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Raising prices is a great way to improve profit margins at your digital agency—and pay yourself more. It's all the more important today, as your labor costs go up, too. But if you raise prices poorly, you'll lose clients and hurt profit margins. Fortunately, you don't have to guess, and you don't have to start from scratch! Raising prices the smart way means keeping your best clients happy while maintaining or reducing your workload. This advice works best when you have happy clients that are getting results, a strong sales pipeline, and several months to implement the transition. I call this method the “portfolio” approach to raising prices. Rather than raising prices across the board—by the same amount for every client—you adjust the increase to reflect each client's circumstances. This helps you optimize overall revenue growth, balancing rate increases, and client retention. Here's how it works, so you can apply it at your own agency. The “portfolio” approach to raising prices The goal is to raise each client's price as much as possible. but not too much. To accomplish that, think about your client base as an investment “portfolio”—some clients paying more, other clients paying less. You'll identify and evaluate clients based on certain criteria—and then raise prices to the maximum amount each client might be willing to pay. These factors include your track record of getting results, client satisfaction, client “nuisance” level, and overall history. Being intentional in your approach to raising prices helps you boost revenue (and profit margins) while ideally reducing the team's workload and stress. A content marketing agency I advise used this approach to target increases between 10 to 25 percent and achieved 93 percent of the increases they sought. In the end, they increased prices overall by nearly 25 percent. Another agency raised some clients' prices by up to 50 percent. And including scope expansions, an ecommerce agency raised rates by eight times in just over a year for a high-performing client. Ready to do that yourself? Here's my step-by-step approach: 1. Start by updating your public pricing Identify the price you'll be charging new clients and make it public. Doing this will help “anchor” your increases for existing clients—it frames their personal increases as a special deal, compared to your new-client pricing model. This step will look different depending on how you structure your services: If you use packages or milestones, it's as easy as updating your price sheet If you're doing primarily custom work, update your Minimum Level of Engagement (MLoE) instead Do you have existing sales prospects who are on the fence about signing on? Tell them the new price and offer to honor the old price if they move forward within a certain time frame, or for a certain amount of time. 2. Create an annotated list of all of your clients Make a list of all of your clients, and then add notes about each one. I recommend “coding” them by key factors to help you see where they fit into your portfolio. For instance, what is their current value (high, medium, or low)? What is their future potential (high, medium, or low)? How likely are they to recommend you to others? Are there other reasons you'd choose to raise their prices more or less than others? As a shortcut, you can use my free Agency Client Rating Matrix template to get started—follow the existing criteria or add your own. If you're not the client-facing contact, get input from your account managers. Once you have the annotated list, group clients by price-increase “tier” (high, medium, low, or none). 3. Draft messaging by price-increase tier No one loves paying more money. But happy clients getting big results will be more open to an increase than an unhappy client that isn't satisfied with their results. Thus, you'll want to draft two to four versions of the messaging about the price increase. Here are some pre-written examples to help you get started. Example 1: A h...

The search for business financing can be frustrating. Banks don't want to lend to you because they say your company is too risky. Venture capitalists say you're not fundable. And angel investors? Well, they can be hard to find. Is crowdfunding the answer? Kickstarter and Indiegogo can work well—especially if you can offer great rewards and you're excellent at online marketing. But there's another way to raise money from the crowd. It's called equity crowdfunding. Now you can sell shares of your business to just about anyone. And no, it's not just for tech companies. What is equity crowdfunding? Equity crowdfunding—also known as crowd-investing or investment crowdfunding—lets startups and private businesses raise capital from the public (i.e., the “crowd”). Basically, it allows everyday people to invest in your business and in exchange, you offer them equity in your business (think Shark Tank and Dragon's Den). Each investor is entitled to a stake in your company proportional to their investment. And these days, anyone can be an investor. This type of fundraising has always existed, but until recently, you could only sell your business shares to accredited investors—relatively wealthy individuals who met specific net worth and income criteria. Now, your cousin, your neighbor, or almost any public member can buy shares as a non-accredited investor, provided you set your business up properly (more on that later). Equity crowdfunding vs. crowdfunding Crowdfunding refers to raising money from the public, primarily through online forums, social media, and crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter to finance a new project or venture. In return, these people might get a reward, like a copy of what's being produced, for example, or nothing at all. Project creators on Kickstarter and similar platforms maintain 100% ownership of their work and business. With equity crowdfunding, the crowd can fund your business or project. In exchange for relatively small amounts of cash, public investors get a proportionate slice of equity in your business venture. How does equity crowdfunding work? Navigating the equity crowdfunding landscape can be pretty confusing. Typically, securities and those who offer securities to the public must be registered and subject to regulation. Securities regulation protects investors by ensuring that investors obtain the information they need to make an informed decision, and that issuers are held accountable for any misrepresentations or fraud. But equity crowdfunding is considered an exception. In recent years, regulatory bodies have allowed registered platforms to act as an intermediary between crowdfunding issuers and your investors. But that means you can only raise financing this way by signing up for a registered equity crowdfunding platform in your country or region. There are plenty of equity crowdfunding sites out there right now, but you should do your research to find the right one for your business. In general, FrontFundr is one of the best Canadian portals for equity crowdfunding and in the USA, SeedInvest and Indiegogo are the better options. And depending on your campaign and how many investors you're looking for, it may even be an option to use more than one platform. While the structure of your offer, including the equity percentage and the type of securities you will sell, is a bit complicated and best done with the help of your lawyer, the process of creating a campaign is fairly straightforward. Here's a general overview of how the process works in the U.S. and in Canada: Sign up for a registered equity crowdfunding platform. Set up an offer on a registered equity crowdfunding platform and raise funding in exchange for real, legal shares in your company. Make your pitch. Once accepted by your platform, you have to prepare your crowdfunding pitch. This is the most time-consuming part of the process and may involve frequent iterations to keep interested going. You'll also have to determine your pitc...

Whether you're new to marketing your business or a marketing veteran, you, like the rest of us, have probably realized that each channel or tactic has real pros and cons. However, some channels, like SMS, have myths too. Many of these SMS myths have been around since the inception of SMS marketing in 2000, but did you know that most of them have since been disproven? If you're still stressing over these misconceptions, you're letting one of the most powerful and relevant marketing channels slip through your fingers. Keep reading to see the top disproven myths about SMS and some facts to support them. Myth #1: SMS is spam and annoys customers Interestingly, email is shown to be the true spam channel, with 49.7% of emails being spam. Although text message marketing is personal and therefore carries a spam risk, it's actually the reason for its success. Customers are increasingly receiving and engaging with SMS messages from brands they love. The reason is simple, SMS cuts through the email, app, and social media pop-up clutter. In fact, 70% of customers say SMS is a good way for brands to get their attention. Myth #2: It's expensive Signing up for a new tool, even an affordable one, always feels like a risk. But SMS marketing is a cost-effective solution that's worth the investment. With costs for many channels soaring, like 45% YoY increases for Facebook ads at an average CPC (cost per click) of $1.12 in 2021, it's essential for businesses to find other cost-effective options. In the US, SMS messages cost about $0.0099 per message – for a personal, direct channel, we think that's a deal that busts this myth! Myth #3: It takes too much time and is challenging to implement Getting started with SMS may seem a little complicated, but we promise it's not, especially if you pick the right tool. Many mobile marketing platforms, like Recart, can get you going in no time, provide one-on-one support, as well as offer free, dynamic, and highly engaging templates that make setup a breeze. Myth #4: It only allows for one-way communication Many marketing channels offer one-way communication, acting as a delivery mechanism only; because of this, many businesses believe that SMS is the same. But SMS is a great way to build 1:1 relationships with two-way messaging. What's even better – SMS has a 209% higher response rate than phone, email, or Facebook, proving text is not only a two-way option that builds customer trust but also a highly successful one. Consider this myth defeated! Myth #5: Getting SMS subscribers is difficult, and compliance gets in the way This myth is likely the one that we hear the most! And while compliance is essential, it doesn't need to be a barrier to your mobile marketing success. Most tools, like Recart, are built with compliance in mind and have teams of experts to help users easily follow all TCPA and CTIA regulations. And it doesn't stop there; Recart has tried and tested methods to help you compliantly convert 15% of your website visitors to your SMS subscriber list with easy-to-set-up website pop-ups. Myth #6: SMS is only for big brands Many small and medium-sized businesses believe that most tools and platforms are designed for larger enterprises, but SMS marketing works for any size business and is easy to scale as you grow. Text message marketing encourages personal engagement and tailored offerings, something customers often expect from smaller businesses in stores but doesn't experience remotely. This opens the door for meaningful customer experiences even with a small subscriber list and a limited budget. Take a look at how Recart's client, Her Juice Bar, used SMS marketing to capture subscribers and boost their ROI 49x. Misconceptions and text messaging success Now that you know these myths are all busted, it's time to start with SMS marketing. With the growth in e-commerce and mobile shopping, consider taking advantage of the channel's success to grow a subscriber list and perfect your mobile marketin...

At Rewind, one of the events everyone looks forward to each year is the holiday party. It's a chance to put on some fancy outfits, leave our laptops at home, and let loose with our colleagues. Since the pandemic, Zoom parties have become somewhat of a meme. To dispel the idea that virtual parties were lame by default, we challenged ourselves to organize the most exciting holiday party ever hosted on Zoom. We thought it might be helpful to other remote companies if we wrote a post to share how we planned and organized a party on Zoom that people enjoyed. While our event was held to celebrate the holiday season, with a few tweaks, your team can easily adapt our tips and tricks to celebrate just about anything, from product launches to company anniversaries. This blog post will share our itinerary, the resources we used, and how our team of three planned and organized everything behind the scenes. We created this Trello Template your team can use to do the same. Our planning crew met for 30-minutes each week for 6 weeks leading up to the party to brainstorm and assign action items. After each meeting, we had a few hours of homework to complete before our next meeting. The hardest part was keeping everything we were working on a secret from our colleagues. We planned for our holiday party to be 3 hours long. We originally felt like that might be too long, but once we planned the events, we expected that if everyone was engaged that's how long it would take from start to finish. The event ended up running for a little bit over 3 hours. We recommend scheduling more time in the company calendar than you think you'll need. We had asked everyone in advance to dress up for the event and were delighted to see everyone showing up wearing festive hats, ugly Christmas sweaters, and (you guessed it!) holiday Zoom backgrounds. Once we had our custom designs ready, we placed our orders online and shipped all the items to a local gifting company, Parcelly, to fulfill, package, and ship the gifts to each employee's mailing address. “Companies moving their social events onto platforms like Zoom always struck me as a type of “forced fun.” To my delight, this was not the case for Rewind's annual holiday party. Participation from the whole company, especially leadership, and activities that got employees to engage, led to it being a blast. That it was all done over Zoom soon became an afterthought. Sachin, First-Time Rewind Party Attendee The Party Before we get into the details of how we organized everything, we'll start by giving you a brief overview of the event itself: To create a festive atmosphere right from the start, we asked our musically-talented colleagues, Mats and Ryan, to play the piano and sing as people entered the meeting room. The Prep Employee Gifts One of the first things we got started on was planning gifts for our employees. We wanted to kick off the event with something exciting that everyone could participate in together remotely. The idea was to ship each employee a box of surprise goodies and do a live unboxing on Zoom. Pro Tip: Before getting started, ask employees to update their mailing addresses in your HR software. There were a few things we considered when conceptualizing gifts. First, we wanted to support small local businesses. We researched and sourced items from local vendors that would appeal to a large audience such as chocolate from Ottawa chocolatier Alicja Confections and coffee from our friends at Brown Bag Coffee Roasters. Second, we wanted to create some collectible items with Rewind branding. We leaned on our designer, Stacey to create designs for a custom Happy Holidays greeting card, a holiday mug, and a “Be Kind, Rewind” laptop sticker. Third, we had to ensure that no one would open their gifts before the Zoom party. Stacey came to the rescue and designed these stickers to caution people against opening their gifts too early. Office Awards Unsurprisingly, the Rewind team has many fans of The Office....

Welcome to another edition of API deprecations at Shopify, where we dive into the breaking changes coming into effect for all supported versions. In this edition, we'll review the breaking changes in the 2021-07 API version, the oldest supported version as of April 1, 2022. This includes vital information for developers of private apps. Let's take a look. A quick refresher on versioning Before we dive into the changes headed your way, let's revisit how API versioning at Shopify works. We release a version every quarter. These releases typically happen on or around January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1. Versions are named in a year-month format (e.g. 2022-01), ensuring that it will always be easy to identify the time the version became stable, as well as compare the timelines of multiple versions. Apps make requests to a specific version of the API by specifying it in the request URL. While the Shopify APIs continuously evolve, apps can be built on a stable version to ensure that the API contract remains constant. Keep in mind this means that any features released after your targeted version won't be accessible until you update your request URL. We release features to merchants continuously. To ship features without affecting the latest stable APIs, we use release candidates. The release candidate is simply the next API version, and can be targeted for requests using the same year-month format. In the release candidate, you'll find the latest set of features that have just been released. However, since it's continuously evolving, you should avoid using the release candidate for your app's general everyday consumption of the API. To have both the benefit of stability and access to the latest features, we recommend keeping your app's everyday requests on a stable version, and only moving specific calls that deal with newly released features to the release candidate. Apps that do not request a specific version are served the oldest supported version. This allowed existing apps to continue functioning when we shipped versioning, without having to update to the new URLs. This concept also applies to apps explicitly calling versions that are no longer supported. While every app will benefit from this mechanism preventing all of their requests from erroring out after a version switch, we recommend targeting recent releases intentionally. Versions are supported for one year. Removing support for versions allows us to stay agile and make the changes needed to best serve our merchants and the Shopify platform for the long term. While versions are supported for one year, this means that apps actually only have nine months to adopt these new changes and take advantage of new features before the old behavior is no longer available. With this refresher at the top of our mind, let's review the key information you'll need to be ready for April 1, 2022. What's happening on April 1 On April 1, 2022, the following changes will come into effect on our APIs for both public and private apps: The 2022-04 version will become stable and ready for general usage. The 2021-04 version will become unsupported. Requests that have been deprecated by changes in 2021-07 will cause your app to be flagged. To minimize merchant impact, Shopify will de-list flagged apps from the Shopify App Store and block new installs. Additionally, we may notify merchants that your apps are no longer supported. Shortly afterward, at our discretion: Requests with no API version specified will be served the 2021-07 version. Requests for the 2021-04 version will no longer receive that version. Instead, these requests will fall forward to 2021-07. Webhooks set to 2021-04 will fall forward in the same manner. Most importantly, the 2021-07 API version, which will become the default version, includes breaking API changes. If your app is making requests that would break in 2021-04, you need to take action and migrate those requests before April 1, 2022. Failure to do so will resul...

One thing most online retailers strive for is a shopping experience that users adore. It's challenging to cover all your bases with various search filters and specials to ensure you hit all the high notes. Competition is quite fierce in the e-commerce industry. If your site doesn't provide an excellent customer experience (CX), you may lose more revenue than you can sustain. E-commerce filters can help fill the gap by making searches easy and highly functional for users. Unfortunately, filters can also break your business and cause your site visitors to bounce away. Why Are Filters Important for E-Commerce Websites? A recent report by Statista estimated around five billion global internet users, with those buying online spending about $5.2 trillion last year. The pandemic pushed more people toward the convenience of online shopping, and now more people than ever before hop on e-commerce pages to comparison shop and find products unavailable in local stores. Users might grow overwhelmed by the offerings if you have more than a few products in your store. Even clever categories only do so much to refine results. Filters are a must if you want to return results that perfectly meet the user's needs and increase the chances of a sale. Here are some rules of thumb to keep in mind when adding filters to your e-commerce store: 1. Choose the Best Filters The filters you need will vary based on your target audience. For example, color might be essential if you sell clothing to young teenagers. People will also need to be able to filter by size. Some other things you might notice people pay attention to include what's on sale or a particular style of clothing. For different audiences, color may not be as important as fit. You'll have to survey your customers and pay attention to internal analytics to determine what matters to your patrons. Source: Bellelily uses both categories and filters to separate their clothing. Shoppers can hunt for new arrivals, best sellers, or by type of clothing pieces, such as a top or dress. Once on the category page, you can further refine your selections. For the “Tops” page, you can filter down by tees, tanks, blouses, and long sleeves. Other filters include color, size, and price range. These are likely the things people most commonly hunt for clothing by. 2. Include All Options If you're going to add a filter, make sure you include all options. For example, if offering a color filter, add all the colors of your products so that the database can return the correct results. How people select product descriptions when uploading new products becomes vitally important. If orange is left unchecked, but the blouse is orange, you're missing potential sales. 3. Sort by Reviews One thing a lot of e-commerce sites miss is sorting results by customer ratings. People sometimes want to know which of your products were marked as the best by their peers. Adding a filter that sorts by reviews let them see the top results and narrow their choices. Source: Check out how mac of all trades uses its filters to help its online visitors. You can sort by type of desktop. However, you can also check the memory, grade, or price range. Everyone should be able to find an Apple computer they can afford and meets their needs personally or professionally. 4. Create a Balance in the Number of Filters E-commerce stores are on target to bring in more than $5 billion this year. To take full advantage of your portion of the pie, you must carefully select how many filters you add. Too many, and you risk the person growing frustrated at all the choices. Too few, and users might get aggravated at the lack of narrowing the choices down. 5. Make Searches Easier What about the customers who know exactly what they want? For example, you might have clientele who always buy the same brands or the same line of products. It would help if you had a way for them to filter by brand alongside other filters to get to the exact item they want. Sometimes ...

SEO is a massive part of any company's digital marketing campaigns. Many big companies have in-house teams to support their SEO efforts. However, more Shopify brands outsource their SEO needs to an external agency. This article will discuss the best ways to find the right SEO agency for your needs. Read on! Define Your Goals Be clear about your goals before searching for the best SEO company. This helps narrow down the list of companies you can consider. Think of your online presence. Which areas need work? How does your website perform in terms of SEO? Are you looking for a new strategy or simply want to consult and tweak your current strategy? These questions will help you understand what type of SEO agency suits your needs. Gather References and Interview Past Clients Once you have a shortlist of companies, check their past performance. Look into companies that have worked for businesses with similar needs to yours. Check their portfolio, case studies, awards, and client testimonials. If you want, interview their past and current clients about their experience with the agency. Read in-depth reviews and testimonials to better understand your possible relationship with the vendor. While at it, learn as much as possible about their SEO process, how their teams are managed, and how they report progress and results. Things such as how quickly they respond to calls or emails matter. The same is true for whether or not they assign a dedicated point of contact to their clients. Determine Their SEO Techniques To know if the company is as effective in SEO as they claim to be, ask them about the techniques they often use with its clients. If you can, ask for proof that those techniques are effective. Key SEO success metrics include: Rankings Leads and sales Organic traffic Keyword rankings Bounce rate Backlinks Pages per session Average page loading times Organic click-through rates (CTRs) While the agency may not be able to provide all details because of confidentiality rules, you can ask for case studies that incorporate the metrics above in their results. Visit the Company When you're almost sure about the vendor you want to pick, it's time to visit the SEO agency's office — if you can. Most SEO agencies these days have staff that operates remotely, but if you get the chance, it's wise to meet them in person to gauge their company culture. Virtual meetings are also viable. Work with your team and leaders and brainstorm questions you can ask the agency. You can ask them about their business experience in your industry. Request a timeline of results, and ask for a breakdown of their SEO costs. You can use the visit to forge connections with the entire team. If the agency is a good fit, you should be able to relate to and understand one another from the get-go. Successfully doing this puts your teams on the same page, saving you time and resources in the longer run. Clarify Your Budget SEO budgets vary, and they depend on your campaigns' aggressiveness. Local SEO campaigns often cost hundreds of dollars, while national product campaigns cost thousands. The agency should come up with a strategy that not only fits your needs but also your budget. It's also best to determine whether you have the firepower to support your SEO campaigns in the long haul. Inquire about SEO packages that fit your budget. Remember, though, that SEO agencies that promise good results for ultra-cheap rates tend to be misleading in their strategies.

Achieving consistent, sustainable Instagram user growth is crucial to developing a valuable community for your business or brand. Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, surpassing the 2 billion user mark as of December 2021. Instagram is also one of the best places for organizations to build genuine connections with their audience, through engaging and meaningful visual content. With a huge selection of content options to choose from and various ways to promote your profile, Instagram has it all. Unfortunately, achieving positive organic growth isn't always easy. There are thousands of other brands all competing for your customer's attention at any given time, making success incredibly difficult. Fortunately, we have some tips to get you on the right track. Benefits Of Instagram User Growth For Your Ecommerce Business For an ecommerce company, Instagram represents a powerful way to get eyes on your products and build interest among your target audience. As one of the top visual social media platforms, Instagram is great at forging authentic, emotional connections between you and your customer. Some of the biggest benefits of Instagram for ecommerce brands include: Increased sales: Around 50% of users say they follow businesses on Instagram today, and most admit they use the platform for inspiration when figuring out what they want to buy. With Instagram, you can improve your chances of driving customers back to your website where they can buy your products. Instagram also gives you new avenues for sales, with Instagram shopping features. Cross-promotion for social channels: Because Instagram belongs to the larger Facebook (Meta) brand, it's excellent for cross-channel promotion. You can run a combined Facebook and Instagram campaign to improve your chances of reaching the widest possible audience. Plus, you get to take advantage of the exceptional targeting options offered by Instagram. Build brand trust and authority: Instagram provides companies with a way to show their customers behind the scenes of their business. Through videos, stories, carousels, and photos, you can highlight the human side of your company, and build an affinity with your customers. Instagram is a fantastic tool for demonstrating brand personality. You can even improve your credibility, by connecting your company to well-known influencers and other brands through campaign partnerships. What's The Secret To Instagram User Growth? The first thing you should know is Instagram user growth requires regular investment, time, and commitment. You won't achieve incredible success overnight with some quick scheme. However, there are various strategies you can use to practically guarantee positive results. The best ways to ensure Instagram user growth are: 1. Using An Instagram Growth Service An Instagram growth service is a dedicated solution for Instagram growth, designed to help you make the most out of your social media efforts. Notably, these services aren't just tools for buying Instagram followers, they're solutions designed to improve your chances of capturing organic growth, by connecting your brand to the people most likely to be interested in it. People are often reluctant to follow companies who appear “new” to the Instagram platform. The best Instagram growth service will make your business seem more credible by engaging with people interested in profiles and content similar to yours. Essentially, they go out and “like” the posts of people who follow competitors and other similar brands to draw their attention back to your page. The key to generating the best outcomes from your Instagram growth service is investing in the right solution. Make sure you look at: Organic growth methods: Make sure the company you work with is using safe methods for organic growth. While “buying” followers might seem like a fast solution or growth, it can put you at risk of serious repercussions with Instagram. Plus, you need organic f...

Supply chain disruption, shipping delays, worker shortages, and global conflict have changed how the world does business. 2022 has already seen a number of emerging trends take off and make their way into B2B ecommerce: faster-fulfilled orders, personalization, and customer self-service being just some. If you haven't already taken advantage of these trends in 2022, you have another chance to improve your marketing and sales strategy. B2B ecommerce is only set to continue to grow throughout the rest of 2022 and into 2023. This article will walk you through key B2B ecommerce trends to help guide your online sales strategy. Get the newsletter for more insights, trends and educational content By submitting this form, you agree to receive promotional messages from Shopify. Unsubscribe any time by clicking the link in our emails. Table of contents What happened in 2021 and 2022? B2B ecommerce trends to look out for in 2023 Faster fulfilled orders Selling through third-party online marketplaces Market and sell through social media Companies lean into sustainability Personalized experiences Mobile-first websites Self-service customer portals Going headless Upgrading legacy systems Facing supply chain disruption challenges Better inventory management Seamless omnichannel experience What happened in 2021 and 2022? B2B ecommerce continues to grow. Statista research suggests that in 2023, an estimated 17% of B2B sales are expected to be generated digitally. Plus, the North American B2B ecommerce market will reach $1.8 trillion in 2023. Ecommerce is no longer a novelty sales channel that B2B businesses experiment with, either. McKinsey & Company research shows that 65% of B2B companies are exclusively selling online in 2022. And, for the first time, B2Bs are more likely to offer ecommerce over in-person sales. According to Digital Commerce 360,B2B ecommerce remains the fastest growing channel. In 2021, manufacturers, through their own websites and apps and on B2B marketplaces, grew ecommerce by 18.4%, to $543.25 billion from $458.7 billion. These growth rates are 1.45 times greater than the growth in all manufacturing sales and 1.42 times bigger than the increase in all electronic sales. B2B ecommerce trends to look out for in 2023 B2B commerce growth shows no signs of slowing down during 2022 and beyond in 2023. To stand out from competitors and meet customer expectations, brands should take note of the ecommerce trends currently shaping the second half of 2022. Let's dig into some of the key themes that are defining the industry this year and beyond. Faster fulfilled orders Customer expectations around order delivery time are growing. Pre-COVID, UPS had an average transit time of 2.96 days. But by the end of 2020, it had gone up to 4.96 days. During the end of 2021, it was back down to around 2 to 2.35 days, faster than before COVID. Customer desire to receive goods faster is driving this push for shorter delivery times. Faster fulfilled orders are another way B2B brands can appeal to buyers. B2B brands can turn to third-party fulfillment (3PL) to streamline their fulfillment process. Using 3PL can help businesses lower their fulfillment and inventory management costs too. Andreas Blomst, GM of omnichannel fulfillment software Extensiv, explains how outsourcing fulfillment can benefit businesses along with customers. “In 2023, I predict increased outsourcing of fulfillment services to 3PLs,” he says. “This system allows for brands to benefit from fulfillment expertise and distributed inventory without the overhead. It lets the brands focus more on sales and digital marketing.” Andreas adds that by prioritizing digital transformation and integrating the right tools into the ecommerce technology stack, B2B brands can deliver orders more efficiently. “Better order management tools that sit between the ordering platform and the warehouse will become commonplace to provide order fulfillment routing to the best location with available inve...

Relaaaaax! Shipping stress-reducing CBD products are legal across all 50 states so that CBD users can get their vapes, tinctures, lotions, and more sent right to their doorstep. Supplement and pharmaceutical companies that want their share of this growing $2.8 billion market must comply with the U.S. government's CBD shipping regulations, specifically regarding how much THC can be present in this new supplement. Close adherence to these shipping guidelines is necessary for companies that want to operate long-term. Build a detailed strategy for every part of your CBD business, from payment processing to marketing and shipping. This article provides an all-encompassing guide to shipping CBD products, including market information and special requirements for shipping. We'll also dive into some valuable tips for effectively marketing CBD products to build your e-commerce business, such as optimized web content and affiliate marketing. The CBD market is big business. It is estimated to be worth $1.8 billion in the U.S. and $2.8 billion globally. This already-sizable number has been forecasted to increase tenfold to $23 billion by 2025 as hemp and marijuana products become more mainstream. Not tried CBD-infused products yet? It will help if you buy CBD online for the best convenience. Many point to the meteoric rise in healthcare costs as one of the main drivers of this growth. Not to mention, the pressures of modern-day life have caused all-time high cases of depression and anxiety. Additionally, increased life expectancy has led to a rise in conditions such as Alzheimer's disease or arthritis, all of which have symptoms that can be eased through CBD products. While these factors have caused a spike in demand, e-commerce sales have made CBD products more widely available to be shipped discreetly to your door. Therefore, the rise in demand and supply availability eludes a strong future for the CBD market. Legalized CBD products come in a few different varieties. The market is currently divided by how the supplement is derived from the plant and the method of consumption. For the former, there are three choices available to consumers: Hemp Marijuana Other pharmaceuticals Hemp-based CBD products are the most in-demand category for e-commerce retailers, driven by hemp's various healthcare applications. As medicinal CBD products become more widespread, more research will lead to more uses. As for the method of consumption, CBD can be inhaled like traditional marijuana products or consumed orally through edibles and other consumables. It can also serve as the main ingredient in health and wellness products, such as skin lotion, shampoo, candles, or animal-care solutions. CBD extracts can be legally shipped across the U.S.; however, the only stipulation is that THC levels must be less than 0.3%, and it must be derived from hemp, not cannabis, for the CBD to be legally mailed. Although it is legal in the U.S., your company should take special precautions when shipping abroad. Many countries classify marijuana products as illegal, so check with your legal team and local laws before doing business in an international market. Some special legal requirements for shipping CBD products depend upon the carrier and shipping service provider. E-commerce retailers must be mindful of this complex legal landscape and adhere to these laws to avoid fines or legal ramifications. CBD Regulations by Shipping Companies Depending on which shipping company your company uses to fulfill customer orders, specific rules will be met for each carrier. The US Postal Service can legally carry CBD products but requires certain documentation and certifications from the e-commerce retailer. For example, the seller must obtain a lab report confirming the oil's THC levels before the USPS can ship CBD products. Another solution could be to use a third-party logistics or fulfillment provider to handle every aspect of your CBD shipping, from storage to shipping. Other shi...

With continuous technological advances, there's more Artificial Intelligence (AI) integration in many aspects of business's daily operations. More companies are discovering the importance of AI in helping them generate more leads, understand their audience, reduce costs and increase output. Moreover, adopting these solutions into their systems helps increase customer satisfaction. The e-commerce industry is at the forefront of adopting machine learning and artificial intelligence. Entrepreneurs could apply such modern solutions to improve their operations and boost their visibility in the digital platform. For instance, the market has some of the best AI marketing tools that business owners can leverage to promote brand awareness and attract more customers. With such innovation, businesses can offer more value to their customers by providing their desired products and delivering them on time through reliable means. AI can also enable e-commerce businesses to gain a competitive advantage by incorporating better and increasing customer loyalty. Whether you're an eCommerce business owner looking into how your company can benefit from such technological advancement or a consumer wondering how AI can improve your online shopping, this article can be for you. In this post, we'll explore the various applications of AI in eCommerce. Database Management Incorporating AI with effective database systems can change the way e-commerce operations take place. For example, users can integrate a vector database with AI to analyze and process data sets, further utilized for e-commerce decisions and transactions. Open source vector database systems are also available for enterprises to use, and they can choose to utilize them to track sales transactions, incoming revenue, cancellations, discounts, inventory, and more. These are multidimensional and highly reliable database systems, and along with AI, there will be better ways to boost current capabilities. Applications of AI in eCommerce For Business Owners Adopting AI can make your business operations more efficient with the following applications: 1. Chatbots To Answer Customer Query Most renowned e-commerce businesses have chatbots on their website to make the customer experience worthwhile. With chatbots in place, once consumers visit an eCommerce website, they'll be greeted with a pop-up question on the screen asking, ‘how can I help?'. They can then use this feature to ask relevant questions and get immediate responses courtesy of the AI-programmed system. Utilizing this tool can go a long way in ensuring your customers are attended to 24/7, even when there aren't live agents present to answer queries. This can come in handy since a buyer's decision to purchase a product or avail themselves of a service might be affected by the time they wait for responses. Some prefer instant answers to their queries to help them decide whether to order a good or not. 2. Generation Of Product Descriptions Product descriptions give customers more information about the product and why they're worth buying. A well-written one is critical to your business as it can act as a shop assistant for your customers. It can confirm whether the features of the product they intend to purchase match what they're looking for. AI has made this task simple for business owners. Such a solution enables eCommerce businesses to generate unique and dynamic product descriptions automatically and within a short period. This is less time-consuming and more efficient, unlike the conventional way of writing a compelling product description, which can take a while. 3. Handling And Processing Of Business Data Apart from the many products that e-commerce websites sell, they also have to deal with and organize a lot of data daily. This includes managing your product database and information such as: The total sales per day Purchases Inventory level Goods returned Customer information and purchasing patterns The total number of orders ...

A logo's significance is far more than a static symbol. A logo possesses the potential to contain a brand's mission, vision, and its entire identity. The need to have a logo arose after brands realized they had to rely on something that carries the ability to convey every aspect they uphold in a visual way. That is why the perception to deem it as a mere symbol needs to be outdated, as without a logo, a brand cannot uphold any significance. Understanding the Importance of a Logo Most new brands or startups tend to face the dilemma of not having either enough sources or the budget to invest in branding. While there are several types of digital marketing, every brand needs to start building its visual personality with a logo. The idea of investing in a logo varies on different factors and according to Forbes, you need to have a clear notion as to why you need a logo for your brand. With the world becoming digitized over the years, the requisite to hire and work with graphic designers is somewhat unessential. Relying On Online Logo Design Tools New startups tend to invest in branding strategies that befit to their budget. Sometimes the budget they need for digital promotion exceeds and causes further shortcomings. Better alternatives exist and one such option is to rely on online logo design tools. Most of these tools allow you to create your logo for free but only ask for payment when you have to download it, while some do not have hidden charges at all. Using a reliable logo design maker allows you to customize your logo without having to hire external or third-party designers. Here are the top 9 free logo design tools that have taken the realm of digital branding by storm. Canva Having availability on both the iOS and Android platforms, Canva is more than an online graphic design creator. With a simplistic interface, you can drag the design objects of your choice into a resizable canvas and customize them accordingly. The core foundation of Canva is more than an online logo creator as you can create business cards as well as flyers of diverse kinds. Today's era is all about dynamism so it is essential to rely on design tools that do not consume a lot of your time. You can simply choose a high-resolution template of your choice, make changes, tweak colors and then download it in your desired image format. The tool also has a premium subscription version that provides unlimited access to an extensive directory of millions of design objects such as icons, graphics, and images. Core Features Professionally designed logo templates Unlimited options to edit and share your designs AI-based custom logo generation Hundreds of unique font styles LogoVerge An online logo design tool, LogoVerge is a brand new addition to the domain of online designing tools and it is simplifying the notion of AI-based digital design. Using this tool, you are able to design a logo that can be fully customized and personalized the way you prefer. The hassle to design logos from scratch and depending on professional designers is no more, as the tool contains pre-defined templates, icons, images and font styles that you can add to your design. After you are done with the editing, you can save and download it in a high-resolution file format simply for $19. Core Features Select from a wide list of industries Option to insert company/brand name and its slogan Thousands of pre-defined design templates Unlimited downloads and re-edits DesignHill A community-based graphic design platform, DesignHill allows both professional and novice designers to contribute to the design community by showcasing their work on the platform. One core feature of DesignHill is its free logo maker but if you want to download it then you are required to pay for the design. With the option of making multiple revisions, you can select any template and then style it with relevant colors, icons and font combinations from the design directory. The platform also holds various contests that...

8 Important Green Marketing Strategies for Eco-Friendly Ecommerce Brands The environment has been playing on everyone's mind lately. Activism around climate change and a surge of sustainable products has created a new shopping landscape packed full of purpose-driven initiatives and eco-friendly ventures. People want to save the planet. It's the only one we've got, after all (until we can populate Mars or maybe the moon, but that's a long way off). Consumers are keen to buy from brands that have the same beliefs as them and that are openly showing their hand when it comes to doing better for the world, its creatures, and its communities. Green marketing is both the act of creating environmentally friendly products and marketing them in a sustainable way. Not to be confused with greenwashing, where big-name brands pretend they're doing their bit for the planet but are actually using it as a front to build favor with shoppers. Green marketing can look like a number of things in action. It can look like an eco-friendly product, sustainable packaging, recyclable materials, purpose-driven business practices, or simply marketing messages focused on Doing Good Things. At its core, it's promoting sustainable products in sustainable ways from a sustainable business foundation. Green Marketing VS Greenwashing We hinted at greenwashing above, but let's dig a little deeper into what this increasingly common phrase actually means. We've all seen it in action: big brands loudly voicing their stance on the planet and throwing money at campaigns to prove they're acting in sustainable ways. But, unlike green marketing that actually promotes an eco-friendly product in an eco-friendly way, greenwashing is when a business spends more money and resources on marketing themselves as a sustainable brand than actually being a sustainable brand. This is by no means a new thing. Throwback to the 80s, when Chevron (an oil company, no less) commissioned a series of print ads to showcase its dedication to helping the environment. In reality, the brand's infamous “The People Do” campaign ran in tandem with them actively violating the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. Today, greenwashing is everywhere, from fast fashion brands like Uniqlo (whose cute fictional cat, Doraemon, wasn't quite cute enough to cover up the brand's impact on the planet), to major banks, furniture stores, food brands (we're looking at you Nestle), and everything in between. Enough about greenwashing, though. Here are some actual green marketing success stories. 5. Successful Green Marketing Examples in Action Outdoor clothing brand Patagonia prides itself on being the antithesis to fast fashion. Its Worn Wear initiative lets customers trade in their old, worn clothing to buy a new item or a pre-loved garment. The idea is that customers invest in their clothing to extend its life rather than throwing it away the moment it gets tired and holey. This isn't just a “look good” campaign. Every part of it has been created with sustainability in mind–the returned clothing is cleaned using CO2 technology to save water and energy. Everyone wants to make their home look good, and Shades of Green appreciates this–in a sustainable way. The brand's focus is on creating healthier living spaces decorated with non-toxic, eco-friendly products and providing educational content on green building products and practices. Phone cases are notoriously throwaway items. Pela noticed this and wanted to do something about it. Their products are made solely from sustainable materials as they strive for a waste-free future. As well as biodegradable iPhone and iPad cases, Pela sells eco-friendly watch straps, sunglasses, and accessories. On top of sustainable materials, the brand practices key green initiatives, like improving its manufacturing efficiencies and offsetting its carbon footprint through carbon credits. Ten Thousand Villages wanted to shine a spotlight on talented artisans from across the globe–many...

When sending money internationally today, in many cases, you can simply transfer money through an app on your phone. This electronic transfer of funds is known as a wire transfer. A wire transfer is done over a vast network with which most individuals in the developed world are connected and is administered by banks and transfer services across the globe. You can do a transfer domestically and internationally. Keep reading to understand what this technology is, how it is done, and what benefits and risks are associated with it. What Is a Wire Transfer? A wire transfer refers to an electronic, cashless transfer of funds done through banks and non-bank service providers such as Western Union. This transfer involves no cash; instead, the electronic data is shared with the stakeholders and is settled accordingly. When making a transfer, you need to know the destination address of your receiver. International wire transfer is done against the receiver's IBAN or national ID card number. The sender can pay in cash or electronically through their account at the remitting bank. the process takes around two days to process, as they pass through checks by the Office of Foreign Assets Control to ensure the money isn't going to finance terrorism or if it isn't laundered money. Domestic Wire Transfer You can do a wire transfer domestically or internationally. In a domestic wire transfer, the intended recipient is a resident of your country. It is cheaper than an international one and takes less time to process. Fedwire Fund Service and Clearing House Interbank Payment System (CHIPS) offer domestic transfer services in the United States. International Wire Transfer An international wire transfer is also known as a remittance transfer and is more complex than a domestic wire transfer. It can be processed in around three to five business days if the country has a developed banking system. An international wire transfer requires the recipient's International Bank Account Number (IBAN), which consists of a two-letter country code, two check digits, and up to 35 alphanumeric characters specific to each country. These alphanumeric characters can include the Bank Identifier Code (BIC) – sometimes known as the SWIFT code – and the branch number followed by the recipient's account number. Some services send money on the recipient's national ID or social security number. How Does a Wire Transfer Work? A wire transfer enables you to send money through a secure network. The entire process involves the following steps: The sender pays in cash or through an electronic transfer of funds. They provide their details, such as their legal name and physical address, contact information, and bank information. They also provide the recipient's details, including their name, address, national ID number, and IBAN The bank at the sender's end sends secure instructions to the recipient's bank through a secure network. This network can be FedWire or CHIPS for a funds transfer within the United States and SWIFT for an international wire transfer The transaction is vetted by relevant authorities to ensure the reason for the wire transfer is legitimate. It may not be approved if there is any suspicion of terror financing or money laundering The receiver's bank account gets the funds from their bank account The sender's bank and the receiver's bank eventually settle their funds The Advantages of Wire Transfers 1. Security A wire transfer is a more secure way to send and receive money than other financial transaction methods. Sending funds through FedWire or SWIFT is a relatively safe method; once the money gets to the recipient's account, it's there. While there have been instances of money getting lost , it is still more secure than other methods of funds transfer, such as mailing checks, which the postal service can lose. With checks, there is also a risk of them bouncing back, whereas a wire transfer is a sure way of sending money. You can track your funds through a...

Do you wake up every morning thinking about how to grow your Shopify-connected business? And also how to make the world a slightly better place each day? I do. If the headline of this article inspired you to read on, I bet you do too. Together we can make ecommerce better for people and the planet, while boosting profits at the same time. The statistics bear this out: Purpose-driven brands and sustainable products are on the rise. Sustainably marketed products are powering seven times the growth over traditional consumer products. What's more, in 2021 nearly half of customers chose to buy from brands that have a clear commitment to sustainability, and 52 percent of shoppers are more likely to purchase from a company with shared values. Sustainability is a high priority for consumers today, and many will actively avoid a brand that doesn't give something back to the planet in some way. These stats show why social impact apps are important today. In this piece, we'll dig deeper into what exactly a social impact app is, why Shopify is the perfect place to launch one, and how you can get started building your own. You're busy, so here are the main points: Profit with purpose: The future of business growth is purpose. Shopify's impact foundation: Shopify's commitment to sustainability, impact, and empowering small to large merchants provides a dynamic foundation. Tiny steps aren't enough, it's time for us all to innovate: Shopify app developers and partner agencies can and should innovate on top of that foundation with solutions that are additive and impactful. How to launch a purpose-driven Shopify app: Tips and lessons abound and collaboration is key as we collectively compete with the broader bottom-line ecommerce world. Shopify's impact foundation Here's what I love about Shopify: They are building an ecommerce ecosystem passionate about empowering brands and their direct connections with customers. At the same time, they're boosting social impact and environmental responsibility. Many of the world's most purpose-driven brands choose Shopify as their trusted ecommerce partner. Now it's our chance as Shopify Partners to amplify the impact potential and innovate upon that foundation with our apps, agencies, and merchant services. What is a social impact app, and why should Shopify developers build one? The Shopify App Store's library of “social impact” and “sustainable” apps is one of its biggest selling points. The catalog of integrations allows merchants to do everything needed to do well by doing good—from managing email marketing and running a tight customer support ship to planting trees and converting site visitors to real sales inspired by charitable donation options. While it can feel like there's a new Shopify app popping up every day, there are always new opportunities to join impact entrepreneurs with your Shopify app innovations. Social impact ecommerce apps are one of the most prominent ways to enact positive change in the tech industry. Apps facilitate so many connections between people, brands, nonprofits, and developers. They are widely available around the world and create an easy way for both consumers and merchants to make a difference. Social impact apps drive change across causes and communities. As well as serving a practical purpose, they allow users to do good things. The growth of the impact economy has had a powerful effect on the tech world, as many founders and developers have quickly realized they have the ability to promote change while making a profit. This is evident in the rise of impact investors who are keen to put their money into good causes that generate reasonable returns. In the space of three years, impact investors have invested five times as much money into purpose-driven brands, and this will continue to increase. On top of this, people today are actively seeking out brands that share their same values. Showing that you care about the environment and the communities that inhabit it b...

Since iOS 14 hit in April of 2021, the DTC world has been desperately searching for the answer to one crucial question: How do I get clear attribution? It's a valid question — understanding which ads are actually working is the basis not only for in-platform decision-making, but for assessing the value of paid social advertising as a whole. The favored response of the DTC community? Third-party attribution tools. These new APIs promise a clear window into what's really happening in your account. But all of these tools have one fatal flaw: None of them pass their measurement data back to Facebook. And Facebook can't make optimization decisions with data it doesn't have. That means third-party attribution platforms leave you with lots of information . that you can't take action on. Or, more specifically, that Facebook isn't capable of putting its incredible machine-learning capabilities towards. For months, we've been struggling with the same fundamental questions about attribution . and we're happy to report that we've found a tool that may just be the future of media buying and ecommerce in general. And we even have a case study to prove it. Meet Retina.ai: Predicting CLV Directly Within Facebook Retina.ai is an AI platform that algorithmically predicts Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) from day one. Meaning — it produces something magical that allows you to see a customer's future behavior right now. Wait . what is Customer Lifetime Value, exactly? CLV is defined as: 12-month LTV – (CAC + COGS + shipping costs) In other words, it's the bottom-line value that a customer brings over the course of a year. Optimizing for CLV:CAC is more valuable than optimizing for ROAS or simple LTV, because it takes both cost and timeframe into consideration. In practice, of course, Retina's not actual magic. But it's pretty close. Retina's sophisticated algorithm intakes historical data and correlates first-purchase behaviors with long-term outcomes. Then, it applies those learnings to your current customer acquisition, identifying first-time purchasers that are most likely to increase in value over a 12-month window. The kicker? Retina integrates directly with Facebook Ads manager. Seriously — we can literally see CLV as a metric when we're buying ads: This allows Facebook to optimize for LTV:CAC based on predictive data fed back to the platform at the individual user level in real time. Sounds amazing right? But what about the case study? The Challenge: Rising CAC, Softening Consumer Trends Born Primitive, a fitness apparel brand, faced a seemingly unbreakable revenue plateau. This was only compounded by the data integrity issues brought about by iOS 14. There was only one way to get through this barrier: Optimize Born Primitive's LTV:CAC. Born Primitive's customer base includes lots of die-hard brand loyalists, and we needed to understand how to find more of them. Using Retina's Quality of Customer Report, we confirmed there was a huge difference between the brand's highest and lowest value customers: 50% of Born Primitive's customers have a 10-year CLV of $136 or less . but the average 10-year CLV is $366. That means the top 25% of customers are worth at least 150% more to Born Primitive than the bottom 50%. But before we could run the test, there were a few hurdles . The first challenge lay in setting up a baseline LTV model. We had to create an accurate model by ingesting data from Shopify's order and customer table. Challenge two relied on feeding CLV data to the Meta platform. The team set up integrations on Facebook CAPI and configured campaign modeling. The last challenge required us to show proof of increased conversion and LTV metrics. We constructed a scientific test to measure the incrementality of the LTV-based optimization. The Solution: CLV Split Test We set up a split test to understand the effectiveness of CLV-based optimization. Hypothesis: Optimizing for CLV in near real-time results in higher CLV customers (and better camp...

Starting an e-commerce business is thrilling as it comes with becoming your own boss. If you have excellent marketing skills or creativity, the entrepreneur field may be the right choice for you! And while it's true that this field comes with many hardships, miracles can happen once you understand the intricacies. This article will attempt to guide you through the journey to your success. Steps To Start E-Commerce Business Starting an E-commerce business is a big thing these days, so you'll need to think of good ways to stand out in the crowd, as everyone tends to use digital marketing for their business. If that's no biggie, here's how to get started. And, of course, if you need a few more tips or ideas, reach out to NiceLocal, who are here to solve your eCommerce problems! Step 1: Decide What to Sell The e-commerce community has become vast, and you have incredible levels of competition, so the first thing you'll need to do is study various business models and choose your product of choice. Business-to-customer (B2C): A most widely used business model in which anything from cutlery to clothes can be sold to the customers. It can also have different brands under one umbrella. Business-to-business (B2B): In B2B models, the customer and seller are both businesses, allowing for bulk buys and contracts. Examples can be Amazon and Alibaba. Customer-to-customer (C2C): C2C models interlink customers that exchange goods and services. Customer-to-business (C2B): With C2B, the person himself sells their goods and services to companies. The best example of this is, of course, freelancing. Next, you must look into the methods of delivering your goods. Depending on your products, it can be drop shipping, wholesale selling, or even a subscription. To excel, you must consider what you want to offer, how you will provide it, and to whom you want to show it. Step 2: Formulate Your Master Business Plan After you have decided on your business, you're ready to draft a business plan. This will hold your objectives, your marketing plans, and finances. It will also help you stay organized and on track while finding potential investors. Investigate the current competitors for your product or service and choose your target market along with perks on how to sell to them. Step 3: A Catchy Name is What Any Brand Needs A name affects the customer, so think of a catchy title. And as much as this part sounds fun, it requires a lot of strategic thinking. The name should be unique but not too complicated and specify or highlight your product. Make sure it translates nicely across different cultures if you plan for a global e-commerce business set-up. Furthermore, you will need a logo that can be placed on your products. You can hire a designer who would, in turn, transform your brand into a beautiful visual design for maximum efficacy in customer retention. Step 4: Register Your Brand Before selling your goods, you must register your business to obtain the required permits and licenses for the business model. After choosing your e-commerce business name, ensure the name is available by reaching out to your local secretary of state's website. Moreover, decide on your legal structure, an entity type suitable for your business, and financial guidelines. Next, apply for the Business Tax ID. This is a 9-digit number that allows you to keep your business and personal finances apart. Double-check the business licenses and permits needed to operate in your state, as they might vary from place to place. Step 5: Make a Website After all legal formalities are done, the next step is starting an e-commerce website. The website would act as a store for your business where customers will come, browse and place orders. Your website functionality is essential for the future of your business. For this, you'll need a domain name that matches your business name and an e-commerce 2022 platform that suits your business ideas. Step 6: Get Working Once your website is initiated,...

The emergence of e-commerce platforms over the past decade has been a significant factor in the development and success of the online retail industry. Originally, e-commerce was mainly used by people who didn't have physical shops. However, today it's almost obligatory for any store owner, including businesses with physical stores, to have an e-commerce platform if they want to thrive. The importance of packaging has been highlighted more with the increasing popularity of e-commerce. For one, since you may not have a physical location, good packaging is one way to spread the word about your shop's existence. Secondly, with many shops having a physical location, goods were packed in regular bags. There was no urgent need to be creative with packaging, but the e-commerce economy has changed that. Today, your packaging alone can bring new customers. One of the primary materials used for packaging is cardboard boxes. This material is a favorite for businesses because it's eco-friendly. As the advocacy for promoting climate change continues to gain traction, companies have adopted some sustainable ways to reduce pollution. One of them is using cardboard boxes. Cardboard is made from renewable materials and has minimized environmental impacts. However, being eco-friendly isn't enough. It'd be best to devise creative ways to customize your e-commerce cardboard. Keep reading to learn more. How To Make Customized Cardboard Boxes Whether you're looking for a way to ship your products or want to create a unique unboxing experience for your customers, here are some steps you can take to customize cardboard boxes to suit the needs of your e-commerce store: Step One: Choose High-Quality Cardboard The most crucial step in preparing the shipment is to build the boxes out of high-quality, robust cardboard. The strength and lifespan of a box are directly proportional to the quality of the cardboard used in its construction. Also, if your box printing looks good, you need to utilize high-quality cardboard. There are different types of cardboard and their difference is based on the material used. Cardboard can be made from kraft paper, chipboard, and even paper manufactured from recyclable resources. So, make sure to choose the best cardboard box with the highest quality material possible. Step Two: Play With The Texture Other than using the highest quality material, sometimes you can play with the textures of different materials to create a unique look and feel for your cardboard boxes. As mentioned before, one of the ways to distinguish between cardboard boxes is through the material used. Customizing sometimes may mean being unique and standing out. Sometimes playing with textures may bring you the desired results. Additionally, consider using distinct textures for distinct products, or use distinct textures for various components of the same product. Step Three: Consider Important Trends It's essential for your business to keep up with important trends, especially regarding Environment, Social, and Governance issues (ESG). For example, customers today are more inclined to purchase from environmentally oriented businesses. That means that any slight chance you get to show that you're an e-commerce champion for environmental justice, you should take it. One such opportunity is through using cardboard boxes. You can show that you're eco-friendly by using cardboard boxes as packaging for your products. This can be done through printing since many customers may not know the value of cardboard boxes in matters environment. You can also be part of championing social justice through your cardboard boxes by sharing your stand in print form on the boxes. When you do that, you can customize your packaging, and you attract a niche of customers that are in line with your stand. Step Four: Brand Your Cardboard Boxes One of the simplest ways to customize cardboard boxes is by adding your company's branding features, such as its logo or other identifiers,...

In this edition of our monthly product newsletter for Shopify Developers, you'll find the most important updates you need to know to continue your development work. Read on for more information. Stay in the know Subscribe to receive What's New with Shopify, our monthly email featuring Shopify's latest product news. Thanks for signing up! Unpublished apps are no longer allowed on Shopify The final compliance cutoff date is quickly approaching to get your app listed in the Shopify App Store in accordance with our new Partner Program Agreement. Be sure to submit your app as soon as possible to avoid reviewal delays—it usually takes our partners several weeks to complete the review process. Please check your dashboard notifications and email to find your cutoff date. Learn more about the app submission process below. Learn more New OAuth recommendations First impressions are critical and we need your help to improve a key part of the app experience: the initial load. Until now, our recommended OAuth flow added unnecessary time to the app load and created significant visual disruption. Today, we've updated our recommendations to make the initial app load faster, cleaner, and more enjoyable for merchants. For apps created with Shopify templates before August 23, 2022, you need to update your OAuth following these migration instructions. For new apps, you will automatically meet the guidelines by building with the latest app templates or simply following our guide on getting started with OAuth. Learn more Design your new Shopify App Store listing We're redesigning the Shopify App Store to make it easier for merchants to get what they need to grow their business—and for apps like yours to get discovered by the right people, too. We're asking app developers to refresh your listing content with new best practices to engage merchants. Submit your new app listing information via the Partner Dashboard before November 1 to ensure your app is ready for the redesign and remains eligible for promotion. Submit your new app listing information via the Partner Dashboard and visit the docs at the link below if you have any questions. Visit the docs Launching hot reload for theme app extensions As of Shopify CLI version 3.13.0, you can now preview theme app extensions by running the dev command. Shopify CLI supports hot reloading for theme app extensions, so you can avoid refreshing the browser after making changes. Learn more B2B on Shopify now available in the GraphQL Admin API Our Business Customer API is now stable! Reach more B2B Shopify Plus merchants with our new first-party feature set and access to powerful B2B APIs that will enable you to build custom wholesale solutions. The Business Customer API is the first to launch in stable, with additional B2B APIs set to launch in January 2023. The new Business Customers API, which provides queries, objects, and mutations to introspect and manage the new B2B primitives: Companies, Company Locations, and Compact Contact with associated roles. This API can be used to create companies that represent those business customers and contain information about them. This foundational feature for enabling wholesale is built directly into the core of Shopify so our partners can expand their reach and support more complex B2B workflows like quick order forms and quantity breaks. Additionally, you can now use: The purchasing entity input field to create and update B2B draft orders. This will attach company, location, and contact to the draft order. The contextualPricing field on Product and ProductVariant to fetch prices for a CompanyLocation by passing a companyLocationID argument to the context input. Visit the docs Launching: Shopify Translate and Adapt Shopify Translate and Adapt is an app that lets merchants translate their stores into multiple languages and create market-specific content to better connect with international customers and drive sales globally. This makes it easy for partners to set up t...

Accurate time tracking is essential to be able to bill efficiently. Yet more than 30 percent of professionals say manual time entries and data adjustments are two of the most time-consuming processes. Some contractors and agency managers believe projects should be scoped in advance and based on a flat rate (known as value-based pricing), while others charge by the hour for their services. However you prefer to work, you'll need to diligently track the time spent on each project, client, and task throughout the day. Manually tracking hours is a highly ineffective use of employee time and can result in inaccurate timekeeping. To avoid wasting time, say goodbye to lengthy spreadsheets and invest in a robust time tracking app. We've rounded up the best time tracking apps so you can track your billable hours, monitor your team's progress, or boost your personal productivity. What makes a great time tracking app? A good time tracking app helps maintain productivity and make better business decisions. When you understand how people are spending their time, you can build better processes and help teams further develop their skills. The best part? You know exactly how much to bill clients at the end of the month. Whether you're an agency or a freelancer, you want to know you're being paid for all your work. Without a way to stay organized, you could easily miss an hour here and there, which over time results in less income. Key features to look for in time tracking software include: Automated time tracking: It's easy to forget to stop and start time tracking apps. Automatic trackers monitor your work in the background so you don't need to remember to do anything. Some apps work offline, too. Integrations: Look for integrations with your favorite project management tools like Trello and accounting software like QuickBooks. Invoice creation: If you bill by the hour, see if your time tracking app can generate an invoice with your hours. Intuitive features: Nobody wants a steep learning curve. Look for drag-and-drop functions and color-coded menus to keep it simple. 13 best apps to track your billable hours Manually tracking your working hours is an outdated and time-consuming way to cover compensation—not to mention it distracts from the actual work itself. Automate your tracking process with one of these 13 apps: Harvest Toggl Track Hours Tick Timely TrackingTime Paydirt ATracker Clockify Timeular Timing MyHours HourStack 1. Harvest Best for integrating time tracking with invoicing Harvest is an expense and time tracking app. It provides a full set-up from tracking time to invoicing and is suitable for both teams and freelancers. Key features include: 70+ integrations: Harvest currently integrates with more than 70 business management services like QuickBooks, Slack, Stripe, Trello, and Asana. Cross-functional interface: The intuitive interface works across all desktop and mobile operating systems. There's even an Apple Watch app for easier tracking on the go. Itemized invoices: When you're ready to close the project, Harvest produces an itemized invoice ready for delivery to clients. Pricing: The free plan is perfect if you're a freelancer working on no more than two projects simultaneously. However, if you require the comfort of unlimited clients/projects, a Pro plan is $12/person per month. 2. Toggl Track Best simple time tracking app Toggl Track's simple one-click tracking style effectively tracks time without other distracting advanced features. Key features include: Core functionality: Perform both time tracking and invoice generation within the app. Once a job is complete or an invoice is needed, export reports to Excel, CSV, or PDF formats to share with clients. Intuitive organization: Organize timesheets by projects, clients, or other unique tags. Cross-functionality: Like Harvest, Toggl works well on all mobile and desktop operating systems and even includes a Google Chrome app. Team-friendly features: Segment team members i...

Cash flow issues are one of the most cited problems from small businesses of all types. What if you could harness every dime and turn your e-commerce store into a growth powerhouse? You could be making costly mistakes you aren't even aware of. Hint: Some may seem small but are costly mistakes that add up over time. As an entrepreneur, it's' your job to be a good steward of the revenue you generate. You want your business to grow consistently, and keeping track of your finances is the best way to ensure it does. Know where your money comes from and where it goes. What Is the Biggest Problem of E-Commerce? A recent Forbes report indicated about 93% of cybercriminals could get through the safeguards of most companies. Small and medium-sized businesses were particularly vulnerable because of a lack of strong IT or not updating antivirus protections. One of the costliest mistakes for e-commerce brands is letting your clients” information fall into the wrong hands. The cleanup will cost you vital funding, and you may lose customers. People will no longer trust you with their most sensitive information. There are many other costly mistakes associated with running a small brand. Some errors increase over time, such as paying too much for insurance, while others may be more noticeable in the short term. 1. Not Knowing Your Customers Not knowing who your customers are can be a costly mistake. One of the most important things you can do to grow your business is to keep your customers while adding new ones. Customer retention isn't' possible if you don't fully understand your customers' needs. What are their pain points? What drives them to your brand in the first place? Once you break down what motivates your users, you can ensure you meet their expectations and then exceed them. 2. Overselling Across Platforms Other costly mistakes include selling on multiple platforms and running out of inventory. It's' hard to keep up with more than a couple of online inventory systems on your own. You might forget to remove an item when stock runs low. Customers become frustrated with brands that sell to them and don't ship out immediately. Using a single system to track inventory across multiple channels is much easier. You won't have to worry about missing one because all are updated simultaneously. 3. Failing to Capture Leads Not capturing the leads that come your way can be one of those costly mistakes that hurt your business over time. If you spend the time and money to drive people to your website, you want to ensure you also collect information to stay in touch. For example, you might offer free shipping, a guide to something, or a discount if they share their email. Think about why your target audience would stay subscribed to your list. 4. Not Measuring Shipping Correctly Costly mistakes in shipping cost differences can hurt your bottom line. For example, you might think an order fits a specific size box and charges a set shipping rate. However, USPS and other carriers charge a premium over a certain size box. It would help if you weighed everything as you added it to your inventory unless you plan to eat some of the costs of mailing things out to your customers. 5. Ignoring Cryptocurrency Around 82% of small businesses cite cash flow issues as the number one reason for failure. Online stores should accept as many types of currency as possible. While you don't have to take Cryptocurrency, you should know the possibility and understand how digital cash works. If you choose to accept Cryptocurrency, you'll want to work with a third-party provider that gives you the best rates and is reliable. The last thing you want is to lose money because of a sudden crash in the worth of cryptocash. 6. Accepting Poor Web Hosting E-commerce is 100% online shopping. If your website isn't up to the task 24/7/365, you'll lose out on sales. Some issues you might run into include slow speeds, expensive fees, and crashes. Every minute your website is down, you'...

Finding employees isn't easy with the current labor shortage, no matter what industry you're in. Seeking out remote workers who can cover what you need for your e-commerce business can be quite a challenge. How can you know they have the skills you need? Do you even fully understand how best to delegate to others so you can free up your time to build your brand? Remote work seems to be the wave of the future. Of course, you'll need physical laborers to package and ship your products, keep track of inventory and answer the phones. What work can be completed at home versus in an office or warehouse? What Employees Do You Need for an E-Commerce Business? Experts from eMarketer recently predicted e-commerce sales would reach more than $1 trillion in the United States this year. Before the pandemic, researchers predicted it would be 2024 before the industry hit that milestone. Rapid growth leaves many online stores scrambling to fill more orders and scale up rapidly. You may feel unsure about what employees you need to cover things. A few of the minor roles you can hire either full-time, part-time, or freelance include: Web Developer IT Support Inventory Manager Sales Agents Customer Support Digital Marketing Manager Bookkeeper Virtual Assistant Spend some time looking at what roles could conceivably be remote ones. Then, please turn to the things that must be done in person and consider whether part of the job might be remote, making it a hybrid position. Why should you hire remote workers? First, you'll need less office space if people work from their homes. You can continue to grow your business in a small warehouse or out of your basement or garage. Second, you'll attract top-notch employees who don't want to go into an office but are looking for remote work. Here are a few things to keep in mind: 1. Save Money on Space As an e-commerce business, you may still be growing. Cash flow can sometimes be an issue. However, you can save a lot of money on office space by letting your employees work from home and keeping bare-bones staff in the warehouse. You only need the number of people it takes to ship out daily orders, take inventory and manage things. Even if you go with a hybrid approach, you can choose a smaller space and have Team A come in on Monday and Wednesday and Team B come in on Tuesday and Thursday. Not only will you need less room, but you'll save on energy costs, water, wear and tear and any other thing you can think of that costs your brand money. 2. Retain Top Talent A low employee churn equals success. You won't be spending money to recruit and train new talent. You can figure out your employment rate by taking the number of workers who left within a set amount of time, dividing by those left during the same period, and multiplying by 100. People got a taste of working from home during the pandemic. Many are leaving their current positions during the Great Resignation anyway. If they can't work from home, they're more likely to take place with a company that will allow it. Keep your best employees by giving them the option to work remotely. 3. Seek Referrals Are you worried about hiring people who aren't capable of working from home? Not everyone can be disciplined enough to finish tasks and keep their focus. How can you be sure you're hiring staff you can trust? You can ask your best employees if they know of anyone looking for remote workers who might be a good fit for their team. They aren't likely to recommend someone they don't think can do the work. They may know others with the skills you need, though. 4. Reach Out to Former Employees Have people left your employ in the last year or two? If they parted on good terms, you may want to reach out to them and ask if they'd consider coming back. Stress that you're willing to offer remote options if that makes a difference. Also, employees who moved away and didn't want to leave now have the option to work remotely for your e-commerce company. You might be able ...

Omnichannel merchandising is more than just a buzzword. It can be the difference between a brand that thrives, and one that's easily forgotten. In today's digital-focused retail environment, it's more important than ever for brands to cut through the noise and connect with their customers. An omnichannel merchandising strategy is essential if you want to resonate with shoppers, convert them into buyers, and nurture those relationships, so they become lifelong fans. Read on for our top tips for creating and implementing an omnichannel merchandising strategy. What is omnichannel merchandising? Omnichannel merchandising means creating a consistent shopping experience across every customer touchpoint, including brick-and-mortar, ecommerce, and third-party marketplaces. The omnichannel approach to promoting retail goods is centered around the customer rather than the product. It's about creating a seamless brand experience across every sales channel. An omnichannel merchandising strategy is critical even if your business only exists online. Consider creating consistency between your online platforms: your ecommerce store, social selling platforms, mobile app, influencer campaigns, and third-party sellers. How to create a consistent omnichannel merchandising strategy Here's some inspiration for designing a seamless shopping experience across all touchpoints to keep customers returning. Product placement No omnichannel strategy is complete without a seamless visual merchandising experience. Let's say you're a women's apparel retailer selling house brands and garments from various vendors. It's financially in your best interest to prioritize sales of your house brand so you optimize your product placement to highlight the house brand whenever possible. This means giving your house brand prime shelf space in your store and displaying it prominently. On your ecommerce website and the mobile app translates to pinning and boosting house products to appear above other brands on category pages and in search results. Regarding third-party marketplaces, you might incentivize the reseller to feature your brand. This approach increases your margins and guarantees that your house brand is the most recognizable line you carry, making it synonymous with your shopping experience across all touchpoints. Adding a social media QR code to your omnichannel marketing approach can help further personalize the customer experience. Featured products Now let's imagine you run a homewares chain with its mobile app. A customer opens your app and sees a collection of Easter-themed decorations, pillows, and tableware featured on the homepage. Enticed by the seasonal products, the customer comes to your store to browse the new arrivals in person. They see the window displays decked out with the same Easter products they saw in your app as they approach. The shopper goes home with some festive spring pillows. A few days later, the customer regrets not buying an Easter basket they saw in the store, so they visit your website to look for it. Just like your app and window displays, your website's homepage features a curated selection of Easter items, and the customer doesn't have to look too far to locate the basket they had in mind. Consider the impact on the buying journey if the same shopper had initially spotted the Easter products in store but later found your website still highlighted Christmas decor. Every customer touchpoint should provide a similar, recognizable experience with an omnichannel approach to retail. Special thanks to our friends at Searchspring for their insights on this topic.

Most of the time, all it takes is a well planned out marketing strategy to make or break a record. The virtual competition will remain unavoidable on the grounds that most of the businesses are being administered online. That's why online marketers always pay heed to the ecommerce marketing strategies they adopt. The purpose of marketing is not only to generate sales but also to communicate with consumers. The fact that your products will bring them good- is a message you want them to know, belief, and act- that's what marketing strategies do for you. The correct approaches need the methodical implementation to bring out the intended results. This is why people look for the best marketing strategies. There are several practices for ecommerce marketing, but the best are deemed so for several good reasons. Many online retailers cognize those methods as remarkably advantageous. Here are the best marketing strategies for online businesses you will find responding to your needs. Let's go through them right away. What is Ecommerce Marketing? Ecommerce, known as electronic commerce/ internet commerce, is a broadening platform for products or services buying and selling online. Instead of going to a physical store, buyers get the privilege to choose their required commodities and services from different stores available online (such as Vuly Play), order those, make payment, and get it delivered- all these activities are included in the process of ecommerce. On that note, let's know about ecommerce marketing. Ecommerce marketing is the cumulative measures or tactics incorporated for purposes like creating brand awareness, driving traffic, and boosting online store sales. Why is Marketing Strategies for Ecommerce Required? The inclusion of reasons like convenience, comfort, availability, time, and money-saving opportunities have been working together to make people rely more on online shopping. As a result, 2.05 billion people bought online in 2020, Oberlo states. The number of online shoppers will be increasing in the upcoming days; so will the competition. Predicting that all the online store owners are constantly updating their practice of ecommerce business strategy so that they won't fall behind in the battle. Digital marketing strategies are an inevitable set of techniques for online store owners if they want their online stores to keep surviving and effectuate towards ranking. These are continuous approaches, and the goal is to meet constant revenue targets for online business people. The 12 Best Ecommerce Marketing Strategies You Should Try A good strategy will propel the business- that's why business people tend to focus more on the system. Look at the top 12 ecommerce marketing solutions successful online businessmen recommended. Strategy 1: Google Shopping Ads Google Product Listing Ads (PLAs) is another name for Google Shopping Ads, one of the best ad platforms for e-business marketing. It is an ideal platform to advertise where your potential customers are bound to come. When users search for their needed product, if that brand already has google ads running, those searchers will find the items on the search results, which are generally directed to the sellers' website. Experts say that platforms like Shopify or Woocommerce are best suited for this campaign. Google shopping ads users have asserted to have progressive results in their CTR and conversion rate. Strategy 2: Content Marketing Lee Odden said, “Content is the reason search began in the first place.” Content marketing, known as inbound marketing, is no less important; instead, it is among the vital ones. The purpose and SEO-optimized content can serve beyond description. Being an ecommerce businessman, one of your prioritized considerations is to appear first in a Google search. A well-written content specifying all the aspects of a particular product can help reign you over others online. Promote original content that embraces SEO guidelines on your site. Not n...

When a company can bring flexibility to another business, it can be a recipe for success. And a win-win for both parties. Afterpay, a Bold partner, has established a sterling reputation among its merchants for layering a flexible payment structure for shoppers, known in the industry as Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL). How does BNPL work? When a consumer visits a retailer that has partnered with a BNPL service such as Afterpay, they have the option at checkout to divide the cost of their purchase into four interest-free installment payments. As a Lightspeed report noted, “Online shoppers are coming to expect an option to buy now and pay later everywhere they shop online.” Based in Australia, Afterpay is offered by nearly 100,000 of the world's favorite retailers (American Eagle, Bed Bath & Beyond, Ray-Ban, etc) and has nearly 20 million customers in North America alone. Giving customers alternative payment options can endear shoppers to brands. “Afterpay is a clear win for merchants, as they can offer their customers payment flexibility without requiring them to enter into a traditional loan or pay interest,” says Sarah Clansky, Director of Channel Partnerships at Afterpay. “Our merchant partners receive the full amount of each purchase upfront, and we take on the full risk of repayment. For brands and retailers, this leads to many business benefits such as increased conversion rates and sales, new customers, lower return rates, and higher average order values and basket size.” Afterpay has no interest. There are also no fees if payment installments are paid on time. Driving growth for brands is at the heart of what Afterpay does. An Accenture report found that merchants using Afterpay gained $4.5 billion in net benefits in 2021, including almost $1.2 billion in net benefits for SMBs. Afterpay is competing in a surging space. The global BNPL market size is expected to reach $20.40 billion by 2028, registering a CAGR of 22.4% from 2021 to 2028. Going beyond a simple partnership What merchants also appreciate about Afterpay, notes Clansky, is how a BNPL provider can be more than a payments provider but also a marketing partner. “Many customers will start their shopping journey on our Shop Directory, and oftentimes use it as a place to discover new brands and products,” she says. Due to how the pandemic has accelerated the growth of ecommerce, consumers have now become used to the ease and flexibility of online shopping, forcing retailers to bring online convenience to the in-store experience, Clansky adds. She goes on to speak on Afterpay's omnichannel model, “Afterpay has helped brands overcome this challenge by allowing them to offer the BNPL service both online and in-store. Launching Afterpay in stores is a light lift for retailers, and provides them with a safe, contactless payment solution to offer to their customers.” Looking to take advantage of innovative technology, Afterpay recently teamed with Westfield shopping centers on an augmented reality (AR)-activated scavenger hunt that offers QR codes for shoppers to scan and unlock deals and promotions at Afterpay-backed retailers. And in 2021, they also unveiled two new products for merchants: Afterpay iQ is a customer-centric analytics tool to help brands evaluate marketing performance, omnichannel shopping volumes, and demographic summaries down to the store level; and Afterpay Ads introduces a new suite of advertising products to “help brands reach, acquire and activate high intent, loyal shoppers across the Afterpay ecosystem,” as the release writes. What Afterpay provides to merchants and, through a behind-the-screens assist, to shoppers can be a teachable moment to other business leaders: make flexibility a priority, help your brand partners market to consumers, and adopt next-gen technology to continue to develop product lines that will retain core customers and open the door to new revenue. Late fees may apply. Eligibility criteria apply. See www.afterpay.com for more d...

Teaching Kids About Giving: The Why, The How, and The How Soon Most parents want to raise their children to become kind adults, empathize with those less fortunate, and do something about it. One of the better ways to encourage that is to teach them about charitable giving from an early age. This includes everything from sharing toys at playtime, to inviting kids to join in recess games, to setting aside some of their money to donate to charities. Here's what you need to know to get started today. Teaching our kids to give charitably raises them into better human beings. We also know some of the specific traits this builds in children, which they can use as adults and while they grow. When kids give, they think about what their gifts do for those they help. If they invite a lonely classmate to join in a game, they understand loneliness. If they give some of their allowance to a food bank, they think about how hungry they might feel if they didn't have food. By making a difference in somebody's life, children consider what might have happened without their help. This builds empathy and compassion, traits that rely on the proverbial “walk in someone else's shoes.” It Encourages Them to Explore Their Interests If a child is interested in the cultures and languages of Southeast Asia, then giving to a charity based in that region helps them explore that interest in a new way. If they love to read, volunteering at a library lets them dive deeper into the world of books. Whatever your child is fascinated with, there's a way to give that immerses them more fully in that topic. On a more functional level, getting involved in those passions early through giving also helps them in their professional life later. It introduces them to the structures and systems of that passion and could even help them find mentors and influencers in the field. Empathizing with less fortunate people also helps kids appreciate their own lives. Thinking about what hunger feels like inspires gratitude for a full belly. Delivering charitable holiday gifts instills a sense of appreciation for the packages under the tree at home. Research has found that gratitude strengthens relationships, improves physical and psychological health, reduces aggression, improves self-esteem, and improves sleep quality. That's not a bad return on a few hours or dollars given to worthy causes. Now that we've seen how powerful it can be to teach our kids charitable giving, let's look at some methods. Charity isn't restricted to writing checks or slipping bills into a donation jar, after all. 1. Reinforce Kindness Early and Often When adults give to charity, we get a dopamine hit that makes us feel good about ourselves and the world for a little while. Kids get that too, but we can reinforce it. If we praise our children any time we catch them doing something kind for others, we give them that same dopamine hit we get from formal giving. This can be even more powerful if we ask them how they felt about whatever kind of thing they did. They get the neurological benefits and the lesson of deeper thinking about empathy and charity. Giving money or other support from a distance provides the personal benefits of charity and supports the cause. However, it can be too abstract for younger children to understand and engage with. Most nonprofit organizations give tours to people who want to know what they do and why. Unless their facility is dangerous in some way, they often love to bring kids in to teach them about their mission. This in-person visit can help children understand how their efforts and donations help people. 3. Make Giving a Budget Line Item When your kids earn money, consider portioning it into cash to spend, money to save, and money to donate. The exact proportions are up to you, but it's a tangible way to encourage kids to think about charity early and plan their finances accordingly. Make a line item in your own budget for supporting causes you find essential. Share this...

Living in a post-COVID-19 world has changed the entire curriculum of all industries. A boost in designing virtual workplaces for employees was witnessed and along with it, came a need to devise effective strategies to manage these virtual workplaces. Hiring a remote team and managing it has its fair share of challenges but if managed wisely, remote work can have resulted in positive employee productivity. Bringing about a real change takes time but if sincere efforts are put in, positive results can be achieved quicker than expected. Below are 5 amazing techniques to ensure effective virtual workplace productivity and performance to help you grow your business! Introduce a strong company culture A strong workplace culture leads to positive employee productivity. Before you hire your new remote staff and set your standard of expectations, it should be noted that a strong work culture comes as a prerequisite, so your employees are motivated to perform to the best of their abilities. This can be ensured through a multitude of methods. Some companies maintain workplace productivity by monitoring and keeping a track of employees' performance on an hourly or weekly basis. This prevents employees from becoming neglectful of their duties. However, it has been argued that most employees find this type of micromanaging regimented which leads to frustrated employees who do not appreciate such stringent monitoring methods. Another method involves hiring value-centric candidates and setting weekly or monthly goals for them to aim at. This means that the productivity of employees is measured through their productivity results rather than keeping a check on how busy an employee may seem during his working hours. Apart from that, your company must outline a clear framework of work policies. Though remote working is more flexible and unconventional than traditional workspace environments, a proper set of company guidelines still needs to be put in place so your employees can understand what is expected of them. Ensure giving out clear company guidelines and expectations A spectrum of things is required to create a productive remote workplace. One of them is effective communication guidelines. If a company fails to produce a clear set of company guidelines and policies, its employees are likely to find themselves in a confused state and would struggle to reach their maximum working potential. Although guidelines for each company are determined by its niche and industry, here are some of the basic points you might want to consider: What and where to employ given communication tools and strategies Use of understandable vocabulary to ensure that voice of guidance is conveyed well A guideline that focuses on virtual meeting etiquette Short training for all employees to prepare urgent documents A virtual tour of your work environment will help a new employee understand his/her duty in a friendlier way Offering different remote setups Although work-from-home is the new normal and as comfortable as it may sound, some people do not feel productive working from home. This could be due to several reasons. For example, your employee may not have enough space at home or he/she may feel too distracted to work in their comfort place. Many employees still miss the pre-COVID hustle and bustle of their office. And to cater to this need, you can provide access to co-working spaces to your employees. It is much easier and cheaper than finding an office and renting it for your staff. Numerous co-working spaces can be accessed globally. Those of your employees who feel most productive in the comfort of their homes, need to make sure that they have access to all the right tools without interference. If affordable, your company can also provide employees with work from home stipend allowing them to buy the necessary equipment for effective performance. Stay in touch with your employee's professional and personal well-being Maximum employee engagement is the backbo...

Reading Time: 5 minutes Confused about how to set up emails for a new Shopify store? Yes, Shopify email setup can be tricky, especially for folks without previous experience or technical background. That's why we created this simple guide. Keep reading to learn how to set up Shopify email in less than an hour. Shopify Email requirements First things first: You can only use the Shopify Email app if your store has a paid subscription. If you're still on the trial plan, Shopify allows sending test emails to yourself only. So Make sure you bought a paid plan before starting the Shopify email setup. The cheapest subscription costs $29/mo. See the Shopify pricing plans here. Shopify email setup Go to the Shopify Email app page to begin. Click Add app and follow the instructions to start the installation. Logging into Shopify is required to continue. Once you're logged in Click Install App. In about five seconds, Shopify Email will be ready to use. One important note: Shopify doesn't host your emails. More specifically: you can't reply directly to your customers from your Shopify email. Instead, they offer two options: email forwarding and third-party hosting. Forwarding means your emails will have @shopifyemail.com at the end. In this case, the messages won't look very professional. But if you'd like to use this option, use the Add forwarding email address in Domains (now under Settings) in the Shopify dashboard. This option is only available for custom domains (not ending in myshopify.com) purchased through Shopify. Watch Shopify's walkthrough here: Third-party hosting means using another service to host your emails. It's a great option that many stores use. With Shopify, you can select between Google Workspace and Zoho Mail. To add a third-party email hosting service Go to Online store > Domains and click your domain under Shopify-managed domains. The Domains option will only be visible if you've purchased a custom domain through Shopify. Click on Manage. There, in the Email section, choose Use third-party hosting service. This window will appear, allowing you to make a choice. The meta tag or TXT that you see on the picture can be obtained from your chosen email hosting provider. You can also watch a video walkthrough from Shopify: To connect your Shopify store to any of those two email hosting services: Go to your Shopify dashboard > Settings > Domains. There Click Connect existing domain and type in your store's URL. If your store is registered with these Shopify partners, an option to connect automatically will appear. Here's how it looks. Click Connect automatically and follow instructions. How to add SPF and DKIM records to Shopify If you chose a third-party Shopify email hosting provider Shopify says you need to add Sender Policy Framework (SPF) records and Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM) records to your account. Otherwise, your emails will be shown as being sent from [email protected] or, worse, flagged as spam. To add Shopify SPF and DKIM: Go to Settings in your dash Click Edit in Contact Information Choose Fix this Click Authenticate in Sender email Enter SPF and DKIM according to instructions Once this is done, you can feel confident that your emails will be delivered to customers. If you need more help with this step, see this SPF & DKIM records guide. Shopify email marketing with Omnisend Shopify Email is an okay email marketing option with an average rating of 4.4 stars. Users are generally satisfied but many reviews suggest a lack of automation and too few templates. If checking out some alternatives is something that crossed your mind, let us suggest Omnisend. You get: Top-rated customer support Free plan with 500 emails/mo Best-in-class email automations Stunning email templates SMS marketing features The app has 3,600+ 5-star reviews from Shopify users. If you're interested—taking Omnisend for a spin is easy (and free). The basic steps: Go to Omnisend's page on the Shopify App Store and click Add app. After...

Direct store delivery (DSD) is an attractive option for many wholesalers since it provides advantages over centralized distribution. Immediate store delivery (DSD) is an ideal sales channel since it expedites the delivery of products to customers and applies to all products. In contrast, centralized distribution is best suited for products that are easy to ship, require minor special handling, and have a long shelf life. Shops are attempting to improve by cutting costs and stock in the supply chain, speeding up delivery times, and being more responsive to customers' needs. As a result, many manufacturers are abandoning their multi-tiered DSD distributor systems in favor of the DSD Model. Connect your data and infrastructures With so many field personnel making deliveries and processing customer orders, you must keep your data organized and accessible from a single platform. This necessitates adopting user-friendly DSD software that can be accessed by route employees, sales representatives, and back-office workers without requiring special training or hardware. Here's where route accounting software comes in handy; it streamlines invoicing customers, collects payments, and manages inventory and shipments from the field. It will provide route employees rapid and efficient access to vital information and eliminate order entry errors. Your software must interface in real-time with core systems, including your ERP, so field workers are always informed (as will your back office staff). Keep your field workers in the loop Not just sales reps should know your company's offerings. It would be best to inform your drivers to make sales and answer client questions. Include an e-Catalog with graphics and product information in your DSD sales plan. Your personnel will also need sales and order history. This helps them counsel customers and recommend products that close deals. To boost sales, offer ‘account-specific' incentives based on client preferences and order history. You can turn them into sales reps by giving your field personnel simple online and offline access to customer and product information. Your field workers can sell from anywhere, anytime, and even when delivering. Intensify productivity With so many simultaneous deliveries, manufacturers and wholesale distributors need a method for tracking field activity. Managers should also have real-time access to information regarding worker locations and completed tasks. So, they can ensure the route crew is on time, making deliveries, and reacting to last-minute sales and delivery demands. Field personnel should access sales data, but supervisors should also oversee direct store deliveries to reduce errors. To track deliveries and sales, digital delivery and order entry technologies offer electronic proof of delivery (ePOD), invoicing, and payments, shortening the billing cycle. Utilize your mobility to its full potential Mobile devices coupled with route accounting software may readily deliver all the customer, product, and sales information that field employees need while in the field. Use a DSD platform compatible with several operating systems so that your field reps can “bring their own device” (BYOD) on the road instead of buying new hardware for everyone on staff. The platform must support offline use to ensure that field employees can access data and information without connecting to the internet. Go native for further perks A native mobile app that works on Android and iOS can take advantage of the device's built-in features such as the camera for scanning barcodes, calendar, push notifications, and geo-location to log places and times, allowing companies to collect valuable information on their drivers while facilitating employee ease-of-use. Direct store delivery shouldn't be haphazard. Using the latest DSD and Route Accounting technologies, wholesalers and distributors may optimize their DSD sales and enhance their route employees.

When was the last time you checked your email? If you answered “today,” you're not alone. In fact, more than 80% of Americans report checking their inbox daily, with a thundering 63% majority checking it multiple times a day. Despite its age, email hasn't stopped growing. The number of email users worldwide has increased every year since its inception and is estimated to top 4.2 billion by the end of 2022. That's what makes a good email marketing campaign so important. Social media and paid ads are a great way to find new customers, but neither offer the level of control over your customer journey that comes with audience segmentation and a good email marketing campaign. If you're looking to create a successful email marketing campaign, you need to see what a good marketing email looks like. That's why we've put together a list of some of our favorite recent email marketing examples from independent brands. 21 extraordinary email marketing examples to inspire you 1. Poppy Barley The brand: Poppy Barley is a retailer with stores in Calgary and Edmonton, specializing in leather footwear and accessories, like backpacks, wallets, and purses. Poppy Barley is branded similarly to a lot of high-end retail outlets that sell similar products, but with one crucial difference⁠—its commitment to ethical business practices. Poppy Barley's goal is to rethink the ethics of the fashion industry, from production to distribution. It only uses sustainable materials in its products and packaging. It only works with factories that meet certain standards for ethical production (which includes human rights, gender equality standards, and the right of workers to unionize). Subject: Hello, new friend! Type of email: Welcome email Why it works: In “Hello, new friend!” Poppy Barley wastes no time in setting itself apart from other luxury goods retailers. The header image cheekily crosses out “New York” and replaces it with “Edmonton” when labeling where products are designed. It replaces “Italy” with “Mexico” when listing where the products are manufactured. In doing this, the email makes a direct comparison to its competitors—high-fashion companies usually based in big fashion cities like New York and Milan. This immediately sets the brand apart. Good branding is all about telling consumers what makes you different, and Poppy Barley wastes no time getting to it. The email lists what makes the company different and uses calls to action (CTAs) to direct customers to where they can find more info about what makes them different. Takeaway: Welcome emails are the perfect opportunity to tell audiences what makes your brand unique from your competitors. 2. Doomlings The brand: Doomlings is a post-apocalyptic card game where players have to survive the end of the world. Each round, a new catastrophe brings about the end of the world, and players draw cards that assign them certain “traits” that can be used to defend against the catastrophe. Doomlings is both a game and a hobby. In addition to selling the standard edition of the game, the Doomlings ecommerce store also sells expansion packs and sleeves of cards that fans can add to their collection or trade with other players. Subject: Welcome to the end of the world! Type of email: Welcome email Why it works: Even before the recipient opens the welcome email, Doomlings' apocalyptic tongue-in-cheek humor is apparent right away, with a foreboding, yet playful subject line that's nearly impossible to ignore. Once inside, recipients are offered a discount for first-time purchases to encourage sales, given more background on the game's founders, and shown convenient links to their product collections. Takeaway: Know your target audience. Don't be afraid to be bold in appealing to an audience that is receptive to boldness. 3. Nonna Live The brand: Every week, Nonna Nerina welcomes online audiences into her kitchen, located in a small village in Italy, for Nona Live, a cooking class where viewers are taught authen...

We know Q4 ROAS typically dips then spikes around Black Friday and Cyber Monday. But not all verticals experience the same bump. The Health and Wellness category remains relatively flat (likely because people don't necessarily “gift” these items). Whereas Fashion & Apparel performs better than the overall store average. In fact, the Fashion & Apparel space maintains close-to-Black-Friday revenue levels for several weeks after BFCM weekend itself. These brands would do well to continue pushing ad spend through December. Facebook CPMs also vary between verticals: Fashion & Apparel and Food & Beverage show the lowest CPMs in Q4. Health & Wellness and Beauty & Cosmetics round out the higher end. Offers by Vertical: What Do Holiday Shoppers Expect? Pulling from our database of offers from 604 of ecommerce's most successful brands, we broke it down using offer type by category. For Apparel & Accessories, Sitewide and Select SKUs reigned supreme. Home Goods followed suit with Sitewide, Select SKUs, and None taking prominence. Select SKUs led the Children and Baby vertical. Sitewide sales dominated the Beauty, Food & Beverage, and Health & Wellness industries. Although None was just as dominant for the latter industries. Transitioning from Black Friday to Cyber Monday What about the shift from Black Friday to Cyber Monday? How do online stores handle the different holidays? How do offers change? We turned to the data. The majority of brands kept their initial Black Friday offer into Cyber Monday. But plenty experimented with new offer types for the subsequent holiday. Focusing on Sitewide sales specifically, we looked at how often stores decided to either bump up (or bump down) discounts moving into Cyber Monday. Many more stores felt comfortable offering No Discount for Cyber Monday after running a Sitewide offer for Black Friday. Competitive analysis can help alleviate some of the uncertainty of the 2022 holiday season. What will your customers respond to most this year? Contact us to learn more about our data-backed approach to ecommerce growth. Eager to learn more? Stay up to date on the latest happenings in the DTC universe by signing up for our newsletter or partnering with our team. Melissa Rosen is the Director of Marketing and Content at Common Thread Collective. Based in San Diego, California, she has spent the last decade exploring how to create engaging content that inspires, teaches, and entertains. Melissa can be found on Twitter and LinkedIn talking all things content, marketing, and ecommerce. Special thanks to our friends at Common Thread Collective for their insights on this topic.

❓ We use a large number of discounts and we are trying to understand: do we have customers that only buy when there's a promo?

In ecommerce, one-click checkout solutions are aimed at reducing friction and shortening the path to purchase by minimizing the number of form fields and clicks required to place an order. Savvy online shoppers expect easy, intuitive experiences, with an increasingly lower tolerance for too many steps in the process, or lack of preferred delivery and payment options. Despite ongoing investment in improving the end to end online shopping experience, overall cart abandonment rates continue to sit around 70%, according to Baymard Institute. A major contributor? Checkout abandonment. According to The Checkout Benchmark, almost half of all shoppers who proceed from cart into checkout, don't complete their purchase. That's a staggering volume of lost sales potential from shoppers that demonstrate strong intent to purchase but drop off during checkout. “While there will always be a certain amount of checkout abandonment — because some shoppers will start a checkout as part of their consideration process or simply to see if discounts are available — brands should strive to minimize friction in the checkout. Any extra friction in the checkout will increase checkout abandonment,” says Anatolii lakimets, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Bold Commerce. One-click checkout shortens the path to purchase in an effort to minimize friction by moving shoppers through checkout with fewer clicks. For a basic one time, one item purchase on a website, the concept of a shortcut through checkout with one-click is pretty straightforward. But with the shift in shopper interest to purchase in different channels like social or blogs, on a mix of devices, or without clicking at all (in the case of voice assistants), the requirements of a one-click checkout increase. Reducing friction isn't about getting to one click at all costs, when some clicks are valuable ‘conversion boosters'. Shoppers expect BOPIS and other delivery options, payment options, the ability to collect loyalty points, or apply discounts during checkout. “Checkout used to be about taking payment, but in today's world, checkout has become the orchestration point of all of these elements in a shopping experience. Exceptional customer journeys continue right through checkout,” says Deanna Traa, Chief Marketing Officer at Bold Commerce. “Brands need to think about the data and checkout logic they require through their checkout experience, especially when they are selecting a one-click solution. When you think about it, checkout is a critical moment of truth in a shopping journey to reinforce your brand experience.” 5 ways to tell your brand needs a customized one-click checkout Not all one-click checkout solutions are created equal. Many options, including digital wallets, require brands to make sacrifices to the shopping experience and the checkout logic in order to implement a one-click solution. This can mean serving up payment methods, delivery options, subscription offers, or the ability to collect or redeem loyalty points. For brands with simple business models and one item baskets, these sacrifices are smaller. For others, the effectiveness of a one-click checkout experience relies on the ability to customize it based the business model while also delivering brand consistency across every channel. Here are five indicators your brand would benefit from a customized one-click checkout solution: #1: Your shoppers are embracing alternative payment A recent McKinsey report found that more than three-quarters of U.S. shoppers used some form of digital payment during the pandemic. Plus, the share of consumers using two or more digital payments methods is on the rise — jumping to 58% from 45% year over year. According to The Checkout Report, 38.7% of buyers chose PayPal as a payment option when offered. If your brand has a large number of users opting for alternative payment methods to credit cards, it could be a sign they are looking for a simpler, streamlined checkout experience. Digita...

Do you have an abandoned cart problem? If so, don't panic, this is a very common issue for Shopify store owners. In fact, according to a Statista report, the average online shopping cart abandonment rate is a massive 79.8%. You're in good company! A good Shopify abandoned cart app can win back a healthy percentage of this lost revenue. To help, we've put together a fresh list of the very best Shopify abandoned cart apps, based on both user reviews and their overall effectiveness. How to recover abandoned carts on Shopify? It's simple: you choose the right Shopify abandoned cart app for your business and use it effectively. Usually, this means sending a series of carefully-timed messages over multiple channels, reminding the customer of their missed purchase. Messages can include things like a photo of the abandoned item, an easy link back to the product page, an incentive such as a discount or free shipping, and similar product recommendations. Popular channels to recover abandoned carts on Shopify include: Email: This is the most common and cost-effective method, converting an impressive 34% of lost orders SMS: These widely-read messages can add a sense of urgency to your abandoned cart series with time-sensitive deals Exit-intent popups: Catch users as they are preparing to navigate away from your store and give them a second chance to complete the purchase Website chatbots: These handy helpers guide users through the shopping experience and can leave subtle reminders about an unfinished purchase Push notifications: Increasingly popular push notifications give reminders directly on-screen, regardless of which website the user is browsing. It's always a good idea to use a combination of these channels in your abandoned cart workflows. Let's check out the best Shopify abandoned cart apps that allow you to do this. Best Shopify abandoned cart apps Omnisend Tidio Rivo Carti PushOwl Care Cart Persistent Cart Keep Cart by Marsello WhatsApp Abandoned Cart & Chat Facebook Messenger Cart Recovery 1. Omnisend Omnisend is the most complete marketing automation app for Shopify. Designed specifically for ecommerce retailers, it naturally includes powerful abandoned cart features. You can easily combine email, SMS, and more for a truly omnichannel abandoned cart strategy. Features: Advanced segmentation: Break your audience down into smaller, more specific categories for more personalized and relevant abandoned cart messages Pre-built automations: Save time with effective pre-built abandoned cart workflows created specifically for ecommerce and backed by data Drag-and-drop builder: If you want to customize you can with easy drag-and-drop functionality SMS and push integration: Seamlessly add SMS and push notifications into your abandoned cart workflows for urgency and time-sensitive deals Powerful analytics: Discover exactly what's working and what needs a few tweaks with in-depth analytics and actionable insights Why choose Omnisend? With its focus on easy-to-use automation, Omnisend makes good on its promise of increasing your sales, not your workload. Workflows are quick to set up and run seamlessly in the background, driving sales on autopilot and drastically reducing your abandoned cart rate. Another useful feature of Omnisend is the ability to track visitors with cookies, so you can send abandoned cart messages to visitors who aren't yet subscribed to your list. And the best part? All features are accessible on their free plan, so you can get started right away. Get Omnisend for free 2. Tidio Tidio prevents cart abandonment at its source by reaching out to shoppers while they're still shopping. Using smart exit-intent technology, this Shopify abandoned cart app displays automatic reminders via chatbots. You can also “catch” customers in real-time with live chat. Features: Pre-built cart abandonment chatbots: For quick set up and start Drag-and-drop editor: To easily customize chatbots without coding skills Multiple languages: Pro...

February 14th is the day of love. Valentine's Day is all about spoiling the people you love, whether this is your romantic partner, your best friends, your family, or even yourself! No matter if you opt for the classics: candles, lingerie, and flowers, or if you want to go outside of the box (of chocolates) with a memorable romantic dinner at home, this list of 14 small businesses has got you covered with a Valentine's Day gift your love will love. No grocery store flowers and discount chocolates on your way home from work this year. Find that special gift for that special someone with this Valentine's Day gift guide we are totally head over heels for. 1. Bijou Candles Set the mood with your special someone this year with these affordable luxury candles. Or indulge in some self care because who says you can't be your own valentine? Bijou Candles offers pop culture candles that look good and smell even better. With 3 different sizes of candles and various candle sets, you'll be sure to light up your valentine's day with this gift idea. These clean-burning, soy candles can burn up to 140 hours making it the gift that keeps on giving. Did we mention customers even say they're guaranteed to give off magical vibes? True story. Whatever February 14th means to you–Valentine's, Galentine's, Palentine's, or Self-Love-entine's (alright, we're still working on that one), Bijou Candles sparks that magic you've been waiting for. 2. Pretty By Her Not the mushy gushy romantic type? Valentine's Day doesn't give you total heart eyes? Don't worry–skip the traditional uber romantic gifts this year and stay true to yourself with a fun, sassy gift. Show your fun side with Pretty By Her's collections of sassy greeting cards, wine labels, and stickers. Shop their line of “gifts for the person you kiss” for your partner or spoil your galentines or palentines with their friendship cards and gifts. This brand might be called Pretty by Her, but it definitely has gifts for everybody shown through their range of inclusive products and values. Give your special valentine a gift that will make them laugh because it's just so you. 3. The Million Roses There's a reason flowers are a tried and true Valentine's day gift. Stick to the classics this year and give your special someone a single red rose or a full bouquet of beautiful flowers. The Million Roses specializes in beautiful personalized flower boxes of the timeless symbol of eternal love and affection: roses. These roses are hand picked from their private farm in Ecuador and can be shipped basically anywhere in the world. A perfect option for when you and your valentine are a country or even an ocean apart. Oh yeah, did we mention these roses last up to 3 years? Yup, that wasn't a typo (don't worry, we did a double take too). 3 years, 36 months, 1095 days or however you measure 3 years. So if you're looking for a gift to make a long-lasting impression, here you are! 4. Wine Chateau Red, white, rosé, or champagne–Wine Chateau has you covered for when you're looking to unwind with a nice glass of wine with your special someone. We've all gotten used to celebrating those special moments from the comfort of our living rooms for the past 2 years. But this February 14th, why don't you swap the sweats and chips for some nicer clothes and a romantic dinner completed with a glass (or a few) of your favorite wine. Opting for Galentine's or Palentine's Day this year? Did somebody say rosé all day? Whatever your go-to celebration drink is, Wine Chateau has you covered with their wide selection of wines, spirits, and champagnes that can be ordered online and delivered right to your front door anywhere in the United States. 5. Curious Elixirs Skip the alcohol this year and make Valentine's Day one to remember. This mocktail brand has a variety of booze-free cocktails for every occasion. Curious Elixirs is the perfect option for anybody who doesn't drink alcohol and will help you step up your hosting game by offerin...

Maybe the writing was always on the wall. Given the data leaks and privacy scandals, we probably should have seen it coming. Deep down we knew . but chose to ignore it. Early last year, when Apple's update required users to choose if they'd like their data collected by third-party applications, 96% opted out. And Facebook ROAS tanked by roughly 30% overnight. Needless to say, iOS 14 rocked ecommerce to its core. What if iOS 14 was a gift in disguise? Hear us out. iOS 14 was a rude awakening that many of us weren't measuring the full efficacy of our ad spend. We got soft, complacent even, reliant on a number that hid the truth in plain sight. However, amid confusion and fear, we were forced to ask three questions we should have been asking all along . Are our ads actually working? Are we really making money? Are we selling the right products? As simple as they sound, these questions reveal more about ecommerce success than ROAS ever could. Even better, they'll enable you to place three metrics that truly matter at the center of your business' growth. ‘Are Your Ads Actually Working?' 1. Google Analytics ROAS & Weighted CAC It's impossible to overstate the confusion iOS threw over the DTC world. No one, not even Facebook, knew if the sudden plummet in ROAS was real, a reporting issue, or some combination of the two. Unfortunately, many businesses and agencies took it at face value. Across the ~250 ecommerce brands we monitor through Statlas — less than half of which are CTC clients — spend deceased by 23% comparing the three months before versus after iOS 14.5's full rollout. To know if performance or attribution was at stake, we chose two metrics unaffected by Facebook tracking: Google Analytics last-click ROAS Customer acquisition cost (Weighted CAC) Google Analytics last-click depends solely on disciplined UTMs and “channel” grouping. It doesn't take into account “view” attribution; so it'll always be lower than Facebook ROAS. But that's exactly the point. Historical data showed Google Analytics was not impacted to the same degree as Facebook. For example, here's what we found for one of our fashion accessories clients: Of course, that's not necessarily true for your business . Client by client we combed through the numbers. Below you'll find four different brands (two of which we own and operate) showing the relationship between Facebook ROAS and Google Analytics last click. Unlike the table and graphic above, these plot the entire year. They also include correlation coefficients (r) used to determine how reliable Google Analytics was in setting new Facebook targets. In other words, that 30% plummet? Scary. But not necessarily reality. With some, we went as far back as three years to translate Google Analytics ROAS into Facebook ROAS targets. How? By benchmarking the relationship between pre versus post. If historically Google Analytics reported ROAS at ~50% of Facebook, then jumped to ~80% after iOS's release . that meant our new Facebook target would be 80% of the original — from 1.50 to 0.88. For your own business, it's far from ‘too late' to do this analysis. There is one fatal flaw to using only Google Analytics as an index for your advertising results; it only gives credit to the highest-performing last-click campaigns. If someone doesn't buy after clicking a prospecting ad, but buys within seven days after clicking a remarketing ad, Google Analytics will only give “credit” to the remarketing ad. Follow that to its (il)logical conclusion and you'll over-dedicate funds to bottom-funnel campaigns and sacrifice top-funnel campaigns that are doing the heavy lifting. This is why understanding your weighted CAC is equally crucial. Thankfully, this one is a lot more simple and doesn't depend on disciplined UTMs nor tight “channel” grouping. Calculating your weighted CAC is as easy as dividing your total ad spend by the number of new customers acquired. CAC clarifies how efficiently your business needs to acquire customers a...

Coca-Cola was the first brand to hook consumers with discounts when it released the very first coupon in 1887, redeemable for a free glass of Coke. More than a century later, you can still see the psychology behind that very first discount at work online. Receiving discounts releases oxytocin, in turn making shoppers happier—and less likely to abandon their carts. By 2017, 97% percent of retailers cited discounting as their top pricing strategy, and within the last two years, shoppers' expectations of receiving a discount has only increased. According to one 2021 survey, 60% of US shoppers say that online discounts have become more important since the onset of the pandemic. Meanwhile, Shopify's Future of Commerce report found that 52% of consumers are significantly influenced to hit Buy when they're offered personalized discounts. The right type of discount can maximize sales, prevent shoppers from abandoning their carts, and entice first-time buyers to try a brand. But using the wrong type of discount can have adverse consequences, including lowered profits and a devalued brand We've put together this guide to help you determine how to offer the right type of discount to the right customers at the right time, including top-performing discount strategies you can start using today. Table of contents What's the difference between discount codes and automatic discounts? Pros and cons of discounts codes Pros and cons of automatic discounts Why ecommerce merchants should consider a discount strategy Top performing discounts you can start using today Discount #1: Buy one, get one free (BOGO) Discount #2: Free gift with purchase Discount #3: First-time customer discount Discount #4: Tiered discounts by spending thresholds Discount #5: Personalization discounts What to consider when building a discount strategy When to use discount codes vs. automatic discounts What's the difference between discount codes and automatic discounts? What works better: discount codes or automatic onsite discounts? Ultimately, the right approach to discounting hinges on what you sell, the customers you target, and the brand experience you wish to create. Specifically, will your target market be more inclined to purchase with discounts that appear automatically at checkout? Or might they be more persuaded to buy after receiving a discount code they need to enter during checkout? Your choice boils down to offering a self-serve discount model (the consumer manually enters a code) or setting up your online store to automatically apply discounts for the shopper. Discount codes Discounts can take the form of a fixed value, percentage, or discounts on products, collections, or variants in-store. Importantly, discount codes give you strict control over pricing and promotion: Increase your average order value (AOV) with discount codes that give customers “buy X, get Y” discounts. Limit the life of a particular discount code by specifying the dates for which the code is valid. Protect your brand and profit margins by limiting the number of times a code can be used, the minimum spend amount before the code can be used, and to which products, collections, or variants the discount can be applied. Even better, brands with an omnichannel retail strategy can let customers either redeem their discounts in an online store or in a brick-and-mortar retail location. Discount codes may be used to: Track conversion performance of social media influencer partnerships Promote a site-wide discount in a banner for anyone visiting your site Improve your customer service or abandoned cart email campaigns Out of Print—which sells out-of-print book covers on t-shirts, totes, and accessories—offers a site-wide discount code to first-time shoppers and those leaving who have not yet made a purchase. “It's an incentive to make that first purchase,” says Chuck Mazzone, Digital Marketing Director at Out of Print. “But we'd rather shoppers focus their attention on our products instead of do...

To ensure that building Shopify apps provides the best experience for both merchants and developers, we're continuously working on new processes to improve app development. With our new theme app extensions, building apps for merchant's storefronts has never been easier. When building a Shopify app that interacts with the online store, one of the most difficult aspects that developers encounter is ensuring that their app integrates safely and easily with all themes, while still being straightforward for a merchant to install. Shopify's theme app extensions aim to remove this challenge by introducing a new streamlined method for apps to interact with themes, that improves the experience for both developers and merchants. Theme app extensions also ensure that apps integrate seamlessly with OS 2.0 themes, which we expect more merchants will continue to adopt throughout this year. “Merchants shouldn't concern themselves with code. Generally, they aren't technical and, even if they are, they need to spend their time on their business. We actually opted to delay our launch and migrated over to the new theme app extension framework.” App developers are already adopting theme app extensions and seeing the benefits. “Merchants shouldn't concern themselves with code. Generally, they aren't technical and, even if they are, they need to spend their time on their business,” Ryan Macdonald from Obsidian Apps says. “We actually opted to delay our launch and migrated over to the new theme app extension framework.” In this article, we'll unpack how apps work with Shopify themes, the advantages of using theme app extensions, and how to get started with this approach for your own app. We'll also learn how some Shopify app developers have implemented theme app extensions and what their experiences have been. How apps integrate with Shopify themes At Shopify Unite 2021, we released Theme App Extensions as part of Online Store 2.0 with a major update to how apps integrate with the storefront. Here's a high level look at how both the old and new approaches work. Without theme app extensions Without theme app extensions, apps use the Asset API which gives them full read/write access to theme files. They then proceed to add and modify any number of files to get their app integrated into the theme. There are a number of issues with this approach: Developers need to determine exactly where to insert their code into the theme, which can vary depending on the theme. Apps may inadvertently break themes or introduce performance degradation issues. When an app is uninstalled, the code that was added isn't removed, which leads to code running that is no longer needed or may no longer work. Shopify's theme update mechanism only works on themes without code edits, so this approach prevents merchants from receiving updates to their theme, potentially blocking them from the latest features for their online store. With theme app extensions With theme app extensions, all the issues outlined above are solved as app developers no longer need to modify theme files directly. Instead, Shopify provides a way to build blocks that are added to a theme by the merchant in the editor and injected at render time by the platform. This avoids any potential integration bugs, keeps the theme untouched and eligible for updates and the app is automatically removed from the theme when uninstalled, no further cleanup needed. Furthermore, all of your theme app extension assets (liquid, CSS, JS, SVGs) are hosted on the Shopify platform and delivered through our CDN for fast performance all over the world. What are blocks? To understand theme app extensions, you first need to understand what blocks are in themes and how merchants interact with them. Blocks are modules of content that can be added, removed, and reordered within a section. This allows merchants to have granular control over the look and feel of every aspect of their online store. To learn more about blocks in themes and...

Reading Time: 9 minutes Looking for ideas for your Shopify clothing store? Look no further. With global retail sales of apparel and footwear reaching a staggering $1.9 trillion, the fashion industry is booming. Much of this growth is taking place online, with Shopify clothing stores playing a big part. In this article, we're going to check out some of the very best Shopify clothing store examples. From attractive website designs to compelling email marketing to the interesting stories behind the brands, these popular clothing stores have found the right ingredients for ecommerce success. Ready to be inspired? Let's go ahead and discover the top clothing stores on Shopify right now. Omnisend's deep Shopify integration and feature-packed automation make email marketing a breeze. Start free today and take your Shopify clothing store to the next level. 11 best Shopify store examples Let's look at the 11 best clothing stores we found on Shopify. 1. Naked and Famous Naked & Famous Denim “sources the world's best fabric and turns it into awesome jeans.” This popular clothing store is driven by the passion of its founder, Bahzad Trinos. Trinos refers to himself as a “giant denim nerd,” and this really comes across in the meticulous detail of his products. The Shopify store itself is colorful and hip, displaying pop-culture-influenced collections with high-quality images. There's a strong focus on customer education, with a fitting guide and raw denim tutorial just below the fold. Trinos credits the move to Omnised from Mailchimp for the success of his email marketing. With 19.75% of the store's email marketing revenue coming from automation, effective automation workflows like welcome series and cart abandonment are vital. 2. Black Halo Black Halo is a female-founded Shopify clothing store that sells tailored dresses, business, and evening wear. Featuring a store that clearly illustrates different collections with attractive photos and easily-accessible CTAs, Black Halo also makes good use of Instagram. The brand has a strong following on the visually-focused platform, and it uses this effectively through the promotion of its “muses”—influencers who model their clothing. Black Halo has experienced strong growth after implementing a user-friendly email automation platform. “From the time we started implementing automations, we saw an increase of $20K in that first month,” said Director of Ecommerce and Digital Marketing Caely Lybeck. Currently, Black Halo is getting an impressive 36% of their email revenue from automations, despite them making up only 1.1% of total email sends. 3. SM Global SM Global is a K-Pop merchandise store for fans of the popular music genre from all over the world. This top Shopify store has attracted over 400,000 subscribers who get access to special deals, content, and loyalty programs. SM Global's success is driven by retention and building customer loyalty, something that they achieve with the effective segmentation of their subscribers. This allows them to send the right messages to the right customers at the right times. Digital Marketing Director David Sung uses a data-driven approach to the store's marketing, with a particular focus on A/B testing. “Once you have hundreds of thousands of customers in your database, even a 0.2 or 0.3 percent increase in any of your metrics can drastically have an improvement on your revenue overall,” he said. “So I do believe that A/B testing is crucial.” 4. Kerrits Kerrits designs and sells innovative performance clothing for women and children who ride horses. The brand has also recently a line of riding-inspired everyday clothing, for equestrian enthusiasts who wish to show their passion for horses wherever they go. What began as a wholesale company, Kerrits quickly identified direct-to-consumer as a fashion ecommerce trend and began reaching out with email marketing. Its bright and user-friendly Shopify store now handles both of Kerrits' brands, offering a seamless...

They are dancers and videographers, writers and designers, gamers and comedians. Many terms have been flying around to group together these creative self-starters winning over audiences and monetizing their crafts online. Whatever you call them, they are a collective force. An estimated 50 million people make up the creator economy today. If TikTok's recent announcement of one billion active users is any indication, that number will only grow. And, more tools, platforms, and ideas are emerging every day to make it easier for creators to own their futures. Understanding your value proposition is just the first step. Knowing where and how to reach the right audiences with the right content is crucial. But the term digital creator has a lot of nuance. You don't necessarily need to have a charming on-camera presence or even be creative. There are many ways to lean into your specific strengths or interests and build a personal brand around them. Understanding your value proposition is just the first step. Knowing where and how to reach the right audiences with the right content is crucial. Here, we examine seven main creator archetypes, breaking down who they are, what makes them unique, and the best content ideas and channels for each. Use these as a tool to identify your own personality type and start your journey to becoming a financially independent creator.

If you're wondering how to be an ally for the Black community this February, shopping from Black-owned businesses is a great place to start. Not only are you supporting a small business owner's dream, but by shopping from Black-owned stores you are directly and sustainably supporting a community of entrepreneurs that has been deeply affected by systemic racism and disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we have compiled a list of 22 Black-owned small businesses to support in 2022 from four different categories— fashion and accessories, beauty and skincare, haircare, and home and lifestyle. We know that this list only scratches the surface of the millions of amazing Black-owned businesses online so we encourage you to shop around for more great finds. Without further ado, here is our list of Black-owned businesses to support. Fashion and accessories 1. The Wrap Life As a Black-owned business, The Wrap Life takes a stand on addressing appropriation related to wearing head wraps. They believe that “wearing head wraps is for everyone, because it has always been for everyone.” With inspiration from West African traditions of wearing head wraps for colorful self-expression, The Wrap Life offers a variety of product lines from turbans, to head wraps, to bandies in various collections including solid, handprinted, and non-traditional for all types of customers. They even reward their loyal customers through their Unwrap Rewards program and tiered-VIP program. 2. D'IYANU This bold fashion brand sells quality, trendy, African-inspired fashion at affordable prices. With product lines for women, men, children, and matching his and hers lines, D'IYANU truly offers clothing made for everyone. With a core value of “creating value within the community” D'IYANU donates a portion of their funds to various charities both within the US and internationally in African countries. To date, they've donated over $60k, making it easy to feel good about shopping with them. 3. Outtire We've got another apparel brand here that is far more than a fashion brand. This LGBTQ+ Black-owned brand aims to empower their community through “representative streetwear and queer focused philanthropy.” With new weekly designs and made-to-order products, Outtire keeps their customers looking stylish without the environmental implications of fast fashion. With non-gendered product collections including: Tees, Tanks, Sweatshirts, Hoodies, All-Over Tees, and Black Lives Matter, customers can feel comfortable and confident shopping for whatever clothing catches their eye. The definition of an inclusive, safe, and meaningful brand community if you ask us. 4. Black Girl Blessed Black Girl Blessed is a Black woman-owned business that “challenges you to change your perception of beauty, self-esteem, emotional strength, faith, and sisterhood as we grow together.” They sell a wide array of unique and colorful earrings including puff ball earrings, tassel earrings, and even a variety of dehydrated fruit earrings. If you're up for a surprise, you can opt for one of their mystery boxes which include one statement pair and one pair of studs. 5. Neon Cowboys With a mission to spread joy and help their customers “glow from the inside out”, Neon Cowboys is a fashion tech brand specializing in wearable neon western cowboy apparel and accessories. Their neon cowboy hats, glow in the dark cowboy boots, and custom-made couture outfits are loved by celebrities and influencers alike. Kesha even sported one of their made-to-order outfits in her music video. Talk about a glowing endorsement. 6. Black Tribe Vibe Founded when CEO Trinity was only 14 years old, Black Tribe Vibe is a lifestyle and fashion brand that aims to connect, love, uplift, and build with those deriving from the African Diaspora. With the mission to create a tribe-like community, this apparel brand sells stylish clothing and accessories with powerful messages such as “Defend Black Womanhood” and “Black Lif...

did you know Omnisend customers automate 32% of their email conversions. Are you maximizing sales? automate my sales Reading Time: 10 minutes BigCommerce gives merchants plenty of opportunities for customization, but the theme you pick when starting out will have a direct impact on many areas of your design. Selecting a theme that aligns with the goals you have for your online store will help you achieve your ideal design as quickly and efficiently as possible. Different designs make sense for different businesses, but we've found that these ten options stand out from other BigCommerce themes. What to look for in a BigCommerce theme It's easy to judge an ecommerce theme based on screenshots alone, but you'll need to consider a few other factors in order to identify the best overall option for your BigCommerce store. Speed: One in four visitors will abandon your site after waiting for just four seconds, and a delay of just one second will lead to a 16% drop in customer satisfaction. Test a few different themes to see how each one affects your performance. Mobile friendliness: Mobile orders are expected to make up roughly three-quarters of all ecommerce sales in 2021. Your BigCommerce theme should work just as well on smartphones and tablets as it does on desktops and laptops. Customization: You'll need to customize your theme to match your brand style and deliver a more personal customer experience. Themes with an overly rigid design will be difficult to adapt to the unique needs of your site. Home page: An ideal home page offers plenty of space for a captivating hero image while making it easy for users to navigate your site and find the products they're looking for. Product pages: Product pages should include a high-resolution image, a detailed description of the item, shipping and return policies, and any other information that could make visitors more confident in their purchase. Support: Your theme provider should offer some basic support to help you respond to technical issues. While a few themes are developed and supported by BigCommerce itself, many more come from third-party providers. Pricing: While there are some free themes, a paid theme may be worth the price if it offers a unique design or powerful features that will add significant value to your site. Cart and checkout features: Persistent carts are a crucial feature for ecommerce businesses, ensuring that a visitor can leave your site, come back, and see the same products in their cart. Let's look at the best BigCommerce themes that check these boxes. 1. Vault Main features: Vault is a free custom BigCommerce theme with a sleek design that should work well for all kinds of ecommerce brands. The Vault design includes a banner at the top of the page that could be used to highlight promo codes, order minimum for free shipping, information about processing delays, or anything else that might be relevant to your visitors. Price: free Optimized for: Vault is fully optimized for mobile devices, only making minor changes to the design in order to accommodate the smaller screen. One thing to watch out for in your mobile design is that the hero image will be a fraction of the size on a smartphone or tablet. Text in your hero image might look fine on a desktop, but it will likely be too small for your mobile visitors to read. Styles: Vault is currently available in three styles: Bright, which comes with orange elements Cool, which comes in blue Natural, which comes in green 2. Solar Main features: Solar provides a familiar ecommerce setup, with basic information at the top and a hero image for top products and offers. One unique element is the inclusion of category buttons on the sides of the page, leaving space for a hero image while making it easier for visitors to find the items they're looking for. Price: At $300 per license, Solar is one of the more expensive BigCommerce templates we've covered. Optimized for: The Solar theme is optimized for mobile devices. Keep i...

In 2009, Brian Burke started to offer customers a trusted alternative to sell and buy refurbished Apple products. Originally operating on eBay, Brain migrated his business, RenewedMacs.com to Shopify to gain more control over the customer experience. In this episode of Shopify Masters, Brian shares with us the importance of personal branding, how he uses Linkedin to market his business, and his secret to achieving 6-figure monthly sales. Don't miss an episode! Subscribe to Shopify Masters. Show Notes Store: RenewedMacs Social Profiles: Facebook, Twitter How this tech reseller moved from eBay to Shopify Felix: You started in 2009–that's quite a long time in the ecommerce space. How did you get started in the beginning? Brian: I've always loved ecommerce. It started off on eBay, buying and selling stuff there. In 2009 I realized I needed an inbound sales channel so that's when I built sellyourmac.com. It helped us get customers coming to our website and paying for their Apple products there instead of having to go through eBay. We've been growing that business organically, and each year we keep it going and help out more Apple customers. Felix: You started on eBay. Why was it important to get your own platform up off the ground, when you already had this inbound sales channel up and going? Brian: The biggest thing for us was controlling the customer experience. That's the reason we launched our Shopify store. On eBay, they've stripped away more and more of the ability to control the customer experience and talk to your customers. For instance, when someone makes a purchase, you get a generic email. You can't even reach out to them directly by email. Knowing we could control the customer experience better and interact with them more was the reason that drove us to launch our Shopify store. The customer experience is what's going to keep people coming back. If you can't control that and they don't know you as your own brand, you're not going to have these customers very long. Felix: What instance made you realize that you needed to own the customer experience aspect? Brian: I wouldn't say the race to the bottom because we're still getting really good pricing, but when someone comes back to buy their next computer, they're not going to remember to go search for our eBay name. With our own platform, they're going to remember the Renewed Macs website. Trying to build that trust for the future and being able to delight our customers in that manner, is really important. If we can't even directly email our customers special offers or send them a gift or anything like that because we don't have their information, that's pretty tough. Felix: Did you have any strategy in place, when you transitioned from the marketplace to your own platform, for customer acquisition or growth? Brian: The biggest thing that helped us was having all the content to put up. One of the best things I've done through my company since we started is focused on building a ton of content, mainly for SEO purposes. That's helped Sell Your Mac be the number one go-to source for everything Mac on Google. If you type in where to sell my mac, we're number one there. We've built up a lot of content with blogs and images. The images in particular helped us out when we were launching Renewed Macs so we could sync up images of all the products correctly and always make sure we're showing the customer the right thing. I think there are about 3000 different images that we had to pull together or some type of variation. Felix: Give us an idea of the timeline surrounding Sell Your Mac and Renewed Macs. Brian: Sell Your Mac launched in 2009 and at the time we were still selling mainly on eBay. We work with other retail stores and wholesale buyers as well, but we really want to work directly with the customer. We see the most value in going to the end-user–both from the standpoint that we can sell them a computer that's been fully tested, 12 months warranty, and stuff like that, ...

At some point in your business journey, you will likely find yourself needing more capital. Whether it's to accelerate growth or to cover a seasonal cash flow shortage, adequate funding can be make-or-break for small business owners. In fact, the vast majority (82%) of small businesses close their doors because of poor cash flow management. Another 29% simply run out of cash. Luckily, there are plenty of small business lending solutions available to you. Banks, online lenders, and even family and friends can all help you secure the money you need to grow your business. To help you navigate small business lending, we outline the various types of loans and share statistics on approval rates and average loan amounts to help you choose the right option for your business. Types of small business loans There's no shortage of small business lending options available to you—but they each come with their own advantages and disadvantages, and varying repayment terms. Repayment terms are extremely important to pay attention to. For example, if your business has a long cash flow cycle, short-term business loans with frequent payments could leave you in a cycle of debt payments. Below is a quick overview of each type of small business loan and their pros and cons. Business term loan A business term loan is a lump sum of cash that small business owners can get from banks, online lenders, or other financial institutions. Companies have a fixed term to repay the lender. (95% of business term loans have fixed interest rates.) These can be short-, medium-, or long-term loans and depending on the lender, the time to receive funding can vary greatly. For example, medium-term business loans take longer to approve through a bank versus an online lender. Short-term business loans have a short repayment period (usually between 18 months and 3 years) whereas medium- and long-term business loans have longer repayment periods (up to 10 years).

When brands adopt a headless commerce model for their online storefronts, each component becomes an important software development trend. When they all align together, they engineer a dynamic system that delivers speed, flexibility, and customization that often outpaces legacy systems. That's why the framework built on MACH (micro-service-based, API-first, cloud-native, headless) has levelled up ecommerce programs launched by future-ready brands, according to an interview with Myplanet CEO and founder Jason Cottrell on an episode of the Own Your Commerce podcast. A Bold Commerce partner, Myplanet is known as a reputable software studio offering brands their expertise and technology to create engaging digital experiences. In a conversation with Bold Commerce CEO Jay Myers, Cottrell discussed the value of a headless commerce architecture, multichannel opportunities, and success stories featuring brands invigorating their ecommerce systems with a best-in-breed approach. Baking flexibility into a multichannel environment Composable commerce relates to brands and their development teams creating their commerce platform by harnessing best-of-breed technology partners by switching out, upgrading, or adding microservices individually, freeing them from managing multiple dependencies across the system. Cottrell said he has seen a shift towards this kind of microservice- and API-based architecture where brands favor the model of “decoupling the presentation layer and all of the underlying logic and systems,” which leads to added flexibility and scalability. “It's very common to see customers coming off of Oracle ATG, coming off of SAP Hybris, coming off of bespoke custom systems,” Cottrell said. “We see some of these patterns, and we can then usually help our customers work through what that roadmap looks like.” Part of that roadmap involves partnering with various vendors that each excel in their individual strengths, whether that's web development, subscription services, checkout, payment options, etc. The role of the MACH Alliance Cottrell noted the importance of a group such as the MACH Alliance, an organization of technology companies and agencies focused on advocating for an open, best-of-breed enterprise technology ecosystem. He regarded the benefits as two-fold: “It's encouraging certain minimum standards in how products are architected and what you can actually do. And then the other part is bringing together that ecosystem, so that the systems and the vendors are going out of their way to make them interoperable with each other.” Independent research groups echo Cottrell's assertion. According to a recent Gartner report, by 2023 companies with a composable tech solution will be 80% faster than their competitors in implementing new features. Learn how a composable solution to Staple Canada's digital challenges helped the Canadian retailer save both time and money. A composable approach is valuable for businesses with various touchpoints and products and services to deliver, Cottrell said. Brands aren't venturing into the composable headless space to simply upgrade one website; they may have complex challenges brought on by, say, managing dozens of brand sites, overseeing a subscription service, and maybe even undertaking a new product launch such as a wearable. The MACH Alliance also helps clarifies for brands how a composable headless approach to ecommerce can support multichannel sales. Cottrell said that brands often have to support multiple commercial models and ways of buying, selling, and bringing a product to market. But solving those challenges is thrilling to a studio such as Myplanet, which boasts several case studies of MACH success. New Balance, Harry Rosen winning the headless game Pointing to New Balance, the apparel and sneaker manufacturer, Cottrell said this client faced a common dilemma: how can they create engaging brand experiences for their products that are bought maybe once or twice a year? Both New Ba...

Compared to other social media platforms, TikTok can feel like there's some magic at work. A cool dance, a funny phrase, a new song—any of these can turn from obscure to mega-viral overnight, in ways that are hard to predict but delightful to watch. However, if you're a creator or a business, hoping for a little luck and magic isn't a very good place to build a social media strategy from. There is, in fact, some science and data to what can seem like viral chaos. A TikTok strategy—especially one for a brand, not a celebrity—takes legwork. Finding the best time to post is one piece of that strategy, and one of the simpler aspects to figure out. Let's dive in. What the data says about the best time to post on TikTok If we're looking at TikTok as a whole, research has been done to find what the best times to post are, and they vary by day of the week. Influencer Marketing Hub analyzed more than 100,000 TikTok posts to look for engagement trends and determined these are the best times to post every day, all in Eastern time: Monday at 6 a.m., 10 a.m., and 10 p.m. Tuesday at 2 a.m., 4 a.m., and 9 a.m. Wednesday at 7 a.m., 8 a.m., and 11 p.m. Thursday at 9 a.m., 12 a.m., and 7 p.m. Friday at 5 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m. Saturday at 11 a.m., 7 p.m., and 8 p.m. Sunday at 7 a.m., 8 a.m., and 4 p.m. In this study, the highest engagements overall were at Tuesday at 9 a.m., Thursday at 12 a.m., and Friday at 5 a.m. The huge caveat here is that, to make these numbers useful for you, you need to consider your own time zone and location of your viewers. Free Reading List: Social Media Marketing Tactics Want to learn more about how social media can help drive sales? Download our free, curated list of high-impact articles. Get our Social Media Marketing Tactics reading list delivered right to your inbox. Almost there: please enter your email below to gain instant access. We'll also send you updates on new educational guides and success stories from the Shopify newsletter. We hate SPAM and promise to keep your email address safe. Thanks for subscribing. You'll start receiving free tips and resources soon. In the meantime, start building your store with a free 14-day trial of Shopify. This data is certainly interesting and not a bad place to start when first crafting your TikTok strategy. However, it won't be long before you can get personalized analytics, and that's when you'll find out what's truly the best time to post on TikTok for your specific account. How to find the best time to post on TikTok for your business There's a method right in the TikTok app for finding when your audience is the most active, and we'll walk you through the steps to get there. Step one: Make a business account First, you need to make sure you have a Pro or Business account on the app. It's free and simple to switch. Just go to Settings and Privacy, then Manage Account, and tap Switch to Business Account. This will give you access to analytics, as well as other features. Step two: Open your analytics dashboard Next, you'll want to find your account's analytics. You can get there by clicking the menu at the top right of your profile screen, clicking Creator Tools, then Analytics. That opens TikTok's analytics dashboard, which offers all kinds of insight into your account and your followers. Step three: Find your follower activity If we're looking to find the best time to post on TikTok, you'll want to find the Followers tab at the top. From there, scroll down and you'll see a pane called “Follower activity.” This is what it looks like on mobile. This pane will show when your personal followers are most active. As you can see above, the data shows that the activity of the followers of this account ramp up through the day and peak at 10 p.m. UTC. TikTok always displays these times in UTC, so you'll need to convert to your local time zone. For this account, for example, 10 p.m. UTC converts to 5 p.m. ET. From that, we can determine that this account should aim to post...

did you know Omnisend customers automate 32% of their email conversions. Are you maximizing sales? automate my sales Reading Time: 13 minutes If you're planning to set up an online store, BigCommerce vs Shopify is one of the most important comparisons you'll need to examine. You'll need to determine which one has the features that match the vision you have for your shop, as well as ease-of-use to help minimize the effort required to run your business. Shopify is a staple brand in ecommerce. It has one of the largest market shares among online stores for good reason. It is easy to use even for people without any web programming knowledge. And, through its built-in features and available themes, Shopify allows you to set up your shop and start selling your products in no time. In contrast, BigCommerce isn't among the most widely used ecommerce platforms. Nevertheless, it is undeniably among the best Shopify alternatives because it is comparable in price even when it offers more product and sales features than what's built into a typical Shopify plan. Whether you choose Shopify or BigCommerce, Omnisend lets you automate your marketing across various channels so you can generate sales on autopilot. Start free. BigCommerce vs Shopify On the surface, Shopify vs BigCommerce might not even seem like a useful discussion since Shopify's market share far surpasses that of BigCommerce. According to BuiltWith data, Shopify is used by 2.62% of the top one million websites based on traffic, and 20% of websites that use ecommerce software. It is more popular than Magento and second only to WordPress' WooCommerce Checkout. BigCommerce has a much smaller market share at 0.22% of the top one million high-traffic sites. When you consider only the top 100,000 websites based on traffic, Shopify surpasses WooCommerce and becomes the most popular ecommerce platform while BigCommerce doesn't even make it to the top ten. So, based on usage and popularity, Shopify is definitely the winner. But is that a good reason to dismiss BigCommerce entirely? Apparently, a comprehensive comparison of these two technologies shows that BigCommerce offers several advantages. Choosing either Shopify or BigCommerce would depend heavily on the specific features you seek for the unique requirements of your online business. BigCommerce vs Shopify comparison To help you choose the best platform for your ecommerce venture, here's a compilation of valuable insights from several of the most credible BigCommerce vs Shopify reviews. It breaks down the comparison into the most critical deciding factors and determines each platform's benefits and potential disadvantages. By the end of this report, you'll have a good understanding of each platform's features, pricing, and user-friendliness. You'll also see which one has a better selection of themes and apps that are critical to your website's design and functionality. Additionally, you'll see whether BigCommerce or Shopify has better security features and quality of support. Let's begin. Website Builder Features Among the most commonly praised BigCommerce features is its website builder. If you're creating a store without a programming background, you'll appreciate its drag-and-drop interface. It lets you design web pages by selecting elements and laying them out with the use of your mouse. BigCommerce also ensures that all pages created on the platform are responsive, so you don't miss out on sales from shoppers on mobile devices. Additionally, BigCommerce has a built-in blog that you can use to engage your target audience and establish your reputation as an expert in your niche. Maintaining a blog will also be valuable for SEO and driving targeted traffic to your ecommerce store. Similarly, Shopify features also include a built-in blogging engine that functions practically the same way as BigCommerce's. It also lets you build a mobile responsive online store without having to write a single line of code. And even if it doesn't...

Meta unveiled two new updates to the platform for marketers recently. The first, Advantage+ shopping campaigns, are an actual update to the system we use for ad campaigns. The second, Performance 5, is a list of best practices for using this new system. It's been a while since Meta announced any kind of new direction for ad buying on its platform. Much of this seems to be in response to iOS 14. So it's a big deal in the Meta universe. At CTC, though, we've been intensely tracking our clients' campaigns since the iOS update, and have already been implementing most of these new practices for years. That said, here's a quick breakdown of the changes. What are Advantage+ shopping campaigns? Advantage+ shopping campaigns are essentially a new algorithm for Meta ad campaigns. It's a brand new campaign type within Ads Manager. We've been testing it for a few weeks now and seeing pretty good results, but it's still early. It attempts to streamline the process and remove a lot of the optionality and manual placements in campaign settings. It's moving toward a model of blended prospecting and remarketing — which we've already been doing at CTC for years. While Advantage+ does streamline the account structure, you still have to think about budget allocation and optimization. Meta is basically saying: If you want to succeed with this new algorithm, you're going to have to use these Performance 5 best practices. What is Performance Five? At Meta's Performance Marketing Summit they rolled out “Performance 5.” It's essentially an update to their previous model, “Power5.” It's simply a short list of best practices for advertising on the platform. Especially after the changes brought about by iOS 14, there's been a lot of questions around new guidelines and tips for getting the best performance out of Facebook and Instagram ad buying. Performance 5 aims to answer all these questions. This new set of advice comes in conjunction with one of the biggest technical updates to the platform in a long time: Advantage+ shopping campaigns. This new system and the new set of best practices are meant to work together. What are the five pillars of Performance 5? Performance 5 attempts to address the environment at large — wherein people distrust the data they're getting from Meta (since iOS 14) and are moving onto other social platforms (like TikTok). Truth is: We're already doing all these things at CTC. And we have been for a while. 1. Account consolidation This is really all about getting your campaigns out of the “Learning Phase.” Meta recommends consolidating campaigns and structuring accounts in a proper way to get assets out of the Learning Phase. Many times, when we do audits for new clients, we see their budget spread across a lot of campaigns — $10 here, $20 there — and that's a red flag. It's one of the first things we ask during audits: What percent of your account is in Learning Phase? It's something we've been doing for over a year. Not necessarily a new thing for us as an agency. But, Advantage+ Shopping campaigns are a functional new piece of this concept. 2. UGC content and creators Meta rolled out the Creator Marketplace to acknowledge how essential creators have become over the past two years. I would imagine they see TikTok as one of their biggest threats in terms of ad dollars and daily average user growth. So this is their attempt to mimic the success of its creator program 3. Creative diversification Meta is doubling down on the future of video. Instagram's shift to video content with Reels exemplifies this best practice. They want to encourage brands to use creator content and diversify your creative portfolio so it feels engaging and dynamic for the end user. Again, this is something we've always done at CTC. We've been working with creators and testing a wide range of creative assets for years. Performance 5 just marks the first time Facebook is really coming out and confirming these are the best ways to find success on its pla...

Compared to other social media platforms, TikTok can feel like there's some magic at work. A cool dance, a funny phrase, a new song—any of these can turn from obscure to mega-viral overnight, in ways that are hard to predict but delightful to watch. However, if you're a creator or a business, hoping for a little luck and magic isn't a very good place to build a social media strategy from. There is, in fact, some science and data to what can seem like viral chaos. A TikTok strategy—especially one for a brand, not a celebrity—takes legwork. Finding the best time to post is one piece of that strategy, and one of the simpler aspects to figure out. Let's dive in. What the data says about the best time to post on TikTok If we're looking at TikTok as a whole, research has been done to find what the best times to post are, and they vary by day of the week. Influencer Marketing Hub analyzed more than 100,000 TikTok posts to look for engagement trends and determined these are the best times to post every day, all in Eastern time: Monday at 6 a.m., 10 a.m., and 10 p.m. Tuesday at 2 a.m., 4 a.m., and 9 a.m. Wednesday at 7 a.m., 8 a.m., and 11 p.m. Thursday at 9 a.m., 12 a.m., and 7 p.m. Friday at 5 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m. Saturday at 11 a.m., 7 p.m., and 8 p.m. Sunday at 7 a.m., 8 a.m., and 4 p.m. In this study, the highest engagements overall were at Tuesday at 9 a.m., Thursday at 12 a.m., and Friday at 5 a.m. The huge caveat here is that, to make these numbers useful for you, you need to consider your own time zone and location of your viewers. Free Reading List: Social Media Marketing Tactics Want to learn more about how social media can help drive sales? Download our free, curated list of high-impact articles. Get our Social Media Marketing Tactics reading list delivered right to your inbox. Almost there: please enter your email below to gain instant access. We'll also send you updates on new educational guides and success stories from the Shopify newsletter. We hate SPAM and promise to keep your email address safe. Thanks for subscribing. You'll start receiving free tips and resources soon. In the meantime, start building your store with a free 14-day trial of Shopify. This data is certainly interesting and not a bad place to start when first crafting your TikTok strategy. However, it won't be long before you can get personalized analytics, and that's when you'll find out what's truly the best time to post on TikTok for your specific account. How to find the best time to post on TikTok for your business There's a method right in the TikTok app for finding when your audience is the most active, and we'll walk you through the steps to get there. Step one: Make a business account First, you need to make sure you have a Pro or Business account on the app. It's free and simple to switch. Just go to Settings and Privacy, then Manage Account, and tap Switch to Business Account. This will give you access to analytics, as well as other features. Step two: Open your analytics dashboard Next, you'll want to find your account's analytics. You can get there by clicking the menu at the top right of your profile screen, clicking Creator Tools, then Analytics. That opens TikTok's analytics dashboard, which offers all kinds of insight into your account and your followers. Step three: Find your follower activity If we're looking to find the best time to post on TikTok, you'll want to find the Followers tab at the top. From there, scroll down and you'll see a pane called “Follower activity.” This is what it looks like on mobile. This pane will show when your personal followers are most active. As you can see above, the data shows that the activity of the followers of this account ramp up through the day and peak at 10 p.m. UTC. TikTok always displays these times in UTC, so you'll need to convert to your local time zone. For this account, for example, 10 p.m. UTC converts to 5 p.m. ET. From that, we can determine that this account should aim to post...

No matter what stage your store is in, you've probably tried several tactics to drive business to your online store. From propping up your website to Facebook ads to email marketing, you've studied the strategies that can deliver big ROI quickly. Even if you have a stunning website and a strong social media game, you might still be wondering what's out there. Perhaps it's time to consider an ecommerce press release for your shop. What are the untapped marketing opportunities that could send hordes of shoppers through your digital doors? What will make your checkout page light up and your revenue skyrocket? To light a fire with your products and business, you just need to find that spark to make folks perk up and turn their heads your way. Maybe it's time to think outside the inbox and set your sights bigger. Maybe it's time to unfurl a press release. What Is an Ecommerce Press Release? A press release is a great way to promote a company, its products, and its services. It can also be used to announce company news such as the launch of a new product, an acquisition, or big news like an incoming CEO. You've likely read a press release or two in your lifetime without even knowing it as they're often slipped right between stories in the news. Press releases are easy to create, publish, and distribute as long as you know where to begin, which we'll get to in a bit. There's a common misconception that press releases are only sent to journalists and that they only announce big events for huge companies or organizations, but that's not really the case any longer. Press releases can be used to improve search engine optimization, which can help ecommerce companies connect with customers who are searching for their products. In addition to events and new products, press releases can be used for direct communication with a target audience without going through other channels. For example, you can post the press release on your website or publish a link to it on social media. Scatter it everywhere you can find on the internet and cast that net far and wide. You can leverage a press release to talk to your customer and make a personal connection through stories or events. There is one challenge when it comes to distributing press releases: If you want traction and ROI on the releases you send out, you may need to hire an agency or a third-party connection to distribute it on your behalf. These third parties typically have access to distribution lists full of journalists, trade publications, and potential investors. In other words, they know people. Access to these lists isn't free, and there's no guarantee that you will see a big ol' ROI. But don't let budget be a deterrent. If you have even meager writing chops and a deep passion for your brand's story, take a turn at writing a press release on your own. A quick search can point you in the direction of press release templates, lists of information to provide, and tips to create a succinct yet compelling story. Also, don't shy away from leaning on your own network of other ecommerce pros or even family or friends. You may be surprised by the hidden talents within your reach (and asking a favor of Uncle Larry might only cost you a case of beer). How to write a press release that drives traffic Like most things on their journey to perfection, it takes practice to write an effective press release. It's not uncommon for a first, second, or third draft of a story to get denied by many outlets, which are trying to manage and prioritize lots of requests just like yours, so it's important to not get discouraged. It's not about how many times your statement gets rejected, it's about how many times you pick up the pen again (or something like that). That being said, there are some pointers you can use to craft an impactful press release on your first try. The most important thing to remember is to keep your press release short and straight to the point. With that said, here are the key components ...

For enterprise brands building ecommerce sites on WordPress, checkout performance can become a pressing issue, especially when visitors clamor to shop online during peak periods, such as Black Friday-Cyber Monday. The Open-Source approach of WordPress provides superior flexibility for enterprise brands to create a tailored commerce solution for their needs, but as the number of plugins required to create those custom experiences grows, so too does the complexity. Site load speed is often a top priority for commerce teams serving enterprise brands. Close to 70% of consumers say that page speed impacts their willingness to buy from an online retailer, reports Unbounce. A brand's chances at conversion drop by a full 2% for every second of load time. A high number of plugins on WordPress sites means checkout load times can slow dramatically due to incompatibilities between plugins or heavily-trafficked servers, especially as the volume of shoppers increases. Bold Commerce aims to solve these challenges by offering its Bold Checkout Experience Suite to enterprise brands on WordPress, giving them a robust SaaS tool ideal for checkout, BOPIS, subscriptions, and much more. What is poor checkout performance costing you? Try our calculator now. Checkout horsepower to take you farther, faster When WordPress sites move to a headless commerce approach to their ecommerce ventures, they're one step closer to scaling with ease and flexibility. Headless opens the door to a best-in-breed approach that gives brands the freedom to select the ideal technology solution for their needs, from ready-to-go features to compatibility across a large network of integrations. With Bold Checkout, enterprise brands on WordPress can protect up to 30% of revenue lost to slow load times by moving the customer through the checkout four times faster than other checkout options. It can also: Streamline your WordPress stack with Bold's ready-to-go pre-built integrations instead of adding them through a complicated array of additional plugins. Manage peak order volume without having to add more servers, since Bold decouples the checkout experience from WordPress servers. Reduce database calls and maintenance grievances because Bold handles the entire transaction, beginning to end. A single, lean plug-in built for extensibility Ushering in the Bold Checkout plugin will not only create a consistent experience for shoppers, it will open the door to further innovation. As Bold Commerce co-founder Yvan Boisjoli wrote, “With a consistent checkout experience, a headless approach then creates space for other feature rollouts across all channels, such as alternate payment methods; creating different checkout flows for marketing, voice or in-store kiosk; layering in the ability to manage B2B pricing; different shipping costs and net terms with integrations to reduce the complexity of managing different systems; integrating a fraud system; and offering subscriptions, loyalty programs or accepting gift cards.” Layering a strong and reliable SaaS tool atop an open-source approach is a winning combination for enterprise brands, according to a McKinsey report. “For companies looking to get a new business off the ground, SaaS is a way to quickly and cheaply access a robust array of existing services. When using just a single service or combining a number of them, SaaS has proven capable of meeting as much as 90 percent of the needs of a given function.” It's evident the hunger for comprehensive SaaS solutions will only grow over the years. The C-suite is watching this space closely: Close to 70% of CIOs claim that agility and scalability are two of the top motivators for using SaaS applications. While WooCommece is a popular choice for a WordPress commerce engine, it's default commerce engine can be sluggish, overwhelmed by other plugin tools, and hurt the performance and site load speed. Bold's single plugin can unleash the power of checkout, ensuring your WooCommerce checkout o...