Speaking with early childhood providers across the country, we heara common theme: it’s challenging to get the right materials for the classroom quickly so they can focus on high-quality care and education. They’re passionate about unleashing the individual potential of every child and believe that streamlining back-office functions enables them to focus more time and energy on their education mission, providing a better experience for children.
In order to understand how much time and money is spent stocking childcare centers, Amazon Business worked with Agile Education Marketing to survey 780 center directors and in-home providers from across the U.S. about their purchasing habits: where they shop, how often they buy, and how much they spend filling their centers with supplies.
“With Amazon Business, I managed to cut my monthly expense budget by at least 40% a month with bulk ordering – 95% of all equipment and supplies I have been looking for I have been able to find for a reasonable price and with good quality.”
– Tessie Ragan, owner of Perfect Start Preschool
The results indicate a considerable amount of time is spent on manual processes for purchasing. Ninety-four percent of providers said they spend 2-10 hours a week making shopping trips and tracking receipts to get the supplies they need for their classrooms. Of those, 30% visit between three and six different retailers, spending on average $1,000 per month on everything from books and cleaning supplies, to snacks. That’s a lot of time shopping around.
These hours spent gathering teacher requests, driving, loading shopping carts, managing receipts, and transporting supplies back to schools are significant, resulting in less time focused on students and longer work hours. Fortunately, there are a number of ways schools and childcare centers can transform their purchasing processes and bring the shopping experience they know at home to work.
Why Early Childhood Education Professionals Are Using Amazon Business
The use of an online B2B store, such as Amazon Business, can optimize processes to help early childhood education providers save time and money by automating workflow approvals, adding multiple users, and running scheduled reports to compare center spend. Simplify your purchasing so you can improve employee job satisfaction and focus on growing your business.
“Getting my supplies within 1 to 2 days is a big deal when running a family childcare business,” Tessie Ragan, owner of Perfect Start Preschool, a school located 3 hours away from educational supply stores. “With Amazon Business, I managed to cut my monthly expense budget by at least 40% a month with bulk ordering – 95% of all equipment and supplies I have been looking for I have been able to find for a reasonable price and with good quality.”
By purchasing through Amazon Business, childcare providers can take advantage of convenient shipping options, such as next day deliveries, to get the supplies they need as fast as possible from hundreds of thousands of business sellers worldwide.
Educators often seek unique items to help create an engaging learning environment for students. Providers do not always have time or staff to source niche suppliers for special education toys, Montessori sensory materials, or inspiring classroom décor and organizers. Amazon Business offers a wide selection in one place – helping educators save time.
Unsurprisingly, the survey also found over a third of respondents wished they could devote more time to educational programming development, as opposed to managing purchases. While bringing these processes online might be a challenging upfront as managers shift current familiar shopping habits, it can give early childcare professionals the time and savings to focus on what really matters: the students.
“From lawn mowers to refrigerators, to crayons, we get everything we need from Amazon Business. The convenience, ease of use, and all the different choices available – all of it is great. It saves us time from having people run to the store. We have three center directors that use the account; I just see the purchases, approve them, and they’re delivered. It’s just hard to beat that value proposition for us.”
– Salman Ahmad, Franchisee Owner, The Goddard School
Amazon Business combines the selection, convenience and value customers have come to know and love from Amazon, with features and unique benefits tailored to the needs of early childcare centers. Gain efficiency and consistency through multi-user workflow approvals, product re-order lists, and analytics on your center’s spend.
Join us at the Child Care Success Summit! We will be conducting two raffles during our workshop at Child Care Success Summit for an Echo Dot Kids Edition and conducting giveaways at our booth.
Want to get started with Amazon Business today? Create a free Amazon Business account.
Customers who create an Amazon Business account through this guest blog invitation will be registered to win an Echo Dot Kids edition. The winner will be notified by email.
NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT REQUIRED TO ENTER OR WIN.
- Promotion ends 11:59 10/31/2019.
- You must be an individual legal resident of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia and the older of 18 years of age or the legal age of majority in your state of residence. Limit one entry per person per social media or customer account.
- Odds of winning depend on the number of eligible entries received.
- Our and our affiliates’ employees and their immediate family members, and associates enrolled in the Amazon Associates program are not eligible to participate.
- We reserve the right to modify or cancel this promotion at any time.
- By entering the promotion you agree that we and our affiliates will have no liability, and will be held harmless from and against any liability or loss, including reasonable attorney’s fees and costs, for all matters related to your acceptance, possession, experience with, use or misuse of the prize or participation in the promotion.
- By accepting the prize, you confirm that your receipt is neither prohibited nor inconsistent with any applicable laws, regulations, or binding orders, including applicable ethics or procurement rules, your receipt will not create a conflict of interest for Amazon, and there are no ongoing competitive procurements for which your receipt of this benefit could conflict Amazon from participating in the competition.
- Amazon is the sponsor of the promotion.
