Cyber Monday is Today!

With e-commerce accounting for more shopping activity than ever before, the delineation between Cyber Monday and Black Friday may be losing relevance; however, it’s still poised to be a big online shopping day this year.

 

Cyber Monday deals tend to have time sensitivities, so the earlier you make purchases, the better! Some wait the whole year on appliances and household items to take advantage of the exciting opportunities that Cyber Monday offers to willing customers. It's all about having a game plan because once the day starts, one can get easily distracted by the plethora of options to shop from. 

 

As an e-commerce shop owner, Cyber Monday is your personal Super Bowl! Shop owners need to plan ahead for the day and really take advantage of the customers who are eager to score the day. 

 

Datonics launched Audience Insights, an app to help Shopify merchants prepare all the data they need to score their own touchdowns on Cyber Monday. Armed with information and data analytics, owners can properly advertise and segment their audiences to cater to their specific shopping preferences. Only by understanding the shopping preferences of your customer base, can you understand areas of growth potential for your e- commerce business. 

 

The Shopping Preferences Dashboard is a key feature of Audience Insights that learns what visitors are in the market for and can get conversions from likely buyers. In this way, you can cater your e- commerce Cyber Monday promotions and campaigns to what will be enticing for potential shoppers on this day.

 

 Happy Cyber Monday!

Recognizing Small Business Saturday

Datonics recognizes Small Business Saturday, in which all those hard working and creative behind-the-scenes ruling entrepreneurs are celebrated!  

Shopify is a platform that celebrates small businesses and what they each bring to the table. What makes small businesses so unique is the ability to see a small team give an idea or project their whole undivided efforts and hopefully watch those efforts build something great. The level of personalization to each customer and order is unparalleled with a high level of human contact and support. Small businesses pride themselves on giving their customers an experience they won’t forget when engaging with the business. They continuously learn from their customers and adapt the business model they have established to better reflect their customers' changing needs and wants. 

With this mindset, Datonics launched Audience Insights on the Shopify platform to further help small businesses thrive with their e-commerce sites. This insight is crucial for small businesses with limited funds because by understanding your customer base you can use funds in the most optimal way that would speak to those clients.  

With the Shopping Preferences Dashboard feature, you can learn what customers are in the market for and focus on getting sales conversions from those avenues. This insight can also help with marketing performance and hone in on customers close to completing a purchase.  

Another incredible feature is the Demographics Dashboard, which provides advanced data on your clients such as milestones, anniversaries, and other life events that can be beneficial.  

Running a small business is tough, and the more you know the more you will want to know! Audience Insights is a crucial factor to help you step up that game and provide the quality customer experience that makes shopping from a small business so meaningful. 

Black Friday Is Almost Here

Black Friday is on the horizon and that means lines and sales and shopping galore! While you may not be lining up outside stores the whole night to capitalize on the best promotions… who doesn’t love a great deal! Flipping the perspective to online merchants, Black Friday can be a pivotal day to increase sales and website traffic for your e-commerce site. There are no real rules for Black Friday sales, so lean into the spirit of the day and see what potential can come of it.

 

Some strategies include:

  • Set up a “Deal an Hour”, meaning changing the promotion and sales percentage every hour to encourage customers to stay engaged with your e-commerce site.

  • Use social media to drive customers to your different promotional strategies and deals using specific hashtags that link to your e-commerce site.

  • Create a gift with purchase for customers who spend a certain amount, to encourage them to push that “order” button on your e-commerce site.

  • And don’t forget, a “free shipping promotion” goes a long way!

 

While all these strategies can be helpful on Black Friday, a more targeted and strategic advertising approach would be helpful for driving sales throughout the year.

 

Datonics launched Audience Insights to enable e-commerce merchants to intimately get to know their customer base and make advertising decisions strategically. While Black Friday is a once-a-year event to capitalize on, knowing your audience and what drives them yearly can greatly increase your sales and customer engagement with your e-commerce site.

 

One specific insight that could be helpful is knowing your customers' shopping interests. For example, their store visits, value shoppers, brand loyalists, impulse buyers, and online vs retail analytics can all help you strategize how to set up and push specific campaigns for your e-commerce site. The more you know, the better you can build strategies.

 

Use Black Friday to capitalize on adrenaline-based shopping deals and promotions and then use Audience Insights to capitalize on knowing your audience, year-round!

Data in the Metaverse – What Does it Look Like?

The recent increased focus on the metaverse sparked interest at Datonics to take a closer look at the future of data and what it will look like in this new medium. After all, at its foundation, the metaverse is data.

First, let’s take a look at the infrastructure. To turn data into a metaverse experience is quite extraordinary and presents many opportunities. In this environment, there will be a need for data to be ingested, stored, accessed, analyzed and enriched, all in real-time.

There will also need be a heavy focus on establishing privacy standards via entirely new models that go beyond gated content and granted consumer consent.

Beyond infrastructure, there are so many opportunities for data application in the metaverse. Let’s examine just a few of the experiences we will have in the metaverse and data’s role:

·        Commerce – Commerce will thrive in the metaverse, and in theory, brands will have a much better window into what consumers like, creating a better and more relevant experience. The more time consumers spend in the metaverse, the more data will be available to help marketers make not just campaigns, but tailored products that appeal to consumers.

 

·        Travel – Going on a trip in the metaverse? Yes! This will be an entirely new travel category in the future and imagining these kinds of experiences is exciting. For example, we could go visit places where we cannot physically go like under the ocean, into space or into the depths of the earth. While we currently have documentaries that take us on these types of journeys, the metaverse experience will incorporate more than just vision and sound. It will feel like we’re actually swimming with fish or floating in space. To make such trips possible, there will need to be a vast storage of data taken from these locations and rendered in the metaverse.

 

·        B2B – Business in the metaverse is going to be big. We have already accelerated the move to a hybrid and remote workforce, and have identified a lack of in-person collaboration as the biggest drawback to the new normal. Improved collaboration technology will gain adoption in the business world and gathering together virtually will become more commonplace. Data will become even more critical to B2B marketers to engage with customers in these new environments.

 

·        Finance – It will be interesting to see how the finance world adapts to the metaverse and if there will be an entire new finance exchange for the metaverse. Regardless of how it manifests, companies will seek out data to help make informed decisions on where to invest.

Datonics Mask Removers

Fall is in the air and that means Halloween is right around the corner! Who doesn’t love dressing up, trick-or-treating and pumpkin decorating? Telling scary ghost stories and decorating the whole house with cobwebs is always a family favorite. What is it about this spooky season that just brings everyone together?

The one thing that makes Halloween so unique is that we all put on masks and have trouble knowing who really is behind those masks. In that sense, interacting with e-commerce shoppers can feel like a Halloween mask party, because you never really know who's behind the masks and what kind of customers you are dealing with.

With Audience Insights, all that has changed for Shopify merchants.

Audience Insights strips the “masks” that are so common to e- commerce merchants and allows them to really get to know their visitors. Audience Insights is the first Shopify app that allows you to unlock deep audience profiles, and gives insight such as the age, gender, marital status, education, and upcoming life events of your customers. The interest dashboard pushes this data further and gives insight into your customers' style and fashion preferences, travel preferences, content consumption, and more! It really is incredible what you can do, once you know who you’re dealing with. So don those masks, eat the pumpkin pie, and have a happy Halloween from the Datonics team to you!

Advertising Week 2021

This week, Datonics has been busy at Advertising Week, and what a week it’s been! Four full days of events filled with A-list speakers, industry experts and market leaders discussing the future of digital content and creation, programmatic, CTV and – our favorite topic – data.

 

This year’s event hosted around 500 people in person, with thousands more dialing in virtually. And while we still have a long way to go to get back to “normal,” the events this week have been a refreshing change.

A few celebrity guest speakers have added to the excitement. For example, a concert by Mary J. Blige at the Apollo. Fun collaborations include Snap Shack (Snapchat and Shake Shack), TikTok’s TikTok World, and more.

 

The events also featured fantastic networking opportunities with a dedicated Happy Hour at the end of each day. Attendees have enjoyed coming together to connect, chat about the sessions, overall business, and just catching up.

Datonics at AdMonsters Ad Ops Conference

This past week, Datonics was a proud sponsor of AdMonsters’ Ad Ops Conference, a two-day event in New York City that featured an impressive lineup of speakers from publishers, brands and technology companies. It was among the first we have attended since the start of the pandemic. It was refreshing to be in person again and take in all of the engaging content.

The event was filled with industry experts and market leaders discussing the most pressing issues impacting the advertising and publishing industry today. The agenda covered topics such as the future of brand safety, programmatic, CTV and data. 

With over 250 attendees, this event marked the first live, in-person conference for many. People traveled from all over the country including Chicago and Atlanta, and many – like those from our team – were coming from across the tristate. There was a lot of excitement about connecting in person. Some people were seeing each other for the first time in more than two years.

Datonics looks forward to more in-person industry events in the coming months!

Global Reconnections - Datonics Prepares for 2022 Events Season

The US Datonics team has enjoyed recent industry events, live concerts, sporting and networking events during which our team has had an opportunity to mingle with partners and colleagues. It’s been a welcome change from the time we all spent apart during the height of the pandemic.

Last week brought more welcome news with the US lifting the international travel ban, which has been in place since March 2020.

The end to the ban comes at an important time, allowing friends and family to reunite for the holidays. From a business perspective, the ban comes at just the right time for companies to start considering hosting colleagues from abroad and for key Q1 2022 industry events to welcome international residents.

Datonics is planning as well! We have begun our comeback to the conference circuit and are already planning on attending several much-anticipated Q1 2022 industry events such as SXSW, RampUp and IAB Leadership Summit. And now our international team – made up of R&D in Israel - is able to join us.

Some may say the biggest draw are the Texas BBQ and breakfast tacos.

We are hopeful the borders will stay open so that we can share in these experiences with our global colleagues and partners.

Datonics Puppy Party – Catching Up with Brands, Agencies and Technology Partners

Last week, Datonics hosted our friends from brands, ad agencies, DSPs/DMPs for a post-Labor Day happy hour mixer at The Wilson, a dog-friendly bar where adoption organization Muddy Paws brought several puppies for our guests to interact and play with.

A great time was had by all. We were surrounded by everyone’s two favorite things: puppies and great company. The event allowed us to re-engage with partners we haven’t seen since the start of the pandemic, while also raising awareness for a great cause. Muddy Paws’ guests included three adorable puppies - Daisy, Dixie and Delia, who captured our hearts and added to the relaxing atmosphere.

The event was scheduled until 9PM, but with drinks and conversation flowing, all stayed later into the evening. The perfect weather added to the pleasurable evening and was enjoyed on The Wilson’s front patio.

And what’s a party without party favors! All were able to choose from a Yeti rambler, a Yeti dog bowl or a Moleskin notebook, also available in our Datonics Store.

Datonics Team Celebrates End of Summer at the US Open

Some of the NYC-area Datonics team gathered to celebrate the end of summer for our annual outing to the US Open on Thursday, 9/2. We were lucky to have beautiful weather on the day, which followed one of the worst storms to hit New York City and the tristate area. We were all thankful to have made it through the storm, for the beautiful sunshine and mild temperature, and for each other’s company.

The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Corona Park was alive with music and tons of great food. Our team was able to choose between great eats and drinks in the Food Village such as: Los Tacos No.1, Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Shop, Curry Kitchen, Fish Shack, Franks & Fries, Fuku, Grey Goose Bar, Glatt Kosher, Korilla BBQ, San Matteo, Poke Yachty, Prime Burger and many more.

The tennis matches were fierce. We watched some of the best players in the world, including an electric match between Gael Monfils and Steve Johnson. The score was extremely close, with games going back and forth between the two players. French player, Monfils gave the crowd quite a performance with a celebratory dance, winning the support over USA Steve Johnson and ultimately winning and moving onto the next round.

It was a great day of in-person celebration and team building camaraderie.

We look forward to our next event!

US Open 2.png

Datonics Concert Series – The Eagles

By Rob Klein

 

As part of the Datonics Concert Series - an initiative for qualified ad agencies and partners - the Datonics team ventured to Madison Square Garden to see the legendary Eagles in the Loft Suite. We enjoyed great food included in our visit to the Loft by the private chef with dishes ranging from fresh seafood and sushi to burgers and meatballs. Mouthwatering jumbo shrimp cocktail, sushi rolls, burgers, meatballs, chicken, etc.

The staff was incredibly helpful and attentive, answering any food questions and providing a full bar along with any refreshments you could imagine.

The Eagles started off the show with the recognizable bass beat to Hotel California and the crowd going wild, immediately knowing what’s coming. Eagle’s late Glenn Frey was missed, but his son Deacon Frey stood front and center to sing lead for his dad’s parts to iconic songs like Hotel California and Take it Easy. Following in his dad’s footsteps, Glenn honored his dad and rock legend.

The band played for over 3 hours. The energy was palpable in the air. The crowd was dancing and grooving to the music. The night ended with Desperado, everyone at MSG belting along to the song. The band did a cover to Best of My Love by the Emotions to honor Charlie Watts, drummer for the Rolling Stones.

Datonics Concert Series - Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga

By Jinju Won

In celebration of the legendary Tony Bennett’s 95th birthday and last performance ever, the Datonics team experienced a night to remember!

As part of the Datonics Concert Series to connect with agencies through a fun and personable outing, it was truly an event to be celebrated and long-ingrained in our minds with the commanding stage presence of Lady Gaga and of course, the one and only, Tony Bennett.

The night started off with a delicious dinner at Quality Bistro, an elevated brasserie serving their takes on French classics. The staff had created an outdoor dining experience that seemed to plop you right in the middle of a garden party, taking you on a culinary expedition, all while being steps away from the historic Radio City Music Hall.

Content from the delightful meal and several glasses of the French-pressed sangria, the Datonics team headed over to Radio City Music Hall to enjoy a performance of a lifetime. With the crowd giving standing ovation after ovation for every song, the chants of “NY is back!” echoed the halls whilst also making you pause and think—did NY ever leave?

The energy from both performers, live band and crowd said otherwise. Lead by Lady Gaga, the night ended with the entire venue joining as one, singing Happy Birthday to the icon himself, Tony Bennett.

Thank you, Tony Bennett, for 72 years of genuine joy and talent that you have shared with all who love and respect your music! We hope to make many more memories and bop our heads to even more classics with upcoming Datonics Concert Series events that include:  

·       Dead and Company

·       Eagles

·       Harry Styles

·       Luke Combs

·       Dave Matthews

·       Billy Joel

·       John Mayer

·       Elton John and more!

Back to School: A+ for your Data Needs

Grab your backpacks and glasses because Back-to-School season is upon us! And even though there is some uncertainty, teachers and families are projected to have strong engagement in back-to-school seasonal shopping. From new outfits and bags, to the latest in educational technology, total back-to-school spending is expected to reach $37.1B, up from $33.9B last year, an all-time high according to the National Retail Federation’s annual survey. 

 

Using Audience Insights, Shopify merchants can harness this shopping energy into a quantifiable increase in sales!  The more you know, the better you can directly target your customers. What better season to be prepared than the first day of school?

Audience Insights is a tool that gives merchants the inside scoop on who is actually arriving to their online stores. Merchants can target shoppers’ back-to-school needs to whatever specific stage they might be. While animal themed school supplies and rollie-backpacks may be a hit amongst parents shopping for their young scholars, high school students may be more in the market for higher education math tools. Having specific information about different niche demographics can help merchants leverage their advertising efforts to better resonate with their potential customers. Additionally, Audience Insights provides access to data from keyword searches that can further help target specific products to specific customers. Using Audience Insights, Shopify merchants can intimately learn the habits, likes, desires, and stages of different segments of their client base to aptly prep their marketing and products for this year’s back-to-school frenzy. 

It may be a new school year, but Datonics is still ahead of the class and raising the curve on all things data!

Datonics Internship Program – Summer Experience

Datonics has been able to sustain our internship program even amidst the pandemic. We are so proud of our interns, who continue to impress us with their ideas, drive and abilities. This Summer, two outstanding young Americans Amichi and Jordan joined our data classification team in Israel. They share thoughts on their experiences below.

 

My experience as a summer intern for Datonics has definitely exceeded my expectations so far. From the first day that I arrived here everyone was so welcoming and it is clear that the Datonics office culture is very warm. I have been guided superbly by a few supervisors who have always been there to answer any questions I may have. I was very excited to be given a serious and meaningful project from day one because I felt like I was contributing to the company in a real way. In just a couple short weeks I became familiar with the company’s data taxonomy. I also learned how to analyze different domains and classify them within the Datonics taxonomy.  

-        Amichi Schleifer

 

Before I arrived at the Datonics office, I had no idea what to expect, but I was met with nothing but great things from the moment I walked in. The office was very relaxing and everyone was so nice and welcoming despite just meeting me. Every time I step into the office, my experience continues to improve by either meeting new people or receiving a new task. My short time in Israel has been amazing and the work environment I stepped into made the experience even better.

-        Jordan Poreh

Basketball & Business Lessons – Preparation, Awareness & Pride

By William Li

In both business and in basketball, there are individuals who have natural talent. We’ve all been in a situation before where we are listening to a charming, eloquent individual speak and we find ourselves marveling at how this person is able to effortlessly convey their vision and communicate their goals. Some people are simply gifted with personality and with the talent of weaving words into stories. Likewise, there are basketball players who are physically dominant, whether through their imposing size and strength or their incredible athleticism.

As a little guy who loves to compete in this sport for giants, I recognized early on that my only chance at leveling the playing field was through preparation. Even though I am almost always the smallest player on the court, I have the confidence that my obsession with working on the same shot or the same move hundreds of times will pay dividends during the game. I have confidence in how I will perform because I have trained tirelessly for each scenario and I have a strategy for neutralizing an opponent’s size or strength. Seeing the results of my preparation over the years is the reason I apply it to every area of passion that I pursue, including my work. The same way that I recognize I may not be the most talented in basketball but that I can outwork my competition, I employ the same mentality when it comes to the challenges of my job.

I am in my 30s now and while I play basketball primarily for the exercise and for fun, my pride follows me every time a game starts. I can’t shake this fascination to always want to improve and learn everything I can to gain an edge during competition. This pride and yearning for progress is also what drives me at the workplace. My love for basketball has molded my philosophy into other areas of my life.

Know your strengths, recognize your weaknesses. Use your strengths to cover up the weaknesses. And most importantly, be better than who you were yesterday.

UberEats to Uber Cooks

By Jinju Won

My roommates and I always joked how we never cooked and our fridge was only stocked with our Brita and beer. But during the pandemic, we've all grocery shopped and cooked more than ever before, all while binging the Food Network for recipes. Some of our favorite meals to cook are of the Latin American variety.

Cooking has become a wonderful way to unwind, connect with family and friends, as well as express ourselves creatively. As we’ve become more comfortable with preparing specific types of dishes, we have added in our own flares to recipes, enhancing the flavors we like best.

Who knew we were all Anthony Bourdains in hiding!

As we have reentered the world, we still try to cook at least a few times a week. This new routine has been a highlight for me from the pandemic.

👨🏻‍🦰👩🏾‍🌾👨🏻‍🍳🧑🏽‍🏫👩🏼‍💻... Who's Your Audience!?

Emoji are the hieroglyphics of our time. Much like hieroglyphics, sometimes emojis sent by one party need a team of scholars to decipher the full intent behind the little symbols and figures. Our culture thrives on limited communication that comes through with the smiley faces and crying faces sent billions of times everyday. However, when it comes to your Shopify store you want all the communication and insight possible! 


Datonics launched Audience Insights on the Shopify App store for exactly this purpose! To empower you to really understand your audience and customers and further cater to their shopping needs. Audience Insights has specific dashboards available to help you learn about your visitors spanning across shopping preference, demographics, and affinities and interests of customers. Each of these dashboards makes it crystal clear exactly who you are dealing with!

While today may be World Emoji Day, take the time to make sure that there is no confusion in who your customers are. Audience Insights lets you hone in on the specifics of those people who frequent your E-commerce store. Once you have identified the core needs of your audience as well as their interests and preferences you can start tailoring your advertisements for specific campaigns to certain demographics. This allows you to send the right messages to the right people without confusion or anything lost in translation. 

Everything I Learned About Product Marketing, I Learned From Being In A Van Halen Tribute Band

By Pat Reinarts

I've been a frontman in cover bands since 1986.  These bands are ones you could find hacking away on a variety of music at your local VFW on any given Friday or Saturday.  I've dabbled in rock, funk, hip-hip, top 40, and against my personal preference...... country.  

 

In all fairness, there are many country acts I enjoy listening to.  My ITUNES playlists include songs from Johnny Cash, Toby Keith, Zac Brown, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson.  Alabama is a particular pontooning favorite.  However, there is one sub genre of country music that caused me to rethink my side hustle...."BRO COUNTRY".  I'm all for making a fool out of myself in front of a large crowd of anonymous people, but I had to draw the line at Luke Bryan.  Pride is not my greatest virtue, but I could no longer keep the act going.  I had enough!

 

Music has been a faithful companion of mine since birth.  Performing music has been a passion for decades.  I recently did some self reflecting and realized my days of commanding a stage were numbered.   If I was going to dedicate any more of my time towards gigging I needed to be true to myself.  I needed to launch a new band dedicated to the greatest American band in ROCK HISTORY and that band is THE MIGHTY VAN HALEN!  

 

Of course, launching a successful band is no different than launching a new product.  This is what I learned from being in the tribute band JUMP: The Music of Van Halen:

 

 

  • Defining the Product. If you are not a fan of your own product, then walk away. I have a passion for all things Van Halen. My earliest memory is hearing the intro to "Running With The Devil '' turned up to 11 on my older brother's Panasonic, Hi-FI Stereo circa 1978. The recent untimely death of their lead guitarist, Edward Van Halen, has generated a halo effect driving more interest and nostalgia. The music world has come back to my favorite band and I want to be a part of paying them their rightful respects.

  • Defining the Target Market. My first inclination was to target those that grew up and followed the heavy metal bands of the 80's. However, I've been amazed at the audience dynamics. It's not uncommon to see a teenager in attendence, along with most likely their parents (and grandparents!) listening to the soundtrack of their youth. That's when it hit me, it's not about THE MUSIC. People want to be entertained. If you want to save the world, go see a U2 cover band.

Which led me to, most importantly

  • Defining the Brand Image . Van Halen has powerful music. As David Lee Roth once said, " If you need to lift anything heavy play some Van Halen". What I like most about the band however was unsurpassed entertainment value. The deep catalogue of hits, the areral tactics, the humor. No one before or no one sense can match it. JUMP must then try to replicate. When you come to see JUMP, you are not coming for the music alone. You are coming for the event. Come for the guitar solo, stay for the debauchery!

  • Product Launch /Go To Market - COVID has put a halt to our promotional efforts. Venues have shut down. Only until recently has Minnesota lifted COVID restrictions. We are essentially re-starting the scheduling of performances and driving awareness. I'm constantly looking for unique ways to self promote. Our first gig is Wannigan Days in lovely St Croix Falls, WI.

 

If you're in town stop by, if not I'll be sure to tell you all about it!

https://fb.me/e/1trvMjRyw

On the Road Again

After a long 15 months of Zoom meetings, phone calls and virtual happy hours, Datonics is happy to be on the road again meeting partners in various corners of the U.S. The authenticity of the face-to-face meeting is hard to replicate over Zoom. There is also the added benefit of these types of encounters now representing something more than just an opportunity to build and strengthen business relationships.

The in-person business meeting now represents the comeback.

On a recent trip to Los Angeles, our team was able to experience and share in the excitement of in-person meetings. For some of our get-togethers, we dined at new restaurants and bars. Business is, can and should be fun.

When we first went into lockdown, we were predicting that going back to “normal” would seem un-normal. We would never shake hands again or hug! The hug was definitely not making a comeback.

Now that we are here, meeting etiquette has gone surprisingly unchanged. It’s a personal preference, but it seems a little over a year is not enough time to break habits. We are shaking hands, hugging, laughing, sitting close to one another, and fully taking in the opportunity to safely be together, in-person once again.

A New Family Dining Experience

By Abdul Pierre, Junior Marketing Coordinator

One of my fondest memories from the pandemic was my (virtual) family celebration. We are big food lovers, and when the pandemic Thanksgiving came around, we got creative in how we celebrated.

Around the Zoom table, we had family from around the country, from outside of the country, and also from the area. Some of my family members were less than an hour away. This was a pivotal moment for me during the pandemic – I hadn’t experienced the true scope of social distancing until then. Seeing my family who live so close to me and not being able to see them in person was difficult.

This is why my favorite part was the food exchange. Close family members arranged to come to houses to swap favorite dishes. It was like curbside pickup, but instead of paying for whatever you're picking up, it was an exchange of Haitian dishes. 

Even though I was worried that the picking up of food would have defeated the whole purpose of the Zoom call and social distancing, I was ensured that there were more precautions taken when cooking the food that was "ordered."

My family also surprised me at how tech savvy they became. There was a whole WhatsApp group chat designated just for sharing what food everyone was cooking. If someone was making a dish you wanted and you were making a dish they wanted, it was a done deal.