We love getting inspiration from the big retailers out there: The Gap is running a very different Back To School sale and don’t even get me started on Ikea!

But let’s be real – they’ve got several thousands to millions of dollars in ad spend, marketing assets, photoshoots, and a team of employees to execute and ensure a return on investment…

Don’t let that get you down though. Even if your marketing budget is tight – there’s a lot you can do.

We’ve picked out 4 shops of all sizes that are built on Shopify and are currently running Back To School campaigns successfully. We discuss what we love about them:

R3volved: www.r3volved.com

R3volved sell stationery products made with recycled plastic and recycled material. Back-To-School is their jam. They’ve got fun products and their Back-To-School campaign is alive with color that would remind you of a kindergarten classroom. We love this “Back-To-School” inspired product, it’s stationery made from recycled plastic bottles and sold in case shaped like a plastic bottle. What you can do:  temporarily re-name your products or create collections to reflect your campaign. You’ll see what we mean in the next example.

Plum Fancy Boutique: plum-fancy-boutique.myshopify.com

Plum Fancy Boutique sells clothing and accessories and has cleverly created a collection called “Back-To-School” where they’re showcasing all their backpacks. Perfect way to streamline your products and make it easy on your shoppers.

Sprout School Supplies: sprout-school-supplies.myshopify.com

This Shopify store creates and sells supply kits that they deliver right to your door. Granted, their business model is designed around Back-To-School in mind, honestly you can run with this idea too. New clothes and shoes are also purchased around Back-To-School time, re-brand your shipping “Girls Back-To-School Wardrobe Starter: any 2 pants and 2 tops for $60 – shipped right to your door”. If you sell an obscure product like Japanese Sake well my friend, you too, can run a Back-To-School campaign…

True Sake: www.truesake.com

We’ve officially seen it all. We absolutely LOVE what True Sake is doing here. They’re taking a current retail sale (Back To School) that is conventionally used for stationery and clothing product and spinning it to their benefit. These guys are Sake experts – why do anything else? The posts start out with educating the reader on Sake – the reader is going to Sake school. And then they sell the reader on their “Sake Kit” you get an introduction to Sake with this kit, which includes a suggestion of 6 Sake’s you must try. When you scroll down their page there are links to purchase each.

Brilliant.

This is something you can easily do, “Lilly’s Back-To-School Jewelry Kit” – My finest pieces perfect to get you going for your fresh start this fall. Includes a ring, necklace, and bracelet all featuring my classic wire-tie design. Email your past customers or reach out other complimentary stores and see if you can do a cross promotion.

Get your creative juices going, there is plenty to be done with a limited budget. Read our past posts on Back to School:

Blast from the past: extraordinary “old” Back To School Campaign

3 Back to School Campaigns: what they’re doing right and not so right…

“I sell auto-parts” and other excuses to not run a back-to-school campaign

-Divya, with Now In Store

Divya H. Pahwa is the Head of Community for Now In Store, where she builds marketing game plans and authors content to help small businesses grow. She worked and created marketing strategies for Charlie Hoehn, Ooomf and has been featured on Life Hacker, Thought Catalog, and FastCompany. Every morning Divya makes breakfast from scratch and enjoys it while reading animal cartoons. She can be reached at: divya@nowinstore.com