International Guide to E-Commerce

Welcome back Liz Armbruester May 10, 2021 Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses of all types and sizes have grappled with impacts on their supply chains and changes in consumer behavior as the world adjusted to a digital-first way of shopping. While retailers had to manage ongoing changes like in-person capacity limits and COVID-19 safety protocols throughout the year, many also had to navigate the changes that came with shifting to an online-first business model and the associated sales operations and fulfillment challenges that came with it. Because of how rapidly our society shifted to online commerce, a number of growing pains have been felt across the manufacturing, retail, and services industries. The shift also created changes poised to impact commerce for the foreseeable future. From changes in consumer confidence to an extended Cyber Week, the pandemic has fueled several economic trends that were revealed and can be examined further in the Avalara Commerce M...

Chanakya Kyatham May 12, 2021 There is no denying the fact that Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are influencing every part of the tech industry. AI and ML are everywhere, from the corporate world to gaming stations, and perhaps, more than our regular lives, AI is impacting the business world more. Tech giants like Facebook and Google have placed huge bets on machine learning, and they are already using this technology in their products. But this is only the beginning. In the coming years, we’ll see AI and ML steadily glide into one business after another. In this article, we’ll review the businesses that’ll witness major changes due to the emergence of machine learning. But, before we get to that, let’s understand the terminologies first. What Is Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning? Machine learning technology uses Artificial intelligence to continuously learn from data, and then produce algorithms that need to be followed. Since data contains a massive a...

Karen Repoli May 12, 2021 If you’re an entrepreneur, you already encounter numerous relationships on a daily basis: with your business vendors; with your contract workers or employees; with your customers; with your prospective customers; and with your connections on social media. In fact, it’s nearly impossible to run any kind of profitable business without forming a variety of relationships. Your success is dependent on the relationships you make with others. You could have a killer blog, high-quality content, and lots of traffic but the rapport you have with your connections is all about engaging in a conversation with them. People that have chosen you to connect with should be held in the highest regard. Once they have a great experience with you, they will be more likely to share you with others, bringing more potential customers. You can implement these tips to build and maintain successful business relationships. Always Be Authentic Have you heard the phrase, “Fake it til...

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — When the phone rings, Tom Simpson knows it is another customer he is forced to turn away.  “I would like to help ya buddy but I have to close,” Simpson told the customer. He says that the economy and other issues brought on by the coronavirus have forced he and his business partner to close the doors.  “COVID just wiped everything out. John and I were looking at probably the best year we have seen since 2017 and it all disappeared in the course of two weeks,” Simpson said.   I-Team 8 introduced you to Simpson in April of last year. At the time, he had furloughed most of his employees, helped them sign up for unemployment and fed them when the paychecks stopped coming. He was able to keep a small crew working through part of last year putting up tents for outdoor dining along with a few medical tents. But getting people to come back to work has been a struggle.   “A lot of them have had to go on to oth...

Welcome back Kenny Tripura April 30, 2021 Revenue generation is the primary goal of every organization and B2B payments and payments made by clients are the major streams of revenue. At the higher level, thousands of payments are received and made and conventional payment methods fail to keep up with the pace. The use of advanced technologies and tools has increased the speed and efficiency of operations. Financial service providers and payment methods have also been impacted due to these automation trends. Payment automation solutions have revolutionized businesses across the globe. Does payment automation require heavy investment or can smart solutions work with the current payment infrastructure? What are the benefits of payment automation and how to automate the payments? All of these questions concern SMEs across the different markets. In this article, we are going to explore major possible payment automation solutions including APIs and other tools. Why Payment Automation is...

JP De Silva April 30, 2021 COVID-19 and the economic havoc caused by the pandemic have left many brick and mortar businesses struggling. More and more consumers are doing their shopping online. For a lot of these businesses, going online is no longer an option, it’s a necessity. The truth is, having an online presence can expose your business to a vast new audience, providing you with nearly limitless growth opportunities. What Do I Need to Transition to an Online Business Model? Transitioning to an online business model is a lot cheaper than you might think, especially when compared to opening a new brick-and-mortar location. All you need to start your online business is a computer, a domain name, a website, and a reliable web host. Your website should provide your customers with a pleasant shopping experience. It should be well designed and contain interesting, engaging content. The site should be easy to navigate and provide customers with various payment and delivery options...

Annabel Maw May 1, 2021 Increasing the efficiency of your team and your business can lead to improved productivity and better profit margins. However, figuring out what to automate and implementing these solutions can be challenging. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of software that can help you automate repetitive or routine tasks, from sales and marketing to finance and project management. In this post, we’re sharing nine reasons why you should automate your business. Photo by heylagostechie on Unsplash. What are the benefits of business automation? Automation helps you make routine, redundant tasks more automatic, so you and your team can focus on other business tasks. Here are nine benefits of automation for your business. 1. Reduce the amount of time spent on administrative tasks Did you know that knowledge workers spend an average of 3.8 hours each day doing busywork? Many of these tasks are repetitive and could be eliminated with more streamlined and automated wor...

Welcome back Ashley Sefferman April 30, 2021 Brands in the Business Services category faced diverse 2020 challenges. Some companies (like those focused on work collaboration or expense management) faced hurdles early on in the year that flattened as employees became more comfortable working from home. Brands focused on shipping faced challenges with cadences parallel to the impacts on local and national supply chains. Others (like brands in security and monitoring) faced few new challenges outside of their regular business patterns. In our 2021 Mobile App Engagement Benchmark Report , a study of 1,000 apps across a billion+ app installs, we take a close look at apps in the Business Services category. Below is a summary of our research specifically on Business Services apps. Read on for data-supported benchmarks Business apps should focus on in 2021 and beyond based on what was learned from a year like no other. 2021 Engagement Benchmarks for Business Services Apps There were two...

Dave Kosmayer May 2, 2021 It doesn’t matter what industry your company is in, a helpful blog can be really beneficial to any business. Trust us, we say this from experience. At Bookmark, we love using this blog to help business owners gain the knowledge they need to build and grow their online presence. Your blog post doesn’t even need to be limited to your industry. It can serve to provide wellness tips, general business advice, or must-know upcoming trends, for example. Blogs like this promote your brand’s visibility and also shows your customers that you care about them enough to step outside of your comfort zone to help them along their journey. There are endless benefits to having a blog attached to your business, and some are much more obvious than others. Many people think that nowadays blogs are outdated, but that is simply not true. Today, we’re going to uncover 5 key reasons why your business should have a blog in 2021. Blogs Help You Become A Thought Leader Odds are th...

Bonnie Harris May 3, 2021 Small business is known as the backbone of America. In fact, with more than 30 million small businesses across the country, they account for 48% of the country’s total workforce . With this being the case, in 2021, one of the biggest concerns regarding the success of most small businesses is the lack of motivation from business owners to adapt to current marketing trends. This opens up the opportunity for big companies like Amazon to crush small businesses. If small businesses can begin to adapt to digital marketing techniques and utilize them in their business plans, there may still be hope. Visual search is a perfect way for small business owners to not only get themselves back on track after COVID-19 restricted their ability to be open, but it may even be a way to garner more success than before the pandemic. In this final installment of our series on visual search , we will dive into how this marketing tactic could be the beacon of hope for small busi...

Deborah Sweeney May 3, 2021 One of the biggest assets a small business currently possesses is its website. Websites have proven to be vital to keeping small businesses up and running amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Customers can find your business through search engines, learn more about the steps that businesses are taking to ensure their safety, and make purchases. For businesses that are brick and mortar storefronts especially, having a website can be an excellent contingency plan in the event of an unforeseen circumstance. Your storefront may be temporarily closed, but the website will always be open — and its customer service team is ready to assist your customer base. What other benefits come with creating a website for your small business? Here are five additional perks to having an updated small business website. 1. Websites establish business credibility. Think of your small business website as your official presence online. This space allows you to share more about your bu...

The office of the Chief Justice has clarified the issue of Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng taking long leave. This content was originally published here . from Tumblr https://ift.tt/3hLXtJg via IFTTT

Three security guards have been arrested for allegedly being in possession of six illegal firearms in Germiston, east of Johannesburg. This content was originally published here . from Tumblr https://ift.tt/3468Cg5 via IFTTT

The Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) took the spotlight on May 6 and it wasn’t just because of the umbrage that its CEO, Ng Yat Chung, took. While the public and local memelords are having a field day with Ng’s comment, the bigger piece of news is that SPH is restructuring its media business into a not-for-profit entity — big enough for media academic Cherian George to call it the “biggest shake-up of Singapore’s news media industry in decades”. Why does SPH want to turn its media business into a non-profit? In short, like any publicly listed company, SPH faces pressure to provide its shareholders with dividends. But the dividends have been shrinking over the years in tandem with the shrinking profits from its media operations. Why is that so? Because of advertising dollars, specifically the lack of it. The decline of print advertising SPH said that its operating revenue has dropped by half in the past five years, due “largely to a decline in print advertising and print subscr...

Dogecoin lost more than a third of its price on Sunday after Tesla chief and cryptocurrency supporter Elon Musk called it a “hustle” during his guest-host spot on the Saturday Night Live comedy sketch TV show. Dogecoin was quoted as low as $0.416 on crypto exchange Binance, down 36 percent from levels around $0.65 before the show. It retraced some of that move later on Sunday and was last trading around $0.569. The cryptocurrency, which started as a joke in 2013, has surged more than 16,000 percent in the past year, Bloomberg reported citing crypto data tracker CoinGecko.com. Musk has been among its biggest boosters, along with celebrities Mark Cuban, Snoop Dogg and Gene Simmons. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts had for days been eager to see what he would say on the show after his tweets this year turned the once-obscure digital currency into a speculator’s dream. Asked: “What is Dogecoin?” Musk replied, “It’s the future of currency. It’s an unstoppable financial vehicle that’s going t...

Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Friday directed the Division of Workforce Services to end Arkansas’ participation in the federal supplemental unemployment assistance after June 26. “The programs were implemented to assist  the unemployed during the pandemic when businesses were laying off employees and jobs were scarce,” Hutchinson said in a news release. “As we emerge from COVID-19, retail and service companies, restaurants, and industry are attempting to return to prepandemic unemployment levels, but employees are as scarce today as jobs were a year ago. "The $300 federal supplement helped thousands of Arkansans make it through this tough time, so it served a good purpose. Now we need Arkansans back on the job so that we can get our economy back to full speed.” The governor said Montana and South Carolina have already opted out of the federal pandemic unemployment assistance programs, which are scheduled to end Sept. 4. Congress approved an enhanced federal supplement to state unemp...

Nura Eston April 27, 2021 If the past year has shown retailers anything, it’s that having an eCommerce presence isn’t an optional extra any longer. In Canada, retail eCommerce sales reached $ 3.9B in May 2020, a 2.3% increase over April’s numbers and a staggering 99.3% increase over February. Year over year, in fact, online sales in Canada more than doubled between May 2019 and May 2020, and given the ongoing concerns about safety, it’s not surprising that many consumers are still choosing delivery and curbside pickup options, even as stores in many areas reopen for business. Still thinking about getting your business online? Here are some of the top points to consider. Website design Did you know that the average internet user spends just 15 seconds on a website? That’s not a lot of time to get their attention. And it means that your website’s design can make or break the success of your online business. Here are some tips to get you started: What are some other important el...

With nearly 3 billion active users , Facebook’s reach is undeniable. As a business owner, you can use Facebook as a part of an effective social media marketing strategy — but did you know that you can set up your own Facebook Business Page ? If you aren’t already utilizing this powerful tool, you’ll want to learn how to create and optimize a Facebook Business Page. If you’re just getting started with developing your Facebook Business Page, don’t worry. This article will cover the fundamentals of optimizing your page, including: The Basics of Facebook First, it’s important to remember that your Facebook page is not a replacement for your business website . Instead, you can consider it a tool for leading customers to your website — while building important connections. If you’re trying to grow your business using social media strategy , your Facebook Business Page is a must-have. To get started, you’ll need to create your Facebook page , or you may opt to convert your personal profi...