During the craziness of back-to-school season, advertisements are everywhere, promotions run rampant, and Staples’ stores? Forget about it. If you haven’t pushed your way through the line to buy a notebook, or argue with someone over a promotion, you haven’t lived.

As of mid-August, the majority of back-to-school shoppers have already endured the chaos this year, though about 37% of school shoppers have not yet started.

So, who is the 37%? In what ways are they different from those who have already done their shopping, and what are the best ways to engage with them towards the end of the season?

The Last Ones Standing

First off, the last-minute shopper has a higher-than-average income than those who do their shopping earlier. This intuitively happens to make sense, as we can imagine they do not need to worry excessively about early deals and promotions.

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They are also more likely to live in urban areas, and given that roughly half of them are under 30, we can assume they are shopping for younger children.

Perhaps because of their young age and the worries associated with having younger children, we found that this group is 17% less likely to make decisions quickly and confidently, which may be why they do their shopping later. Another potential reason for this, we’ve found, is based on the large amount of information that they read. They are 63% more likely to read tech blogs and websites, and maybe have difficulty choosing between all of the options they read about. Therefore, as a potential tip for those trying to reach them: less can be more. These last-minute shoppers are already well-read and well-off, so a helpful way to engage with them may lie in validating their research and decisions, without providing too much else. On a similar note, they are also more tech-savvy than those who have already done their shopping, with 65% who are more likely to use an ad-blocker on their computer, and 43% who are more likely to use their smartphone to research products they want to purchase.

Where to Reach Them

The last-minute shopper is 21% more likely than the general population to use Facebook daily, and 51% more likely to watch their TV online (being the tech-savvy group that they are). When they’re not online, they are 98% more likely to watch a majority of their network TV on ABC, as opposed to those who have already done their shopping, who watch the majority of their network TV on NBC. So if you need to reach them, it may make sense to utilize promotions on Facebook and advertise on ABC.

How to Reach Them

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66% of the group that has not yet started shopping say funny commercials resonate most with them, so don’t shy away from funny! Their love of humor may also apply to non-commercial advertisements as well, such as memes and graphics. Thinking ahead to next year, we suggest planning for this group and their advertisement preferences early, to capitalize on the full back-to-school season, and not just the early shoppers. And with that, I leave you with this:

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