International Guide to E-Commerce

The advertising boycott of the fledgling British news channel GB News — in which companies such as Ikea, Kopparberg, Nivea, Vodafone and Grolsch among others decided to drop adverts because the channel is ‘Right-wing’ — created its own headlines this week. The firms capitulated to the fanatical pressure group Stop Funding Hate, which whipped up a Twitter mob of self-righteous cancel-culture warriors to help target brands whose adverts appeared on GB News. But following a huge backlash over their supine behaviour — and revelations in the Mail about the hypocrisy of the Stop Funding Hate campaigners, many of whom have themselves repeatedly posted vile messages of hate on social media — some firms have reconsidered. Moneysupermarket, a price-comparison website which pulled its advertising, quickly reversed its decision. Vodafone and the Co-op also seem to be rowing back, as does Octopus Energy. Could they be concerned they might actually lose customers by taking the knee to Stop Fu...

Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, founder of the Tata Group, has topped the EdelGive Hurun Philanthropists of the Century. The report pegs the current value of his donation – mainly to education and healthcare – at $102.4 billion with the start of his key endowments way back in 1892. Tata is the only Indian in the top 10 list. The other Indian among the top 50 is Azim Premji, former chairman of Wipro, who is ranked 12th. Bill Gates & Melinda French Gates, Henry Wellcome, Howard Hughes and Warren Buffett are among the top 5. Mackenzie Scott, the former wife of Jeff Bezos, Donated $8.5 billion directly to charities, most ever in a single year by a living donor. The ranking is based on Total Philanthropic Value, calculated as the value of the assets adjusted for inflation, together with the sum of gifts or distributions to date. The data was derived from publicly available sources and in certain cases directly as shared by the foundations. Jamsetji Tata, known for his ventures within ...

Funds parked by Indian individuals and firms in Swiss banks, including through India-based branches and other financial institutions, jumped to 2.55 billion Swiss francs (over Rs 20,700 crore) in 2020 on a sharp surge in holdings via securities and similar instruments, though customer deposits fell, annual data from Switzerland’s central bank showed on Thursday. The increase in aggregate funds of Indian clients with Swiss banks, from 899 million Swiss francs (Rs 6,625 crore) at the end of 2019, reverses a two-year declining trend and has taken the figure to the highest level in 13 years. It stood at a record high of nearly 6.5 billion Swiss francs in 2006, after which it has been mostly on a downward path, except for a few years including in 2011, 2013 and 2017, as per the Swiss National Bank (SNB) data. The total amount of CHF 2,554.7 million (Rs 20,706 crore), described by the SNB as ‘total liabilities’ of Swiss banks or 'amounts due to’ their Indian clients at the end of 202...

Nicholas Shaw June 7, 2021 Having a great understanding of dead stock , and knowing what you can do about it, can help you get ahead of your ecommerce competitors. Ecommerce is a dog eat dog world where every penny counts, but our definitive dead stock guide will help you get the results you need. Just What is Dead Stock? The first step to taking control of your dead stock situation is to understand exactly what it is. Dead stock is your ecommerce inventory that hasn’t found its way into a shopping cart. It will never sell, unless you do something about it (more on that later). Source: Pixabay Whatever your line of ecommerce, you’re sure to encounter returns of damaged or unwanted goods, but that’s different to dead stock. Put simply, dead stock is something that has never been bought, and that creates potential problems for you. It’s something that all ecommerce operators have, whether their business is new or old, big or small. It may be that a company could have as much as 33...

The ultimate objective of marketers and business owners is to earn profit from their investments. In the digital era , it is based on your business website’s optimization. The core reason for this focus is the direct relationship between the return of investment and website rankings. According to Backlinko , only 0.78% of searches receive visitors from the 2nd page of search engines. This clearly highlights the significance of search engine ranking for a business. There are number of strategies that can be utilized for increasing optimization. SEO and SEM are two of the most used strategies in the marketing world today. Let’s discuss the role and functionality of SEO and SEM for small businesses. SEO V.s SEM Prior to initiating the difference, it is necessary to quote that; the terms only differ in their functionality but works for a similar goal. The difference in simpler words can be written as; As per the study, around 53% of the total web traffic is generated from organic re...

Dave Kosmayer June 11, 2021 First, we want to say kudos! If you’re here, there’s a good chance that means you’ve started a small business, which is incredible. We know this can be one of the most rewarding things you can do, and also quite terrifying. Growing a company can face a range of challenges. As a small business grows, different problems and opportunities demand different solutions, and what worked a year ago probably wouldn’t work now. And let’s not even begin with the havoc this pandemic has brought upon us. According to statistics, only 51% of businesses survive exceeding their first five years. So how do you manage your small business from becoming the one of every two that does succeed? First, it’s to know what typical challenges your business will likely face as it grows and be prepared to meet those challenges head-on. Say hello to online Now, we know the online world for some can be very intimidating, but that’s why we’re here. We’re the perfect solution if yo...

Mercedes-Benz AG recently introduced its Maybach sport utility vehicle in India–right in the middle of a fierce second wave of the pandemic. The 50 cars the German automaker wanted to sell by the end of 2021 were lapped up in a month. It turns out that just as the rich were scrambling to own these $400,000 wheels, annual per capita income was sliding below $2,000, with the country falling behind neighboring Bangladesh. Emerging economies have historically tolerated higher inequality, hoping to hit the inflection point in the Kuznets curve, beyond which incomes keep rising but disparities fall. Whatever the merits of the controversial hypothesis, the gap opened up by Covid-19 is no price of progress. The situation that India finds itself in today–brisk sales of luxury cars and soaring net worth for billionaires amid widespread joblessness and depleted savings–reflects a lack of fiscal imagination. The state’s reluctance to do more could prove costly. Poor households ate less last year...

TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL, Tech Mahindra, Cognizant to cut 3 million jobs by 2022: Report With automation taking place at a much faster pace across industries especially in the tech space, domestic software firms that employee over 16 million are set to slash headcounts by a massive 3 million by 2022, which will help them save a whopping USD 100 billion mostly in salaries annually, says a report. The domestic IT sector employs around 16 million, of them around 9 million are employed in low-skilled services and BPO roles, according to Nasscom. Of these 9 million low-skilled services and BPO roles, 30 per cent or around 3 million will be lost by 2022, principally driven by the impact of robot process automation or RPA. Roughly 0.7 million roles are expected to be replaced by RPA alone and the rest due to other technological upgrades and upskilling by the domestic IT players, while it the RPA will have the worst impact in the US with a loss of almost 1 million jobs, according to a Bank ...

John Bogna June 1, 2021 So you’ve chosen a business idea, built your website, and now you need to get the word out. Chances are you’re already considering advertising through the two behemoths of the online ad world, Google and Facebook. But is it actually worth it to buy ads ? If so, which platform should you use? We’ll explore the difference between Facebook and Google paid ads here, giving you the information you’ll need to make the best advertising decisions going forward. Online advertising basics The world of online ads can be overwhelming, especially if you’re starting from scratch without a marketing background. That said, it’s actually pretty easy to get an ad campaign rolling. Let’s start with a few basic terms and concepts: Facebook ads and Google ads both fall under the category of “ pay per click (PPC) ” ads. When you buy PPC ads you bid on a price and, once that price is settled, pay that amount of money every time someone clicks one of your ads. User search inten...

With the pandemic aftermath, going remote with your employees will require some re-configuration of your current IT systems to support a different working structure. Today, everyone would agree that IT solutions provide the foundation for practically all types of modern organizations from small startups to enterprise small businesses. IT solutions and services are needed in a variety of areas within an organization whether in production, optimization, management, or accessibility to data and business procedures. Many small businesses can now be run from home – from cloud kitchens to ecommerce shops and YouTube channels. Businesses, regardless of their size, are consistently on the chase for IT services and solutions to assist them in achieving their business goals. Here are top recommended IT solutions for small businesses and startup-stage companies: 1. Modern Workplace Solutions Modern workplace solutions are absolutely a must-have in order to scale your small business for gr...

Karen Repoli June 3, 2021 Who doesn’t love automation? Shopping carts and membership sites automate your sales and content delivery. Email autoresponders automate relationship building. And calendar apps automate your schedule, putting an end to the frustrating back and forth of setting appointments. Not only does automation save you time, but it helps ensure quality and consistency as well. Just imagine how confusing it would be to your customers if you didn’t have a shopping cart, but instead sent them an invoice for every purchase, and each invoice was a different cost. Or what if your 16-week group coaching course sometimes arrived by email, and sometimes in your Facebook group, and sometimes not at all? Now these might seem like silly, over-the-top examples, but this is why automation tools exist—to keep everything running smoothly and as expected. Can you automate everything? No. But you can implement this same level of efficiency and consistency by creating systems and work...