The hazy days of summer are here in full force, but students and parents are already thinking about the return to school, according to Soren Mills, Chief Marketing Officer of Newegg North America. The online retailer with a technology focus has kicked off a back-to-school marketing campaign that includes the third-party sellers on its marketplace.
Mills said the back-to-school shopping season starts almost as soon as schools let out for the summer, but said it begins in earnest after the fourth of July holiday. “Savvy shoppers will be on the lookout for great deals all summer long,” he said.
Newegg is making its biggest-ever back-to-school push, which it kicked off on Wednesday with a 3-part approach. First, Newegg launched a new student-only storewith discounts reserved only for .edu customers. Secondly, the ecommerce site is offering a $20 student discount on the Newegg Premier customer reward program.
And Newegg is also running a Hack2School challenge, with big prizes for students, as well as a “mini tech lab” prize package with over 80 products for one lucky college student.
So what’s hot with the student crowd? “Perennial favorites for back-to-school shoppers include tablets and laptop computers, as well as accessories like SSDs for upgrading existing machines,” Mills said. He also said Newegg’s Trending Now page gives a real-time view of what products are trending based on purchase behavior and social media sharing activity.
The company collaborated with inSparq to launch the Trending Now page, which analyzes purchase behavior and social media sharing activity to determine items trending in real time.
So are there products from third-party merchants available in the student portal, and do they have to do anything to be considered? “Marketplace sellers on Newegg are participating fully with the Back to School specials,” Mills said. “They don’t have to do anything special, and they bring a lot of great products to our customers.”
