John Driscoll, President Let’s face it: The whole back-to-school supply list process is stuck in the Stone Age. Whether it’s a teacher embellishing a classroom, a parent prepping his younger one, or a high school student embarking on a new academic session, shopping for supplies is often a daunting task. Given the current epoch of tech-savvy-ness, there is a surging appetite for the aspect of convenience in shopping. Despite the fact that school supply shopping is a tough nut to crack, TeacherLists ushers-in an easier, smarter and faster way, catering to the needs of schools and parents through one-stop shopping. The firm, in close partnerships with schools, EdTech providers, and national retailers such as Target and Amazon, has devised a platform that enables one-click back-to-school supply list shopping. “Our lists are even shared on Target’s School List Assist, making it easier than ever for parents to find their child’s supply list when and where they need it,” states John Driscoll, President, Teacherlists.
Accentuating the quandaries in the process, Driscoll points out, “Traditionally, posting a Word doc or PDF to a school website worked for finding a list, but it isn’t easy to access on a phone and it certainly doesn’t deliver the convenience of one-stop shopping.” TeacherLists’ online platform empowers schools with easy management and sharing of school supply lists with parents on any smart device, anytime. To begin with, the TeacherLists Power Loader feature allows teachers to simply upload and digitize the supply lists. Once the lists are uploaded on the TeacherLists platform, they are instantly shared with national retailers, on the school’s website, in the school app, at TeacherLists. com, and more. These lists can further be shared by schools via social media, email, and newsletters. The firm’s highly flexible online platform is embedded in education apps like BlackBoard’s Web Community Manager, SchoolMessenger School Websites, and SchoolInfoApp, removing the need for downloading or installing yet another new tool for communicating with parents and handling the administrative tasks.
With the most popular school items matched to
specific UPC codes, parents simply click the “buy
now” button and retailers can pre-fill shopping
baskets and provide one-click checkout
The solution notifies the parents every time a supply list for a specific class is posted. “With the most popular school items matched to specific UPC codes, parents simply click the “buy now” button and retailers can pre-fill shopping baskets and provide one-click checkout,” explains Driscoll. Sure enough, the conversion rates go up and average basket size increases significantly when shopping baskets are pre-populated with items that the teacher has specifically requested. All lists can be updated with a few clicks each year, and all changes are reflected real-time regardless of where the parent is accessing the list.
Designed specifically to ease supply list shopping, TeacherLists’ school-centric approach is what keeps it a mile ahead of retailers-specific solutions such as Walmart's Classrooms or Amazon’s School Lists.“The school-centric TeacherLists solution is based on one standardized data format, allowing the lists to be shared everywhere, without requiring a commitment to a single retailer,” explains Driscoll.
Opening up new horizons, TeacherLists currently boasts more than 1 million classroom school supply lists for over 40,000 schools across the nation. The firm’s prowess in making back to school shopping a breeze has recently helped Trailview Elementary, an elementary school in Mora. TeacherLists assisted Trailview to enhance parent-to teacher and parent-to-school connection along with easy access to the supply lists.
With success stories like the above, TeacherLists is revolutionizing the way schools, teachers, and parents approach the annual school supply list chore. Besides collaborating with more EdTech companies, “For back-to-school 2017-18, we anticipate having more than 1.3 million class supply lists on our platform,” wraps up Driscoll.
