Survey: Keep back-to-school shoppers happy, or hear about it online

A recent Oracle Retail survey of more than 5,000 global consumers indicates back-to-school shoppers are posting – and reading – about bad experiences on social media.

According to the survey, 62% of responding parents but only 22% of responding non-parents said they are “very affected” by a negative review on social media. In addition, 42% of parents will post a bad social media review, compared to 10% of non-parents.

Nearly half (49%) of responding parents had made returns via mail, outpacing 32% of respondents without children who had done the same. Conversely, parents were less likely to have made a return in-store at 23%, compared to 35% of those without children who had made returns in person. 

[Read more: Survey: Back-to-school shoppers cross channels]

Roughly one-third (31%) of parents said they were most likely to compete a return via the mail or home collection/pick up, more than twice the share of those without children (15%) who said the same. According to Oracle Retail, these results could signal an increase in these methods of return in the coming months as parents buy, have kids try on and return without leaving the house. 

Granular tracking of delivery status (e.g. real-time updates on item location throughout the delivery process) is a greater priority for parents, with 82% of responding parents saying this is important, compared to 66% of non-parents. Those without children were almost twice as likely to be neutral to the idea at 30%, compared to 16% of parents. For retailers, Oracle Retail advises this means granular tracking should be a priority when catering to parents for the current back-to-school season.