Teaching in Person and Online

 Been reading the book below, so far looks very good and to the point in these times.  Have not finished, but good so far.  The technical specifics may get out of date, but the rest should hold up. 

The Hybrid Teacher, Using Technology to teach in Person and OnLine,  by Emma Pass

A practical educational technology resource for educators teaching remotely or in the classroom

The most effective hybrid teachers are those that have a vast knowledge of instructional strategies, technologies, tools, and resources, and can masterfully build meaningful relationships with students in person and through a screen. The Hybrid Teacher: Using Technology to Teach in Person and Online will teach educators to leverage the technology they have access to both in their traditional brick-and-mortar classrooms and in remote learning environments, including established online and hybrid schools; emergency response models for pandemics, natural disasters; rural education; and connecting with students who can't make it to school.    ( Do note that Emma is a middle school teacher, so some of her examples are from that realm,  but still I think useful.)

Many of us had to adapt to online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, but we still need resources for optimizing our instruction and becoming the best teachers we can be. This book is a practical guide for teachers who want to prepare for current and future remote instruction or leverage the best practices of remote instruction and EdTech tools to bring back to their brick-and-mortar classrooms. You'll learn about the impact of social and economic differences on classroom technology, and you'll find strategies and advice for maximizing success in each situation.  From Amazon

MUM a new way to search online.

Is MUM just like a conversation online?   Most interesting. I  just recently noticed the amount of searching I had to do just to get background info.  

This new AI tool from Google could change the way we search online  by 7wData

What does the future of internet search look like? Google envisions it as looking more like a casual conversation with a friend. 

While Google’s search engine has been online for over two decades, the technology that powers it has been constantly evolving. Recently, the company announced a new artificial-intelligence system called MUM, which stands for Multitask Unified Model. MUM is designed to pick up the subtleties and nuances of human language at a global scale, which could help users find information they search for more easily or allow them to ask more abstract questions.  

Google already used MUM in an independent task to learn more about the different ways people refer to COVID vaccines, but says that the new tech is not yet part of their search system. While there’s currently no set timeline on when the feature will roll out in live search, the team is actively working on developing other one-off tasks for MUM to complete. 

Here’s what to know about what MUM is, how it’s different from what’s come before, and more.   ... '

Wal-Mart is Growing

Though I rarely use them online, their stores are more impressive these days.  Apparently adjusted well to Covid.

Walmart keeps growing and growing and …  in Retailwire
by George Anderson in Retailwire, with expert discussion.

Walmart came out with its second-quarter numbers and the retailer did not disappoint investors. The chain reported that same-store sales, excluding fuel, were up 9.3 percent during the quarter and online sales jumped 97 percent.

Walmart’s strong performance followed a first-quarter for which it reported a 10 percent gain in same-store sales and e-commerce growth of 74 percent.

Speaking on Walmart’s earnings call with analysts yesterday, CEO Doug McMillon said the retailer benefited from tailwinds, including the federal government’s stimulus payments and more people eating at home. The chain also saw sales increase as customers spent money on products to entertain themselves in their homes and also to fix them up.

He also noted that reduced store hours and out-of-stocks in some categories had a dampening effect on sales. Walmart recently announced that it is moving its closing time from 8:30 p.m. to 10:00 in 4,000 of its 4,700 stores. He also said that the chain experienced out-of-stocks in some states where COVID-19 cases were on the rise.

Mr. McMillon said that the retailer has completed the integration of its store and online merchant teams as it continues on its “path to transform into an omnichannel organization.” The company pointed to improvements in online margins as an indication of a more balanced product mix and operational efficiencies it has achieved. ... " 

Super Saturday vs Black Friday

Another look, with some numbers, with further expert comment and opinions from Retailwire.

Is Super Saturday rivaling Black Friday in importance? in Retailwire   by Tom Ryan

Super Saturday’s sales this year reached $34.4 billion, becoming the biggest single day in U.S. retail history and surpassing Black Friday’s haul of $31.2 billion by 10 percent, according to Customer Growth Partners.

The next biggest shopping days were Dec. 14 ($28.1 billion) and Cyber Monday ($19.1 billion). With only expedited shipping options left, Super Saturday tends to be more of an in-store than online event.

While foot traffic was down at most malls, the conversion rate, or the percentage of people who go to malls and make a purchase, increased, Customer Growth Partners said.

Super Saturday was expected to gain a boost from the compressed holiday selling season. The season saw six fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas and one less Saturday this year versus 2018.

NRF’s survey predicted 147.8 million planned to shop on Super Saturday in the U.S., up from 134.3 million last year.  .... " 

Nike Sees Online Dominating

Retail continues to surge online ...

Nike sees online eclipsing offline sales   by Tom Ryan in Retailwire with further expert comment.

The standard defense to the “Retail Apocalypse” is research showing that online sales still make up less than 10 percent of all retail sales. But Nike just joined a growing crop of brands that now expects over half of its sales to eventually originate online.

On its second-quarter conference call last week, Andy Campion, Nike’s CFO, noted that at its Investor Day last October, Nike predicted that online revenue — both from its own and wholesale partner websites — would generate about 30 percent of its sales by 2023, up from 15 percent currently.   .... " 

Online Out of Stocks

One of our key exploration areas.   Including mobile assistance to instore personnel.  How diffiecult if the problem online?   Stronger communications or connections to fulfillment?

Study: Online retailers losing billions in sales to out-of-stocks    by George Anderson in Retailwire

Out-of-stocks are a problem for retailers that may be almost twice as bad online than in stores. That’s the conclusion of new research from the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), which found sites across the globe could be losing billions in sales every year because products aren’t available online when consumers wish to purchase them.

The report, “A Worldwide Study of Extent, Shopper Reactions, and Implications for Non-Food Online Retail Categories,” written by Daniel Corsten, professor of operations and technology and IE Business School, and Thomas Gruen, professor of marketing at the University of New Hampshire, tracked online product availability of baby care, fabric care, hair car, oral care, skin care and shaving products on websites operated by retailers in China, France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the U.S.

“This is one of the first studies on online availability after previous reports over the past decade studying on-shelf availability and its effects on consumer purchasing patterns,” said Keith Olscamp, director of industry affairs and collaboration at GMA, in a statement. “The findings should encourage retailers and brands to collaborate and enhance online availability in the fast-growing area of online retail.”   ... " 

Google Deals with Retailer Carrefour to Sell Groceries Online

We worked with Carrefour in our innovation spaces and in France and China.  Looks like Home and Google Assistant will be utilized. Emphasis on fresh foods.  Competition seems to be driving this.  Amazon has just announced rollout of Echo in France.

Google Enters Deal With Carrefour to Sell Food Online in France  By Robert Williams in Bloomberg

Alphabet Inc.’s Google entered a deal with Carrefour SA to sell groceries online in France in what the retailer said was the first time fresh food will be marketed through the Internet giant’s platforms.

By early 2019, French shoppers will be able to buy Carrefour’s products through Google platforms including Home, Assistant and the Google shopping destination in France, the retailer said in a statement. Carrefour didn’t comment on the financial structure of the deal.

Competition in the French supermarket business has been heating up as grocers race to boost their digital offerings. Casino Guichard Perrachon SA in March announced a deal to sell products from its Monoprix stores via Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime service in the Paris area, following a deal last year between Casino and grocery e-commerce technology provider Ocado Group Plc. ... " 

Wal-Mart to sell Online Books

A more serious move by a retailer into online channels.

Walmart Challenges Amazon with E-Book Move

Walmart plans to sell e-books and audiobooks, its latest effort to encroach on an area of Amazon strength. The nation's largest retailer said Thursday it has struck a deal to use Tokyo-based Rakuten Inc.'s e-reading service called Kobo to sell e-books and audio books. It will also offer e-readers in Walmart stores and online in the U.S. starting later this year.

The content will be accessible through a Walmart-Kobo app on Apple and Android devices. Kobo offers nearly 6 million titles from thousands of publishers.

Walmart is aiming to narrow the gap between itself and Amazon online by expanding its services and adding new items. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer has long offered entertainment including streaming movies through Vudu or the digital game cards it sells in its stores.  ... " 

Procter Buys Online Startup

Just deoderants, or a broader look at online, replenishment?  Likely

P&G acquires startup that specializes in online sales
By Barrett J. Brunsman  –  Staff reporter, Cincinnati Business Courier

Procter & Gamble revealed today the company has acquired Native, a startup competitor that specializes in direct-to-consumer personal care products that are devoid of what some people consider to be harmful chemicals.

The Cincinnati-based maker of consumer goods such as Secret antiperspirant (NYSE: PG) described Native as one of the fastest-growing deodorant brands in North America. .... "

Online and Amazon Continue Move Forward

With interesting data and comments on the topic by retail experts.  And even with some classic retail help:  Kohl’s opens Amazon shops in Chicago  ....

Online and Amazon to grow more dominant over the next decade
By George Anderson  In RetailWire

Consumers will continue to make more purchases online while cutting back on in-store purchases over the next decade, according to a report by FTI Consulting, which forecasts total online spending in the U.S. to surpass $1 trillion by 2027.

Online sales, which now account for roughly 12 percent of total retail sales, excluding auto and gas, will grow to 22 percent over the next 10 years, according to the estimates.

“The impact of accelerating online sales growth has been evident in the past two years, with elevated levels of retail bankruptcies and announced store closures amid a non-recessionary environment,” said Christa Hart, a senior managing director in FTI’s retail & consumer products practice, in a statement. “If online sales double by 2023, as we expect, stores will have to contend with the prospect of losing the same amount of sales to the online channel in the next six years as they did in the previous 16. The frustration for many retailers is that even building a complex and expensive omnichannel enterprise has just kept them in the game instead of leading to renewed profitability.”

The biggest beneficiary of the shift from stores to online will be Amazon.com, according to FTI. The e-tailer, which currently accounts for 34.2 percent of online sales, will see its share grow to more than 50 percent of the market by 2027, the firm estimates. .... " 

Getting the Most from your Online Ad Money

In K@W:  Reconsidering the 'last touch'.

" ... Advertisers often use multiple publishers for their online campaigns, but may not use the best metrics to decide which ones they should compensate. Should companies compensate the publisher who showed the last ad to a consumer before a purchase? Or, should they pay publishers every time they show the ads to prospective consumers?

Research by Wharton marketing professor Ron Berman finds that the “last touch” or “last click” method advertisers typically employ to compensate publishers is the wrong way to go about it. Berman’s research shows that the “last click” method entails a moral hazard in driving “adverse selection,” where publishers show ads to consumers who would buy the product anyway.... "

March on: Cost of Bad Online Experiences

A good piece in CIO Insight, with some very useful points.  But I have some issues again with the format.   The slide show.  This is getting more common, apparently to provide more space for advertising.  Discussed it with my colleagues.  The reaction is universally negative.  It stretches out the real content into a long train of information.  Akin to multi-quintuple spacing document and then adding mostly irrelevant pictures in between the text.  Reminds me of some of Edward Tufte's work on the march of slideshows.   At very least a sloppy cognitive style.  Sad here because the content is actually good, the format just degrades it.  An example of a bad online experience itself.  Fix it.

Coke Online Mag Succeeds

Coke has an online magazine.  Why does one of the best known brands in the world need its own magazine?   Not sure how this would work with much less known brands, but I like the characteristics they are requiring for articles in the magazine.  Apparently very successful.   In Smartblogs.

Soap Opera Moving Online

Dave Knox posts on new experiments by Procter with online soap. Links to another local article on the change. Outlines some of P&G's goals. One of the world's largest advertiser and marketers took it from paper to radio to TV ... and now to the Internet?