Craftgate: Almost half of consumers wait until September to do their back-to-school shopping

• Approximately 47.9% of Spanish families have already used interest-free installment payments during the 2025 back-to-school season.

• In e-commerce, sectors such as fashion account for between 6% and 9% of annual turnover in September.

• During seasonal sales peaks, payment orchestration—technology powered by Craftgate—can increase transaction success rates by up to 20% and reduce operating costs by between 15% and 30% per transaction.

With the arrival of September, e-commerce businesses kick off one of the most active shopping seasons of the year. The start of the school year and the anticipation of strong year-end consumption periods make September a month on the rise. According to a study by Klarna, the majority of consumers (47.4%) wait until September to make their back-to-school purchases. This has a direct impact on retailers, boosting sales by 4% compared to August, and in sectors such as online fashion which, according to Wardem, accounts for between 6% and 9% of annual turnover in September.

In addition to these seasonal marketing strategies, marked changes in consumer behavior continue to facilitate quick purchases while increasing online traffic and sales volumes. In fact, for back-to-school purchases alone, OCU indicates that online sales will grow 35% compared to last year. These forecasts consolidate the leadership of the online channel, which already accounts for 55% of purchases this season.

“The increase in traffic and the need to maximize revenue is not simply an opportunity—it also entails a higher risk of payment failures, cart abandonment, and security threats for e-commerce. These problems can cause significant revenue losses and damage a brand’s reputation,” emphasizes Jorge Sorial, Country Manager of Craftgate in Spain. “Payment orchestration addresses these problems head-on by providing a robust, flexible, and secure infrastructure that can intelligently route transactions, retry failed payments, and offer customers a wide range of payment options.”

As analyzed by Craftgate, a leading payment orchestration platform, merchants unprepared for seasonal peaks can see key metrics drop, such as conversion rates by up to 10% due to overload or friction in payments, and cart abandonment rates increase between 15% and 30% if the system cannot support demand. Once again, reducing shopping cart abandonment rates—already exceeding 70%—stands out as one of the main needs of merchants. Among the reasons behind this figure, recent studies show that 85% of online shoppers abandon their cart when they do not see their preferred payment method at checkout. Specifically, around 67% of Spanish users would switch merchants in order to access BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) solutions.

Thus, the availability of payment alternatives makes the difference in a context where the rise of digital tools and economic needs continue to drive adoption of methods such as BNPL: during the 2025 back-to-school season, according to Klarna, approximately 47.9% of Spanish families have already used interest-free installment payments, while 22.9% plan to try it for the first time in the 2025/2026 school year.

“Thanks to payment orchestration technology, companies can increase their conversion rates by up to 20%, dynamically routing transactions according to performance, geographic location, costs, and other variables. In addition, it reduces operating costs by between 15% and 30% per transaction and ensures greater resilience by minimizing failures in payment gateways and local networks, thus guaranteeing an uninterrupted shopping experience—a crucial factor during sales campaigns that trigger sudden spikes in traffic,” concludes Craftgate’s Country Manager in Spain.

About Craftgate
Craftgate is a leading payment orchestration platform offering a comprehensive solution for managing digital transactions. A FinTech headquartered in Istanbul, Turkey, Craftgate positions itself as a “One-Stop Shop” payment orchestration platform, where companies and online merchants can easily integrate and manage the virtual POS systems of all acquiring banks they work with, as well as other local and global payment providers, through a single integration and from a single point. Thanks to its extensive experience, Craftgate has deep knowledge of payment dynamics in Turkey and Spain.

More information: https://craftgate.io/es/

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