The Green Sheet Online Edition
September 8, 2025 • 25:09:01
5 ways to help retailers turn seasonal demand into repeat business
The back-to-school season is a prime window for convenience and small-format retailers in your merchant portfolio. Families pour money into supplies, snacks and daily essentials, and many of those trips are last-minute.
Winning the season means making the quick stop faster, clearer and more valuable for busy parents and students. You can help merchants do that with five approaches proven to turn seasonal demand into repeat business.
1. Stock smart: Beyond basic school supplies
Large chains cover the long lists; convenience retailers win on immediacy and forgotten items. Advise mom-and-pop and small-format C-stores to build a tight assortment of small but high-need products (pocket tissues, hand sanitizer, travel-size sunscreen, bandages, lip balm, stain remover pens, and mini deodorant) alongside grab-and-go breakfasts, protein snacks and single-serve coffee or tea.
Pre-packed "emergency kits" with a couple of pens, pencils, erasers and sticky notes make decisions easy for parents shuttling kids to school. Keeping these items at the counter or on an endcap near the entrance makes them visible and easily accessible. Merchants can refresh the display weekly to keep it current without a full reset.
2. Use POS data to guide buying and pricing
As a payments professional, you know modern POS systems do more than ring sales. Help merchants use past August through September reports to see which items moved by day-part: morning coffee and breakfast bars versus after-school snacks and single-serve drinks. Next, identify attachments that grow baskets, and flag SKUs that stalled so they can trim or reprice.
Advise retailers to set low-stock alerts on fast movers to prevent outages during the first two weeks of school, when traffic spikes. Customer-facing displays can carry simple promos tied to the season, turning checkout time into a nudge toward a bundle or BOGO.
They can also keep lines moving with contactless options and clear training. Those who run loyalty or digital receipts, can tag back-to-school purchases so they can send reminders for lunchbox items over weekends.
3. Create bundles and short, predictable promotions
Bundles raise ticket size and cut decision time for hurried shoppers. For example, a "study session" kit pairing highlighters, sticky notes, and a caffeinated or herbal drink solves a need in one pick. A "lunchbox basics" trio (juice box, snack pack and napkins) speeds the morning rush. Also, pricing bundles to clean round numbers helps cashiers and customers move quickly.
It's smart for merchants to keep promotions rhythmic and straightforward: an early-morning coffee-plus-bar combo, a consistent weekday two-for deal on popular snacks, or an after-school drink special. And a short-run punch card or app-based reward just for September can drive repeat visits without creating year-round liability.
4. Fine-tune layout for fast trips
During the first weeks of school, speed matters. With that in mind, merchants can build a small "school zone" near the entrance so shoppers can find essentials immediately. Use clear, high-contrast signs to direct traffic to Morning Essentials, Study Snacks and Quick Lunch Items. Group complementary products so the next choice is obvious: breakfast bars near coffee, tissues near sanitizer.
Additionally, merchants should keep high-demand items at eye level and aisles open for strollers and backpacks. If traffic justifies it, merchants can extend hours briefly for early drop-offs and after-school crowds, and schedule their most efficient cashiers on those peaks. The goal is a predictable, five-minute trip that feels effortless for shoppers.
5. Build community connections
Seasonal goodwill pays dividends all year. To foster this, merchants can offer small student discounts with a valid school ID, or donate a portion of supply sales to local programs. Also, a short "Teachers' Appreciation" day with modest, well-publicized savings can create positive word of mouth among educators.
Merchants can use social channels to post a checklist of forgotten items and quick breakfast ideas parents can save on their phones; join neighborhood parent groups to share daily specials and store hours; and sponsor a youth team or school event to raise visibility and position their store as part of the community, not just a stop on the way.
Back-to-school traffic is predictable, but success isn't automatic. Helping merchants implement these five steps will help them. Turn one-time purchases into repeat visits throughout the year. 
Elie Y. Katz is founder, president and CEO at National Retail Solutions (NRS), https://nrsplus.com. Contact him by phone at 201-715-5179 or by email at ekatz@nrsplus.com.
Notice to readers: These are archived articles. Contact information, links and other details may be out of date. We regret any inconvenience.
