 67% of back-to-school shoppers plan to start stocking up in early July. You know what that means: winning brands will start building their campaigns now to start capturing audience attention.
Why start now? Simply put, there’s $85.4B in retail sales up for grabs in 2026, at roughly $858 per person. If shoppers are planning to start buying in early July, that means they’re thinking about what purchases they’ll make as early as June.
That’s right. Even though the last bell of the spring semester might still be ahead, 2/3 of back-to-school shoppers are already starting to think about the supplies they’ll need for the next school year.
Now’s your chance to get ahead of your competitors. Put your brand at the center of the shopping action with these helpful tips, tricks, and hints for launching an A+ campaign.
The Shopping List: What and where are back-to-school shoppers buying in 2026?
This year’s shoppers can be broken down into two distinct groups: K-12 and College shoppers.
Per NRF data, this year presents a fair amount of overlap between shopping categories. Electronics retailers are positioned to win big this year with the right campaign and targeting.
As far as where people plan to shop, Online remains the top contender, with Department and Discount stores close after.
It’s important to note that, while Online shopping remains a prominent part of the planning process, it’s far from the final stop for back-to-school shoppers. Nearly 60% of back-to-school spending in 2026 is estimated to occur in physical retail locations. Online acts as the discovery engine, and brick-and-mortar is where final purchases happen. As the hybrid shopping journey continues to become the norm, it’s vital to connect digital engagement with real world action. Get a clear picture of the customer journey with GroundTruth’s Web Engagement Pixel and our foot traffic attribution.
Speaking of brick and mortar, our first-party visitation data revealed these retailers as the most-visited retail locations during the last back-to-school shopping cycle.
Knowing which retailers your audience plans to visit can make all the difference for generating ROI from your campaigns. Once you’ve identified key retailers, you can target the surrounding area with campaigns intended to drive visits to local top retailers, or you can leverage GroundTruth’s on-premise targeting to reach your audience while they shop.
Who’s heading back to school?
GroundTruth’s first-party visitation data reveals the top audiences visiting key Back-to-School stores included:
On paper, some of these audiences may seem unrelated to the back-to-school shopping experience, but according to real-world foot traffic data, these segments have much more in common with it than one might assume. These audiences can help you think outside the box with your targeting strategy, potentially unlocking some new customers that might otherwise go ignored.
The Winning Strategy
Taking everything above, here are a few hints on how to maximize your back-to-school campaign results with GroundTruth.
Leverage Location-Based Targeting
According to our real-world visitation data, most back-to-school shoppers travel an average of just 2 to 5 miles to reach a store. Use Proximity or Geotargeting to reach families near your storefront or a competitor paired with Dynamic Distance Store Locator creative to drive the sale home.
Layer in Behavioral Targeting
Target mission-based behaviors to intercept high-value segments like Millennials, Deal Hunters, and Department Store Shoppers. By targeting consumers based on key behaviors that align with your brand and campaigns, you ensure your messaging reaches the households most likely to take immediate action.
Create Custom Audiences
Create custom, tailored segments designed to reach your audience by layering visitation data, behavioral attributes, and first-party data.
Push Notifications
Leverage real-time Mobile connection for maximum in-store conversions with direct and unmissable messaging on leading apps.
Go Omnichannel with GroundTruth
The brands that win this back-to-school season will maintain a unified presence across the entire consumer journey. GroundTruth allows you to active full-funnel campaigns that combine omnichannel ads with pinpoint precise targeting to bridge the gap between early awareness and last-mile proximity conversions. That way, you can reach your audiences across multiple touchpoints, driving high-intent shoppers all the way from digital research to physical locations.
Mobile: Reach shoppers while they’re on the go and near your store with On-Premise Mobile targeting.
Desktop: Stay top of mind throughout the buyer’s journey with reinforced messaging.
CTV: Leverage our audiences and targeting capabilities to reach specific shoppers on CTV.
Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH): Advertise in strategic physical locations where there may be families with children nearby.
Audio: Reach the 2/3 of back-to-school shoppers that took action after hearing an audio ad last year.
Get Started
Create your GroundTruth Ads Manager account today, and start exploring our platform (no minimum spend required). And, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.
