3 Steps to Optimize Customer Data and Boost Remarketing Conversion for Back to School 2026

When products are ready, the real competitive edge lies in how you reach and engage customers

Back to School is a sales season with a relatively short peak window. When multiple retail chains run promotions and campaigns during the same period, the differentiator is no longer who offers the better deal, it is who reaches the right customer before the purchase decision is made.

According to VECOM's Vietnam E-Business Index (EBI) 2026 report, Vietnam's e-commerce market reached USD 38.5 billion in 2025, up 21% year-on-year. The growth of digital channels has not only expanded reach to consumers but also enabled businesses to accumulate increasing volumes of data on search behavior, purchase patterns, and customer interactions.

In practice, many retail chains already hold valuable data from Mid-Year Sale campaigns, purchase history, and membership programs. However, not every business knows how to activate this data to remarket at the right moment, personalize messaging, and lift conversion rates during Back to School.

In this context, customer data becomes the foundation for optimizing remarketing performance and driving stronger conversion during the Back to School season.

Consumers research online before visiting the store

The consumer shopping journey increasingly begins online. According to DoubleVerify, 40% of consumers in the Asia-Pacific region made a purchase through social media platforms in the past year, with Vietnam among the markets driving this trend. This underlines the growing role digital platforms play in the consumer purchase journey.

For Back to School specifically, this behavior is even more pronounced, as parents and students typically compare prices, check ongoing promotions, and read product reviews before choosing where to shop.

This makes customer data the foundation for retailers to run more effective outreach. Instead of sending the same message to the entire customer base, businesses can segment by purchase history, product categories of interest, or engagement level to build messaging that fits each segment.

The prevailing trend among retail chains today is also shifting from running standalone campaigns toward building reusable data systems and engagement playbooks that carry across multiple sales seasons. This not only improves performance during Back to School but also lays the groundwork for year-end campaigns and other peak periods ahead.

Improving campaign performance through proper data optimization

During peak periods, increasing ad spend does not guarantee better results if a business has not fully activated its existing customer data. Rather than expanding reach to new audiences, businesses should prioritize re-engaging customers who already have a relationship with the brand, following a three-step process.

Step 1: Audit and segment your data

Instead of working from one generic list, classify customers by behavior and purchase readiness to build relevant messaging. Businesses can start with three priority segments:

• Segment 1: Customers who purchased Back to School products in the previous season, such as backpacks, uniforms, school supplies, or learning devices.
• Segment 2: Customers who engaged with the brand in recent campaigns, submitted contact information, or added products to cart without completing a purchase.
• Segment 3: Members or customers showing signals relevant to Back to School, for example those who previously purchased children's or family-related products, where such data is available.

Segmenting upfront allows businesses to prioritize resources toward the customer segments most likely to convert, rather than running a single campaign across the entire database.

Step 2: Activate campaigns by segment

Once segmented, each customer group should receive messaging aligned with their specific behavior.

For example:

• Customers who purchased Back to School products last year: send loyalty-exclusive offers or recommend complementary products for the new school year.
• Customers who engaged but did not purchase: highlight featured products, current promotions, or key benefits to drive the purchase decision.
• Members: send personalized offers, loyalty points, or exclusive benefits to increase the incentive to return.

When content aligns with each segment's needs, messaging relevance increases, improving open rates, engagement, and conversion.

Step 3: Track performance and continue nurturing

A campaign should not end after the first send. Businesses need to monitor metrics such as open rate, click-through rate, response rate, and resulting orders to evaluate the performance of each segment.

For customers who have not yet converted, businesses can run a follow-up remarketing wave after 3 to 5 days using a different message or offer rather than repeating the same content. At the same time, all engagement data gathered during Back to School should be retained to support year-end campaigns, helping businesses build an increasingly accurate customer base and sustain long-term marketing efficiency.

Combining SMS Brandname and Zalo Business Solutions to optimize the peak period

Once customer data is segmented, businesses need to select the right engagement channel for each campaign objective. For short peak seasons like Back to School, combining multiple channels helps maintain reach throughout the entire shopping journey rather than relying on a single send.

For example, a business can send SMS Brandname to announce a promotion or remind customers of an upcoming deadline. Customers are then directed to the brand's Zalo Official Account to browse the product catalog, images, pricing, or receive consultation. If the customer still has not converted, the business can follow up with a relevant reminder message based on their interaction history.

SMS Brandname is well suited for notifications, offers, or reminders that require fast, direct reach. Zalo Business Solutions, on the other hand, supports richer visual content such as product images, catalogs, and promotional details, helping customers explore further before making a decision.

When deployed on a unified data platform, the two channels do not operate in isolation but reinforce each other at each stage of the customer journey. This improves remarketing performance, strengthens the engagement experience, and maximizes the value of the data already collected.

Case Study: WinCommerce grows Zalo OA followers by over 20,000 and drives more than 1 million interactions through Zalo Business Solutions

WinCommerce implemented Zalo Business Solutions (ZBS) combined with a Mini App to build an O2O journey, connecting the online and offline shopping experience. Through a series of minigames, vouchers, in-store check-ins, and a friend-referral mechanism, the campaign encouraged continuous engagement on Zalo while collecting data to support ongoing personalization and customer care.

The result: nearly 10,000 participants within the first three days, more than 1 million interactions on the WinCommerce Mini App, and over 20,000 new Zalo Official Account followers. This became a key foundation for WinCommerce to expand its customer base, sustain engagement beyond the campaign, and run effective remarketing activities going forward. See full case study here.

FAQ

1. Which customer segments should businesses prioritize during the Back to School peak period?

Businesses should prioritize customers who previously purchased Back to School products and members with recent purchase history. This segment converts at a higher rate, given existing demand and an established level of trust with the brand. From there, businesses can expand to customers who engaged but did not convert, to capture additional conversion opportunities.

2. What customer data improves SMS Brandname campaign performance?

At minimum, businesses need phone numbers, purchase history, and the most recent purchase date. With additional data on product categories purchased, customer segment, or shopping behavior, businesses can personalize content more effectively and increase conversion.

3. Why combine SMS Brandname with Zalo Business Solutions during Back to School?

The combination works because SMS Brandname enables fast, direct customer reach, while Zalo Business Solutions supports richer visual content and stronger engagement. SMS is well suited for immediate notifications, offers, or reminders, while Zalo can display images, product information, and call-to-action buttons. Together, they extend reach and maintain multiple touchpoints across the shopping journey.

4. What metrics should businesses track to evaluate campaign performance?

Businesses should track metrics such as successful delivery rate, conversion rate, revenue by segment, and channel-level performance. For SMS Brandname, the system provides Sent and Failed reporting. For ZBS, businesses can track Delivered, Failed, Expired, and Seen (when sending via User ID), enabling evaluation of reach, message visibility, and optimization of content, timing, and target segments.

5. How should customer data be leveraged after the Back to School season ends?

Businesses should continue using customer data for remarketing and post-purchase engagement. Data collected during Back to School can be segmented by purchase history, engagement level, or order value to support year-end campaigns such as Black Friday or Tet. Reusing this data helps optimize marketing spend and improve conversion rates in subsequent campaigns.

Conclusion

Back to School is not only a peak sales season, it is also an opportunity for businesses to assess and strengthen how they leverage customer data. When data is properly segmented, paired with relevant messaging, and deployed through the right channels, businesses can increase conversion during the back-to-school period while building a quality data foundation for future remarketing campaigns.

Rather than waiting until demand peaks to act, businesses should proactively audit their data, segment their customer base, and build engagement playbooks starting from the preparation phase. This approach maximizes Back to School performance while creating a competitive advantage for upcoming year-end campaigns such as Black Friday, Christmas, and Tet.

If your business is looking for a solution to connect customer data with SMS Brandname and Zalo Business Solutions, VietGuys is ready to support you, from building the engagement playbook to executing campaigns aligned with your specific business objectives.

Contact VietGuys right here for a consultation on building a Customer Engagement Platform tailored to your business needs, combining SMS Brandname, Zalo ZBS, and other Mobile Marketing solutions to automate touchpoints, streamline operations, and enhance engagement performance across the entire customer journey.