On today's episode, we discuss the who, what, where, when, why, and how of this year's back-to-school shopping season. We then talk about why facial recognition is surging in stores, what happens if prices continue to climb, and standout retailer TV campaigns. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Suzy Davidkhanian.

About a third of K-12 students have already returned to class amid a fourth COVID-19 wave. While, earlier this year, analysts had predicted a very optimistic back-to-school (BTS) season for retailers and brands, not all is lost: Many parents still want to make school-related firsts and rites of passage as “normal” as possible for their children.

How the pandemic changed back-to-school shopping

It’s been six years since Amazon’s inaugural Prime Day, and since then, the sales bonanza has evolved from the unofficial kickoff of back-to-school shopping into an event other major retailers try to emulate—so much so that the ecommerce giant has tried to obfuscate when the annual sales day will occur.

On today's episode, we discuss how Prime Day performed versus last year, what kind of a halo effect took place, and whether Amazon was able to capture the back-to-school spending. We then talk about augmented reality's ability to help shoppers, what WhatsApp Shops might look like, and how many folks said social media content resulted in them buying products. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer analyst at Insider Intelligence Blake Droesch.

The top back-to-school ecommerce platforms

Back to class: US back-to-school ecommerce sales will grow more than 13% this year, even after last year’s spike, increasing their share of total back-to-school sales this season.

Back-to-school shopping may look a little different this year because of the pandemic—but only slightly.

Business Insider Intelligence research analyst Daniel Keyes, eMarketer principal analyst Andrew Lipsman and senior forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Cindy Liu discuss how a staggered back-to-school shopping season is changing consumer spending and advertising. They then talk about why Walmart has teamed up with Microsoft to bid for TikTok, and what Walmart's membership program launch means for Amazon Prime.

Spending was boosted in part by stimulus payments and jobs growth—but going forward, issuers may want to target opportunities like back-to-school shopping and pent-up spending by older adults.

Looking to reach college students during the back-to-school shopping season, grocery retailer Kroger turned to one of the marketing world’s buzziest new platforms: TikTok.