Latest / Integrate This! Ed Tech Podcast / Save Time, Save Money: How Share-a-Cart is Transforming School Purchasing | with Ed Kozek

Transcript

Save Time, Save Money: How Share-a-Cart is Transforming School Purchasing | with Ed Kozek · Integrate This! Ed Tech Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to Integrate This, your go -to EdTech
• 0:03
  podcast where curiosity meets classroom innovation.
• 0:07
  Join your hosts, David Berner and Jeremy Mikla,
• 0:09
  as we explore the rapidly evolving world of educational
• 0:12
  technology. From game -changing tools to insightful
• 0:15
  conversations with today's top EdTech voices,
• 0:18
  we're here to help educators stay informed, inspired,
• 0:21
  and ready to innovate. So tune in, level up,
• 0:25
  and let's integrate this. Welcome to the integrate
• 0:30
  this ed tech podcast. I'm Jeremy Micla and I
• 0:33
  am joined here today by CEO of share a cart at
• 0:37
  Kozak and and Ed We're really really happy to
• 0:40
  have you on the show here today and and to share
• 0:43
  a little bit about some of the really cool things
• 0:45
  that I think share a cart is doing and I hope
• 0:48
  you can kind of Enlighten the audience here a
• 0:50
  little bit too and tell them ways that they could
• 0:52
  take advantage of it but just a little bit here
• 0:56
  with More and more federal cuts to school budgets
• 0:59
  looming in the horizon for schools and districts.
• 1:03
  Combine that with a lot of schools, especially
• 1:06
  like in our area we're experiencing in rural
• 1:08
  Minnesota, declining enrollments. Schools are
• 1:12
  being forced to look for more ways to maintain
• 1:14
  that fiscal health and to reduce a lot of the
• 1:17
  inefficiencies that they're seeing within their
• 1:19
  budgets and making sure that the dollars that
• 1:23
  they do get are going to things that are going
• 1:25
  to be helping their students. And I think ShareCard
• 1:27
  helps to provide kind of a unique opportunity
• 1:31
  for schools and districts to be able to kind
• 1:36
  of modernize and engage in a collaborative procurement
• 1:40
  process, which we'll get into. But the platform
• 1:44
  also focuses on reducing some of the bottlenecks
• 1:46
  that school districts might have. It's primarily
• 1:49
  what we do, yes. Yeah, right. And by implementing,
• 1:52
  you know, digital workflows with seamless purchasing
• 1:55
  loads. Yeah. And so, Ed, you know, why don't
• 1:58
  you start out by kind of telling us a little
• 2:00
  bit about Share a Cart and what brought you here
• 2:03
  to ASU today? Sure. Thank you very much for having
• 2:05
  me. The company's been around since about 2018
• 2:08
  in one form or another. It was originally founded
• 2:11
  by my co -founder of mine who built it to basically
• 2:15
  let... two households share an Amazon account
• 2:20
  without sharing everything about the account.
• 2:23
  So he was going through a divorce, his kids went
• 2:27
  with the wife, he agreed you can buy stuff for
• 2:29
  the kids whenever you want. His wife had access
• 2:32
  to his Amazon account and years later when he
• 2:34
  got remarried his new wife wasn't so happy with
• 2:37
  that. So he was a coder and a hacker and at night
• 2:40
  he built a simple browser extension that let
• 2:42
  his ex -wife create a cart she could shop on
• 2:44
  Amazon just as she wanted. would, and the product
• 2:46
  would create a link to that cart that's shareable
• 2:48
  that she could then send to him. He could click
• 2:51
  on the link, and all the things that were in
• 2:52
  her cart gets loaded in his. He could just press
• 2:54
  buy, and that was how the product got founded.
• 2:57
  He put it up on the extension store for free
• 2:59
  on the Chrome extension store, and people started
• 3:02
  using it. He wasn't monetizing it. He just kind
• 3:04
  of did it for fun. And now we have over 300 ,000
• 3:07
  monthly active users. About a third of those
• 3:09
  work in education. about a third work in small
• 3:13
  businesses and a third are people who use it
• 3:14
  for personal reasons. Really the way it helps
• 3:18
  schools is, you guys probably know this, but
• 3:20
  the purchasing process of schools is pretty antiquated
• 3:23
  and manual. And often what happens, I've talked
• 3:26
  to a million of these people, you have some poor
• 3:28
  admin or secretary or a small purchasing department
• 3:31
  who's in charge of doing purchasing for an entire
• 3:33
  school or an entire department. And this person
• 3:35
  is fielding requests all day long from different
• 3:37
  schools, different departments, different teachers
• 3:39
  for supplies that they need. And this admin usually
• 3:42
  has to spend some time translating this list
• 3:45
  into something purchasable. So they may get an
• 3:47
  email with a bulleted list of 20 items. It could
• 3:49
  say Post -it notes, it could say pens, and she's
• 3:51
  got to go back and forth and say, what color
• 3:53
  Post -it notes, what size, how many do you need,
• 3:55
  do you need them lined or not, et cetera. So
• 3:57
  this allows the... person who needs something
• 3:59
  to shop exactly as they would if they were going
• 4:01
  to buy it themselves on any online retail site,
• 4:06
  create a link to that cart and just copy that
• 4:08
  link and send it over to the purchasing person.
• 4:10
  Again, they can click on it, everything that
• 4:12
  the teacher wants gets loaded into their cart
• 4:14
  and the admin can just press buy. So we save,
• 4:17
  on average we hear about an hour or two per order
• 4:20
  for these admins. So for those folks, it's a
• 4:24
  real silver bullet. We have some... some real
• 4:27
  heavy purchasers. We have one guy in California
• 4:31
  who supports grants, a state grant that supports
• 4:35
  after school programs. He supports 12 schools.
• 4:39
  He's got five people working for him who just
• 4:41
  do purchase currently. He buys $80 ,000 of goods
• 4:45
  every week across dozens of different purchases.
• 4:50
  So we save him and his team an hour or two per
• 4:52
  order. That really adds up to a lot of time.
• 4:55
  Yeah, so that's great. So I can definitely see
• 4:57
  where the tie -in is here for how it definitely
• 5:00
  helps make more efficient use of administrative
• 5:03
  assistants or even business office people that
• 5:06
  have to deal with, you know, the purchasing and
• 5:09
  the coding and everything that goes along with
• 5:11
  that. But the classroom teacher, how does it
• 5:14
  benefit the classroom teacher when perhaps they're
• 5:17
  maybe looking at supplies that they need for
• 5:20
  their classroom? Well, I think the back and forth
• 5:22
  sort of exacts a toll on both parties, right?
• 5:24
  If they send a list to the purchasing agent and
• 5:27
  they've got to go back and forth and interrupt
• 5:28
  the teacher and take up their time to figure
• 5:30
  out exactly what they want, you know, we're saving
• 5:31
  them. time there but you know really who we're
• 5:33
  helping are these administrative staff who whose
• 5:36
  job it is to manage these processes. And I was
• 5:40
  reading on the website that you offer that you
• 5:42
  still offer the Chrome extension. Yes. But there's
• 5:44
  also going to be or there is an integration into
• 5:47
  Google Classroom. Yes we have so we have this
• 5:50
  functionality that I described already is available
• 5:51
  for browser extensions for all the major browsers
• 5:54
  also we have an Android and iPhone apps as well.
• 5:58
  But we do have a Google Classroom plugin. We
• 6:00
  have about 3 ,000 installations of it currently
• 6:02
  that allow teachers to build a list of classroom
• 6:06
  supplies that the students in their class might
• 6:08
  need. So they can use our product again to build
• 6:10
  a link to these supplies, and then they can use
• 6:13
  Google Classroom to send out an email to parents
• 6:15
  and or students in their classes with this list
• 6:18
  of things that they need. So it kind of saves
• 6:20
  them time and lets them kind of... put inside
• 6:22
  of a system. So if a teacher had something that
• 6:26
  they needed and they sent that out through the
• 6:29
  students to their parents, the parents could
• 6:31
  see, oh, I see that we need 12 boxes of Kleenexes
• 6:34
  or whatever. And then they're able to go through
• 6:37
  and choose, I want to be able to help provide
• 6:39
  that knowing that it's going to. help save the
• 6:43
  district money in the long run, but it also is
• 6:46
  providing those things that they know that they
• 6:48
  need in their child's classroom. Yeah, exactly.
• 6:51
  And also at the beginning of the school year,
• 6:52
  if there's a list of supplies that the student
• 6:54
  needs to bring to the class for the year, they
• 6:56
  can use it for that as well. So you mentioned
• 7:00
  in your initial story about Amazon and Amazon
• 7:02
  being one of the vendors, the companies that
• 7:05
  you would work with. Do you have others that
• 7:07
  you work with that they could go on and engage
• 7:09
  in their online shopping? It's pretty much any
• 7:12
  online store you can think of we support. We
• 7:15
  have 300 direct integrations and then we also
• 7:18
  support every Shopify store and every... Magento
• 7:21
  store, Big Commerce storefront, so pretty much
• 7:23
  anyone online we support right now. And also
• 7:25
  the product is localized into about 16 different
• 7:27
  languages, so we support not just English speakers,
• 7:29
  but other folks as well. That's fantastic. And
• 7:32
  I see it as a parent too, just knowing that I
• 7:35
  could do something to help support the teacher
• 7:37
  of my kids. Yeah. And having been a teacher in
• 7:40
  the classroom myself, I could see it as... Oh,
• 7:43
  I don't have to send out, you know, another letter
• 7:46
  saying, please send this in. And it just it from
• 7:50
  the from my perspective, it seems like it was
• 7:52
  streamlined that process quite a bit. Yeah. Yep.
• 7:54
  I think it doesn't not just that, you know, we
• 7:55
  help schools save money, too. So we will offer
• 7:58
  price comparison checks as well. So if a teacher
• 8:01
  shops on Amazon, they send an Amazon to the admin
• 8:03
  and the admin clicks on that link. If we can
• 8:06
  find cheaper prices at Walmart or some other
• 8:08
  vendor that the school buys from, we'll surface
• 8:11
  that to them and say, hey, you can save. if you
• 8:13
  order through here instead. And that sounds like
• 8:15
  one way to help kind of prevent some otherwise
• 8:19
  what might be wasteful spending. But, you know,
• 8:22
  are there other things that you're seeing or
• 8:24
  data that you're able to use to help be able
• 8:27
  to prevent wasteful spending in other ways by
• 8:31
  schools and by families? I think, well, one thing
• 8:34
  that's... sort of answer to your question. I
• 8:36
  was looking at our data this morning, and I saw
• 8:39
  something that really surprised me. I got data
• 8:42
  going back from up until 2022 until now, 2026.
• 8:46
  And I have seen an increase in the price of school
• 8:51
  supplies of 64 % since 2022. That's on average
• 8:55
  per item. So average per item, all the stuff
• 8:57
  that we've seen in people's carts has gone up
• 8:59
  64%. That's more than groceries. We saw groceries
• 9:01
  go up 56%. It was the second highest increase
• 9:05
  of all the categories we track. So, you know,
• 9:07
  saving money is really, really important. And
• 9:09
  we know we'll surface this data when we can and
• 9:10
  use this data to drive feature development like
• 9:13
  this feature that I just told you about, the
• 9:15
  price comparison. Cool. Tell us about a time
• 9:20
  maybe when a teacher kind of surprised you with
• 9:23
  how they used your product. Oh yeah, we have
• 9:25
  a good one. I've got a bunch of stories, but
• 9:27
  there was this one teacher at Grand Rapids Community
• 9:30
  College, I think. He had a really cool class.
• 9:33
  He was teaching cooking, how to make quick and
• 9:37
  healthy meals to health professionals who worked
• 9:41
  in pediatric intensive care units. because their
• 9:44
  job is really stressful. They don't have a lot
• 9:46
  of free time. They usually eat junk because,
• 9:49
  you know, in between, you know, shifts. So he
• 9:52
  had a, I think it was a 12th class session where
• 9:55
  he just basically came up with a meal plan and
• 9:57
  taught them how to cook like really quick, easy
• 9:59
  and expensive meals at home. And they use share
• 10:02
  a cart. He used share a cart to create a link
• 10:03
  to all the... all the food that you would need
• 10:05
  to support that meal plan, and he would send
• 10:07
  it to all the students at the end of the class
• 10:10
  and say, you know, here's how you can easily
• 10:11
  buy these things that we just taught you how
• 10:13
  to cook. So it was a nice, heartwarming story
• 10:15
  about how someone used us. Right, and I could
• 10:18
  totally see how, oh, you mean you're going to
• 10:20
  make it so easy for me that you're going to give
• 10:22
  me the list of everything that I eat? Exactly.
• 10:24
  And then I just hit... one click and I can buy
• 10:27
  it all. And then it gets delivered to me and
• 10:30
  then I'm able to make those healthy meals because
• 10:32
  you taught me how to do those. Yep, exactly.
• 10:34
  Fantastic. You know, I'm sure what you get is
• 10:37
  a lot of feedback too from users. How do you
• 10:40
  take the feedback that you get from users and
• 10:44
  implement it to turn around to make the product
• 10:46
  even better? Yeah, I mean in a couple ways. So
• 10:48
  there was the price comparison feature we recently
• 10:50
  also launched. a product we're calling Deals
• 10:52
  for Schools. So if you log into ShareCart with
• 10:57
  a school email address, we will give you kind
• 11:00
  of a new screen, which we call Deals for Schools,
• 11:02
  which will show you deals that either are available
• 11:04
  only to teachers, or that are related to school
• 11:08
  supplies that a school might need. So we're trying
• 11:10
  to find ways to save our users even more money.
• 11:13
  And even more exciting, we just launched some
• 11:16
  AI skills and plugins, so you can... plug, share
• 11:18
  a cart into whatever AI model you use, quad,
• 11:21
  chat, GPT, and others, and then build a cart
• 11:24
  using conversational AI without even having to
• 11:27
  go to say Amazon or Walmart, or a school specialty,
• 11:30
  or discount school supply. You can sort of, you
• 11:33
  can even, I even tried this this morning, you
• 11:34
  could upload a lesson plan. And the AI will read
• 11:37
  it and say, here's what you need to teach this
• 11:39
  lesson plan. Do you want me to build a list for
• 11:41
  you? You say yes. And they say, how many kids
• 11:42
  in your class? You say 24. They say, how old
• 11:44
  are they? You say, in this age. They say, OK,
• 11:45
  great. Where do you want to buy it from? And
• 11:47
  then it will automatically generate a list. It
• 11:49
  will show you the list. You say, this looks good.
• 11:51
  And it will just give you a share cart link that
• 11:53
  you can then share with your purchasing department.
• 11:55
  Fantastic, so you're leveraging AI and then asking
• 11:58
  it, well, what am I not thinking of? What am
• 12:00
  I missing? You know, because I've got this list
• 12:02
  of classroom supplies and I forgot to put scissors
• 12:04
  on it. Yeah, I asked it. I asked it today. I
• 12:07
  said, I pretended I'm an elementary school science
• 12:09
  teacher and I want to build a volcano in the
• 12:11
  classroom with my kids. And I said, oh, do you
• 12:13
  want to use a kit or do you want to do it yourself?
• 12:14
  OK, great. Do you already have vinegar and baking
• 12:17
  soda or do you want me to add that to the list
• 12:18
  as well? These are things I never would have
• 12:20
  thought of. Right. It was like just amazing.
• 12:22
  Yeah, no, that's awesome. So you've given us
• 12:25
  There's a lot of great reasons why a teacher,
• 12:27
  an educator, a school administrator would find
• 12:30
  very beneficial about using Shareacart. How do
• 12:32
  they get started? Oh, just go to Shareacart .com.
• 12:35
  There will be links right there to download the
• 12:37
  product. The other thing, which I didn't mention,
• 12:39
  which schools love, is that the product is free.
• 12:41
  There is no hidden cost. This isn't free for
• 12:43
  a period of time, and then we'll charge you later
• 12:45
  on. We make money via affiliate commissions,
• 12:48
  just like a review site would. So if any of these
• 12:51
  items get purchased, sometimes the retailer will...
• 12:54
  pay us basically a very small commission for
• 12:57
  referring that customer to them. It doesn't increase
• 13:00
  the price for our users at all, and this is a
• 13:03
  very common practice in the industry. So again,
• 13:05
  the product is free, frictionless, you don't
• 13:06
  even have to sign up to use it. But if you do
• 13:09
  you get a few extra features like a dashboard
• 13:11
  and some analytics and auditing and Approval
• 13:14
  capabilities sure and you know I know one of
• 13:17
  the things too that a lot of schools that we
• 13:20
  work with are very Concerned with is the privacy
• 13:22
  of the data that you collect to is that data
• 13:26
  stored in a way that you know could be Shared
• 13:30
  out to other third -party vendors or or is it
• 13:33
  something that you just? you protect and you
• 13:36
  keep safe and as long as you need it. Yeah, we
• 13:39
  protect and keep it safe. It even says on our
• 13:41
  home page, we will not sell your data in any
• 13:42
  way. We have gotten requests from other companies.
• 13:45
  Hey, do you license up your data? Can we sell
• 13:46
  it? It's kind of viable because it shows purchase
• 13:48
  intent and purchase trends over time. But we
• 13:51
  haven't ever done it. And in fact, as I said
• 13:52
  before, you can use the product for free without
• 13:54
  even giving us. any personal information. You
• 13:57
  don't have to give us your email or anything.
• 13:58
  You can just download it and start using it,
• 14:00
  and you'll get basically all the features for
• 14:03
  nothing. That's great. I'm kind of thinking about
• 14:06
  it. I have a kid in college. I used it for my
• 14:08
  son in college. And I'm thinking that might be
• 14:11
  something that we need to explore. Yes. When
• 14:13
  he's at school and he needs stuff, he just creates
• 14:15
  a list and sends it to me. And hey, why not put
• 14:18
  grandma and grandpa on that list of people receiving
• 14:20
  it too, right? 100%. So I really appreciate you
• 14:24
  taking the time. time and sharing more about
• 14:26
  Shareacart with us. Is there anything else before
• 14:29
  we wrap it up here that you would like to shout
• 14:32
  out or to draw attention to and let our listeners
• 14:37
  know more about? I think we love feedback, so
• 14:39
  if you give the product a try, and I hope you
• 14:41
  will, we're very responsive. So please let us
• 14:44
  know, drop us a note on feedback at Shareacart
• 14:46
  .com and we would love to. We're very quick.
• 14:48
  We can also iterate your suggestions into the
• 14:50
  product very quickly. We're a small startup.
• 14:52
  And we appreciate any support you can give us.
• 14:55
  Yeah. Well, thanks, Ed. We'll make sure to include
• 14:57
  the links to share a cart and the information
• 15:00
  that you shared with us here today. And we look
• 15:03
  forward to maybe bumping into you again here
• 15:05
  at the conference. I hope so. I hope so. Thanks
• 15:07
  a lot. All right. All right. Thank you. Thank
• 15:10
  you. Thanks for listening to Integrate This.
• 15:14
  Want to take your learning further? Head over
• 15:16
  to our YouTube channel for quick tutorials, deep
• 15:19
  dives, and more EdTech tips you can use right
• 15:22
  away. Don't forget to subscribe and catch new
• 15:25
  podcast episodes every Thursday on Apple, Spotify,
• 15:30
  or wherever you get your podcasts. Until next
• 15:32
  time, keep exploring, keep innovating, and keep
• 15:36
  integrating this.