Internet Retailer Announces the Finalists for the 2017 Internet Retailer Excellence Awards

Internet Retailer, the world’s leading publisher of strategic e-commerce business intelligence, and B2B E-commerce World, today announced the finalists for the categories of the third-annual Internet Retailer Excellence Awards. The awards recognize the outstanding achievements made by innovative online retailers and business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce companies in the past year.

Internet Retailer and B2B E-commerce World will announce the winners at the IR Excellence Awards dinner banquet held at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place hotel on June 7, 2017, as the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition (IRCE 2017) convenes for its 13th straight year. Internet Retailer serves as the official media sponsor of IRCE, which will occur at McCormick Place West in Chicago from June 6-9, 2017.

“I enthusiastically congratulate all 45 finalists for our third annual 2017 Internet Retailer Excellence Awards,” says Molly Love, CEO of Internet Retailer. “Our goal is to highlight best practices that all online retailers and B2B e-commerce companies can learn from. The finalists represent some of the fastest-growing and most innovative companies in e-commerce, and their accomplishments reflect the ongoing shift of purchasing—whether by consumers or businesses—to the web.”

Determined by a team comprised of Internet Retailer senior editors and e-commerce industry experts, the finalists for each of the 13 IR Excellence Awards categories are as follows:

  • Emerging E-Retailer of the Year: Chewy, Hollar.com, MeUndies, Purple, MVMT Watches
  • E-Retail Growth Award: Chewy, Leesa Sleep, Poppin, Ulta Beauty
  • Web Redesign of the Year: Califia Farms, Kate Somerville, Lowe’s, Oliver Sweeney
  • E-Retail Marketer of the Year: eBags, Target, Wayfair
  • Best Marketing Video of the Year: Pampers, Reef, SupplyHouse.com
  • Best Product Video of the Year: SupplyHouse.com, Sylvane, Vurtego
  • B2B E-Commerce Marketer of the Year: DollarDays, Lightning Labels, SupplyHouse.com, MSC Industrial Supply Co.
  • B2B E-Commerce Website Redesign of the Year: Cole-Parmer, PacknWood, Sullivans, Tech Data
  • B2B E-Commerce Player of the Year: Amazon Business, Cisco Systems, Garrett Popcorn Shops, Kimball Midwest, Tech Data
  • Mobile Commerce Award: eBay, Lancôme, RealTruck, Wayfair
  • Global E-Retailer of the Year: Anker, Benefit Cosmetics, Nike
  • Omni-channel Retailer of the Year: Amazon, Best Buy, DSW, Fabletics, Home Depot
  • Internet Retailer of the Year: Amazon, Dollar Shave Club, Nike, Ulta Beauty

“We were pleased to receive hundreds of nominations for our 13 categories of Internet Retailer Excellence Awards,” says Kurt Peters, executive editor of Internet Retailer. “The broad range of retailers and high quality of all nominations made choosing finalists difficult but ensured that when we announce the winners on June 7 at IRCE, we will be recognizing the leaders of the industry.”

Original article here:
https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2017/04/06/internet-retailer-announces-finalists-2017-internet-retailer-excellence-awards/

Preparing Your Business for the Cold Weather Ahead

The weather has been turning quickly, as temperatures across the United States are plummeting. For businesses of all types and sizes, wintertime brings about a lot of changes to store policies, hours, maintenance and inventory. It’s good to begin prepping your business now so you’re fully prepared for all that winter brings.

1. Prepare Your Online Store

Currently, over half of the [U.S.] population, or 190 million people, [shops] online. This number rises in the winter, particularly around the holidays, as people are less inclined to face the storms simply to conduct their shopping. If you want to make the most of wintertime sales, it’s highly encouraged to prepare your online store and marketing strategy so you can garner as many online customers as possible.

2. Choose Your Seasonal Product Lines

As you prepare for winter, you also need to begin bracing yourself for the holidays. With the holidays, you’ll likely be updating your inventory to offer more seasonal gifts that cater to Thanksgiving and Christmas shoppers. Begin scouting out the latest seasonal trends so you can choose inventory based around the hottest-selling items.

3. Prepare Your Parking Lot

The parking lot of a business is critical to keep maintained, particularly in the snowy months of winter. Potholes and cracks in the asphalt can be dangerous at any time of year, but, [when] coupled with the icy roads, [they] could be a recipe for disaster. Scan your parking lot for any holes or cracks, and have them paved over before the first snow.

4. Stock up on Needed Office Supplies

Come wintertime, businesses are much more likely to face late shipments than in summer due to poor road conditions that limit travel abilities for truckers. As such, it’s better to be overstocked on necessary supplies than understocked in the event a shipment arrives late. Take stock of all supplies that are used daily, particularly office supplies, and be sure to purchase more than enough in advance.

5. Have a Disaster Recovery Plan Created

Disaster recovery plans are even more vital in winter, because there is much higher chance of the building falling victim to structural or technological damage. Have a plan in place that details what to do should your business lose power or be impacted by structural damage due to an intense storm. It’s wise to have all essential software and technology backed up to the cloud so business can continue to operate, even in the middle of a power outage.

In the wintertime, businesses have a lot more to deal with than in summer. The facility has higher utility costs, you’ll have more maintenance tasks ahead of you, and, all the while, you’ll likely see a drop in customers. By preparing your business in advance, you can brace your company for the worst possible circumstances. In turn, you can create more wintertime sales while avoiding the potential disasters that cost businesses money. Start stocking up on the supplies your company needs, so you always have enough on hand. Visit DollarDays today and start browsing.

Original article here: http://globalbizcircle.com/preparing-business-cold-weather-ahead/

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

2016 celebrates 30 years of awareness, education and empowerment for NCBF, the National Breast Cancer Foundation. October […] kicks off National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which has become a well-recognized event and movement in the fight against cancer. Throughout the past 30 years, countless donations and sponsorships from leading manufacturers, suppliers and other organizations have sought to make a difference in the fight against this insidious disease by raising money for research and treatment. One way to do this is to adopt the now well-recognized pink ribbon as part of a new look or new product line in your store.

How you can help

As a retailer, there are many ways you can contribute to this worthwhile cause while […] providing an opportunity for your customers and your community to join in the fight. One very simple way to help is to offer products branded with the organization’s classic pink ribbon in your store or on your website. 

Breast Cancer Awareness

When you order products from wholesalers associated with the NBCF, like the Pink Ribbon Shop, Warriors in Pink, DollarDays or Choose Hope, a portion of your purchase is forwarded to the foundation. Similarly, you yourself can track any products sold in your shop and then make a donation, frequently calculated as a percentage of profits, from your store to the foundation.

Be Proud

Using signage in the store or in the display to proudly show your support for the cause will go a long way with your customers. Make sure whatever percentage of profits you are donating is clearly marked so all your patrons can be clear on what their purchase means for the foundation. You may be surprised at the level of goodwill a simple sign and a few pink-themed products can create in your store.

October is nearly here, but there’s still time to get in an order of pink-ribbon merchandise. From coffee mugs to T-shirts to pins, hats, and even cookware and dishtowels, there is no end to the creative products on the market today. Take a few minutes now to search for a few of them and proudly display them in your store in October. You’ll be glad you did.

For additional information on how to help, please visit the National Breast Cancer Awareness Foundation at www.nationalbreastcancer.org

Original article here:
http://independentretailer.com/2016/09/22/october-is-breast-cancer-awareness-month/

6 Strategies for Streamlining Your Workforce

Many business owners feel as though the workforce isn’t operating as efficiently as it should, yet are at a loss for how to improve productivity. Short of firing your staff and starting anew, what strategies are actually effective at boosting work performance and streamlining the workforce? Here are some simple and cost-effective ways to get more out of every workday, while improving overall performance as well.

1. Implement BYOD policies

“Bring Your Own Device,” or (BYOD), is a rapidly growing policy being implemented by businesses everywhere. BYOD policies are where businesses require employees to utilize their personal devices, such as cellphones or laptops, for business use. Not only will this save your business a tremendous amount of money, but it can encourage productivity, as well. BYOD devices typically link to cloud-based work platforms, so [the policy] offers employees the ability to work from any location and [from] all of their devices.

2. Automate, automate, automate

To truly boost workplace efficiency, take a [cue] from the robots. There is now automation technology that can streamline virtually all aspects of your digital workload. From organizing data to improving analytics, robots can conquer the menial tasks that your employees loathe.

3. Do it right the first time

One of the more common ways that businesses waste time is by making mistakes or having unknowledgeable employees. Training employees can go a long way in streamlining the workforce. When your employees are experts at their trade, they’ll complete tasks more efficiently while doing a better job the first time around.

4. Leverage technology to its fullest capacity

Today, there are literally hundreds of different technologies and apps that can help to encourage productivity, improve time management and streamline a workforce. From customer-relationship-management software to improve your customer management to sales-management software to help manage inventory and sales, investing in the right software applications can significantly improve your work efficiency.

picture1

5. Schedule breaks regularly

There has been ample research conducted into the need for breaks in the workplace, with most suggesting that businesses are shorting their employees considerably. Most employees get two 10-minute breaks and a half-hour lunch each day; however, by implementing the Pomodoro Technique, your employees can enjoy more frequent breaks while increasing their total productivity for the day, as the technique is based around the natural attention span of humans.

6. Partner with reliable suppliers

The suppliers you depend on play a crucial role in helping to streamline your workforce. With unreliable suppliers, you’ll have difficulty remaining on top of inventory. When one aspect of a business process is disrupted, it negatively impacts many other areas of business. You need professional and reliable suppliers to ensure your business thrives and business processes operate as efficiently as possible.

At DollarDays, we understand that wholesale suppliers are more than just venders—we are actively supporting your bottom line. With this in mind, we go above and beyond to ensure every order is fulfilled in a timely manner and exceeds your expectations. With all that business owners have to worry about nowadays, your product orders shouldn’t be one of them. Contact us today to learn more about our services.

Original article here: http://globalbizcircle.com/streamline-workforce/

5 Ways Business Owners Have Won over New Customers

When it comes to finding new customers and leads, these business owners swear by these five helpful strategies.

Advertising can be prohibitively expensive for smaller companies, and marketing efforts can sometimes seem scattershot. We asked five business owners to share the methods they used for discovering powerful new customer lines that actually worked. These grassroots efforts show that you don’t necessarily need to have to spend a lot to reach a new market and discover new customers.

Giveaways

“We do product giveaways every month for the wholesale merchandise we sell. Last month, for example, we gave away $5,000 in products to nonprofit organizations that support kids. We started these giveaways after Hurricane Katrina, when nonprofit groups came to us looking to buy blankets and other items for people affected by the disaster.

“At the time, we weren’t doing any business in the nonprofit world, but we recognized the opportunity. We started reaching out to nonprofits with these giveaways, and now half of our business is with nonprofits, including national contracts with the Salvation Army and Kiwanis.”

—Marc Joseph, former CEO & President, DollarDays

Partnering

“The demographic for our men’s laundry detergent is very specific—22- [to] 30-year-old single males with above-average spending who care about appearance, scent [and] the details surrounding their life. Paramount Pictures and MGM reached out to us because they understood our demographic was very close to their target for the new film Ben Hur.

“We agreed to put them on a lot of our digital in late August, timed with the film release, and they gave us tickets to give away to new customers. For the customer, if you buy a bottle of our detergent and get free Ben Hur tickets, that’s a much higher value proposition than just buying the detergent. We are only two-and-a-half weeks into the partnership, but already we’ve seen an amazing decrease in customer-acquisition cost. We’ve beaten our best sales months by 25%, and we have earned 1.9 [times] our normal amount for this ad spend.”

—Leif Frey, Founder, Frey for Men

Social Media & Email

“We do social-media giveaway promotions for our bodysurfing handboards about once a quarter, when we have a new product or something exciting going on that we want to promote. The way it works is people need to share a specific photo via their social media, [t]hen their followers see it and they want to enter. We gain a lot of new emails, which is our goal.

“Our bump is anywhere between 200 to 500 new emails per promotion. Then, right after each campaign, we set up targeted emails to those new, potential customers with a coupon offer. About 30% of our sales come from our email campaigns, so that’s why our big focus is on growing that email list.”

—Angela & Steve Watts, Owners, Slyde Handboards

Sampling 

“We hosted a beer-tasting room at the Insight Innovation Exchange in June 2016, where visitors played one of our gamification-based experiences as part of the beer-tasting exercise. We published real-time results of the most- and least-favorite beers on tap, but, more importantly, we were able to capture over 100 leads for a total cost of under $10,000. The sales cycle is fairly long in our industry, so many of these leads aren’t likely to generate revenue for another three to six months, but in just eight weeks, we’ve already converted enough beta participants to cover the cost of the event. As an online subscription service, this was tremendously effective for us.”

—Jason Anderson, President, Insights Meta & Datagame

Listening

“I started doing a listening tour during the Great Recession in late 2008, early 2009 to strum up new business. I was already scheduled for some travel around the country in Q4/Q1 for meetings, so I used the trips as an opportunity to hear from current clients and prospects about how they were handling the downturn.

“Themes started to emerge. For example, on one trip everyone was asking about social media and whether or not they needed a blog. After several discussions, I summarized my notes and sent them out to share what I was hearing. Then, given all the questions around social media, I offered to put together a talk and workshop to discuss current trends. I immediately got replies asking me to book, and it all led to more work. Now it is just something I try to do regularly to keep a pulse on the market and find new work.”

—Paige Arnof-Fenn, Founder & CEO, Mavens & Moguls

Find more small business tips here:
https://blog.dollardays.com/2021/06/21/ideas-for-starting-a-small-business/

Interview: Marc Joseph, Founder of DollarDays

Marc Joseph is the founder of DollarDays, the […] online wholesaler that helps small businesses compete against larger enterprises and [helps] nonprofit organizations find the products they need to support their causes. DollarDays offers more than 225,000 high-quality products at wholesale and closeout prices. Mr. Joseph has helped build some of America’s most known retail stores, including Federated Department Stores, Bill’s Variety Stores, Everything’s a Dollar Stores and Crown Book Stores. Most recently, he started a chain of hair salons in Arizona and built it up to 11 stores before selling them to devote [his] full time to DollarDays. He is the author of the book “The Secrets of Retailing…or How to Beat Walmart,” which provides expert advice to independent businesses of all sizes on everything from the psychology of buying and the hiring of great employees to working successfully with vendors and promoters, as well as how to expand your business on the Internet. Mr. Joseph is also a frequent contributor to The Huffington Post and the Alibaba Global Biz Circle news websites.

IdeaMensch (IM): Where did the idea for DollarDays come from?

Marc Joseph (MJ):When we started back in 2001, small businesses were getting crushed by chains moving into their towns, so we wanted to help these small businesses survive and thrive against these big-box competitors. At the same time, the Internet was emerging as the new way to quickly communicate, so I saw the Internet as the next channel of distribution of wholesale and closeout products by the case so the small guys could compete on a level playing field with the big guys.

IM: What does your typical day look like, and how do you make it productive?

MJ: The Internet is really the last true vehicle to still be able to use guerrilla marketing to promote your business, so we start every day asking the question, “How can we find new customers and begin to brand ourselves?” in this sea of millions of websites currently trying to attract the eyeballs on the World Wide Web. We make this a productive exercise by reviewing sales from the last day, week and month and analyzing the customers, both new and existing, [who] created these sales. Our short-term goal is to market out to lookalike customers who don’t know about us today. Because of this, we get our report card each day. This month, we get a “B+” because we are averaging 1,500 new customers now joining us each day. Our long-term goal is to convert these new customers into repeat, loyal customers.

IM: How do you bring ideas to life?

MJ: Unlike traditional businesses that need a three-month timeframe from idea to implementation, being a company focused on the Internet, we can come up with an idea in the morning and have it live on the site that afternoon. This gives us the opportunity to test even the craziest ideas, because if the idea does not work, we can immediately take it off the site with a click of a button. So just about every day our site looks a little different, and the winning ideas become part of our culture, while those that do not click with our customers go away quickly.

IM: What is one trend that really excites you?

MJ: Adult coloring books are exciting. Why adult coloring books? I just use this as an example of how ideas become trends that become sales. About a year ago, one of our better small-business customers told us that in his small town, he was seeing 20- and 30-year-olds put down their cellphones and pick up a sketchpad or coloring book and begin to doodle. He assumed it was for stress relief from the constant pressure our modern society puts on itself in this electronic-driven age. With that early knowledge, we went out and sourced all kinds of adult-type coloring books from geometrics to nature to animals. Just this year, we have gone through hundreds of thousands of adult coloring books—[and all] because one of our salespeople developed a strong bond with one of our customers who trusted us to help them build their business. Adult coloring books are to this generation like pet rocks were to an earlier generation.

IM: What is one habit that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?

MJ: I keep a pad and pen on my nightstand. For some reason, some of my better ideas pop up in the middle of the night, and if I don’t write them down when they wake me up, I just can’t remember them the next morning. Taking this a step further, whenever I am away from my desk to exercise, have dinner, etc., I now always have a pen and paper in my pocket just in case that million-dollar idea jumps in front of me.

IM: What was the worst job you ever had, and what did you learn from it?

MJ: To help put myself through college, I became the housekeeper and the weekend cook at my fraternity. Who knew that college guys could be such slobs? No matter how often you tried to train your brothers to pick up after themselves, if their mother could not teach them, I certainly could not, either. This was the beginning of my learning about the art of communication, and for negotiations to be successful, you could not use the tact of telling people what to do—you need to get them to buy into your dream or, in the case of the fraternity, working together for a cleaner, more appealing environment.

IM: If you were to start over again, what would you do differently?

MJ: Cash is king when starting a business. Opening your own business may be a dream coming true, but paying for this dream is an entirely different story. The vision of digging through your couch to find all the lost change to make your business work is a myth. Raising money is the toughest challenge you will ever face. You cannot put every penny you have into your business, because you will need dollars to cover your living expenses for the first six months, and if you do not have enough cash flow in your business, you will be scrambling for years. So my advice is to make an extremely strong effort to raise as much cash as possible before going into business.

IM: As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over?

MJ: Pick up the phone and always be reaching out. Don’t wait for people to reach out to you. Whether you like it or not, entrepreneurs are always selling. They are selling their idea to raise funds to start the business. They are selling their idea to potential employees to get them to join their dream team. They are selling their idea to customers and suppliers to trust them to help improve their businesses. So entrepreneurs cannot get complacent. Every day, you must relive those days and months in the beginning when you were the only one picking up the phone. Pick up the phone today and find new customers.

IM: What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?

MJ: Hire good people. I try to hire people who are smarter than I am in areas that I am not the expert. This way, you can build a team with divergent expertise, yet when adding up the sum of the teams’ knowledge, it is first class.

IM: What is a failure you had, and how did you overcome it?

MJ: For years, our site, which is homegrown, did not give the perception that we were a top-notch company. It was slow and cumbersome to use, and, because of this, our sales were stagnate. We finally bit the bullet and put all of our financial resources and human resources into taking our site into the 21st century. It has paid off, because this year, we were one of the three finalists for the Internet Retailer B2B E-Commerce Marketer of the Year [award].

IM: What is one business idea for those reading this article?

MJ: The relationship we as businesses and entrepreneurs have with our customers is changing. It is a trend that has always been part of the millennial generation, but is now also part of all generations, and that is [that] customers want to do business with companies that care about giving back to their community. We do it with three different programs—$5,000 a month through our Facebook giveaways to nonprofits, creating free wishlist sites for nonprofits, and letting all of our customers donate 5% of their purchases to nonprofits. I am sure there are plenty of other ways businesses can give back to their communities.

IM: What is the best $100 you recently spent and why?

MJ: We donated a case of baby blankets to our local Kiwanis Club K-Kids group at our Boys & Girls Club. This is an organization that helps young kids learn the value of service and helping others. This young club was helping the homeless families in our area. You should have seen the look on these kids’ faces as they were unpacking the carton of baby blankets. The joy they had in helping brought many of the adults in the room to tears. This is emotion that cannot be bought.

IM: What software do you use?

MJ: Because we have an inside sales team that works closely with our existing and new customers, we have just initiated Salesforce to help keep us organized and alert us quickly for followup with our customers. Making us more efficient in the long run will make us more money.

IM: What one book do you recommend?

MJ: If you are only going to read one book this year and you are an entrepreneur or small-business owner, you must read “Shoe Dog” by Phil Knight, the create of Nike. I could not put it down. The ups and down of starting a business are on full display in this compelling story. I must mention two other books also that gave me real perspective on growing a business. The first is “Alibaba,” which is the most accurate telling of the story of the largest e-commerce company in the world, and the second is “Elon Musk,” which tells the true story of this billionaire and gives you some insight into what our future may look like.

IM: Who has influenced your thinking?

MJ: We can learn so much by studying history. I can’t get enough of George Washington, whether it is his biography or the current TV show, “Turn: Washington’s Spies.” But the real influencers of my life were the entrepreneurs of my father’s generation, brave men who I watched in action just about every day. Most of these guys fought in World War II and then came home to build their dreams for their families. None of them had anything handed to them, and they built their businesses by hard work, dedication to their dream, and the understanding of what it takes to build and service a loyal customer base.

Original article here: https://ideamensch.com/marc-joseph/

Honing in on the Perfect Profit Margin

Business owners need to possess multifaceted skillsets. Not only is it imperative to possess exceptional work ethic and business management skills, but you need to be an excellent writer, a mathematician and a creative thinker, as well. When it comes to finding the ideal profit margin, it requires both excellent mathematical skills and innovative thinking. Here is a guide to help you hone in on that ideal profit margin without zapping your mental energy in the process.

Determine What an Appropriate Profit Margin Looks Like

Small- to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) can anticipate lower profit margins than their big-box competitors due to […] scale. Before honing in a perfect profit margin, you need to determine what an appropriate profit margin will look like based on the size of your business, the number of years in operation and the industry [in which] you’re operating.

While profit margins will vary by industry, Butler Consultants reports that, for retailers, the average profit margin is around 48.46%. By striving for an unrealistically high profit margin, you’ll be driving customers away with unreasonable prices; however, settling for a low profit margin could increase your risk of business failure.

Maintain Low Overhead Expenses

When striving to achieve healthy profit margins, businesses often turn to their pricing to see how they can squeeze more money out of each sale; however, overhead and operational expenses can actually have a tremendous impact on profit margins. [B]efore raising your price tags, examine your business model to see how much you’re spending and how you can reduce costs.

Take office supplies, for example. According to Gartner, the amount of paper produced by companies has been growing by a shocking 25% each year. It’s estimated that businesses spend about $200 per year per employee on office supplies. By finding lower prices on office supplies of the same quality, you can reduce this cost on an ongoing basis [and enable] your business to increase its gross profit margin. Compare the cost of office supplies among a variety of suppliers to ensure you’re getting the best price available.

Picture2

Partner with Top Wholesale Suppliers

When choosing a wholesale supplier, price should certainly be a primary concern; however, you need to consider other factors that will influence business performance and productivity, ultimately shaping your overall profit margin. How easy is the supplier to work with? Can they accommodate your needs? Are they able to scale their offerings to fit your demands? Do their shipments arrive on time and in excellent condition? All of these will partially contribute to the gross profit margin of your business, so it’s important to take all of it into account when choosing the right supplier.

DollarDays Puts Customers First, Encouraging Business Growth

At DollarDays, our primary concern is customer satisfaction. We understand that, in order for your business to thrive, it depends largely on the performance of the suppliers you partner with. We take our commitment to customer satisfaction seriously by offering the lowest prices possible on all of our merchandise and ensuring we are well-stocked to accommodate orders of varying sizes. Contact us today, and talk to us about your needs from a wholesale supplier.

Original article here: http://globalbizcircle.com/honing-perfect-profit-margin/

Leverage the Pokémon Go! Trend to Catch More Customers

Pokémon Go! is the latest trend, and it has been sweeping the nation with haste. It’s estimated to have 9.5 million active users each day, and players range in ages from young children to senior citizens. It’s safe to say, this Pokémon Go! craze is popular among all age groups and will likely remain trendy for quite some time. The question is, how can you as a retailer cash in on this trend and catch more customers?

Create a Pokémon Go! Account

With the rise of interest in Pokémon Go!, more people are out and about, wandering the streets than ever before. For urban businesses, this offers a lot of potential for bringing new clients to your store. To start, you’ll have to create a Pokémon Go! account. Pokémon Go! has a free mobile app that can be downloaded directly to your smartphone.

Check Your Area for Pokéstops & Gyms

In the game, Pokémon has already established a variety of outdoor locations that are known as pokéstops and gyms. Pokéstops are places where users go to catch Pokémon and collect pokéballs. Gyms are places where users gather to battle other Pokémon. Check your app to gain a sense of all the nearest pokéstops and gyms in your area, so you can know where foot traffic will be heaviest throughout the day. You can use these high-traffic areas as marketing locations by posting signs, flyers or other marketing materials that will draw people to your business.

Set Lures in Your Store

One creative way to draw in more customers is by setting lures in your store. Haven’t heard of a lure? Then you must not be playing Pokémon. A lure is a feature in the game that allows users to plant lures at specific locations that will draw other players to that site; hence, by placing lures in your store, you’ll literally be drawing people directly into your business. Once they’re there, you can increase brand awareness and boost the likelihood of a sale.

Sell Pokémon-related Merchandise

Just as the Pokémon trend was starting to go out of style, the makers have found a way to resurrect their following. You can maximize on these trends by extending your product line to include some Pokémon-related paraphernalia. Stocking Pokémon cards near checkout, offering Pokémon stuffed animals and keychains, selling Pokémon shirts—the opportunities are endless. Use this as an opportunity to add a bit more variety to your shelves while creating a favorable impression on all the diehard Pokémon Go! fans.

Offer Pokémon-related Deals

One fun way to engage the public is to offer deals related to the Pokémon achievements of your customers. For instance, have a day where you offer all customers 10% off their purchase for catching a rare Pokémon.

While Pokémon was starting to fade away and become a relic of the past, the brand has found a way to make itself relevant again. With their brilliant marketing tactics, it’s likely Pokémon will continue to trend for decades to come. Take a tip from the Pokémon marketers and keep your business relevant as well. […] With the right approach, you’re bound to catch ‘em all—customers, that is.

Original article here: http://globalbizcircle.com/leverage-pokemon-go-trend-catch-customers/

Back-to-School Promotion Ideas for Small Businesses

What’s the status of your back-to-school marketing plan? According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), the average family will spend more freely on school and college supplies this year. It expects total spending for K-12 and college to reach $75.8 billion, up from last year’s $68 billion.

The annual NRF survey, conducted by Prosper Insights and Analytics, suggests that more than 50% of shoppers will start back-to-school shopping three weeks to one month before school starts, while 22% will start shopping with only one or two weeks left.

As we head toward September and into the final few weeks before students head back to school, Small Business Computing asked small-business owners to share details of their most successful back-to-school promotions and tips.

Be Helpful: Back to School is Stressful

Getting ready to head back to school can be stressful for your customers—both the parents and the students. Nicole Gardner, Dormify‘s COO, recommends that business owners personalize their back-to-school campaigns to their audience and to be helpful to their customers.

“Be helpful. It’s a stressful time for many parents and full of anxiety for students. Offer resources and accommodate customer requests where you can,” she advised. “Figure out if you’re speaking to the student or to the parent, and adjust your tone, your messaging and your offers accordingly. Use all the customer data you have and get hyper-targeted; we find email to be the most effective marketing channel for accomplishing this.”

Coupons & Discounts Attract Back-to-School Shoppers

Mike Catania, CTO of PromotionCode, works with 15,000 retailers, a third of which are small businesses that regularly compete against national brands and big-box retailers. When it comes to the back-to-school rush, Catania recommends coupons as a particularly effective marketing strategy for local businesses.

“Because they’re local, these businesses can tailor their offers not only to a specific school name (to build associative brand recognition), but they can also provide tiered offers based on different grade levels,” says Catania. “For example, a coupon offer that gives X% off storewide (where ‘X’ represents the grade level of the incoming student) has been an extremely popular offer.”

Celebrating students also creates a positive back-to-school promotion for retailers. Doug Messer, co-founder and CEO of University Beyond, said the company’s most successful back-to-school promotion was a holiday they created.

“We call it ‘National Student Discount Day,’ and last year, we had more than 100 brands participate,” said Messer. This year, “[A]ll participating brands will come together to promote our website via Twitter, drive a mass audience to view and use the available discounts, and sign up for our site. We already have major enterprise companies reaching out to participate again this year.”

Use Social to Talk up Back-to-School Promotions

Social media is a good way to cash in on local back-to-school shopping. “Local social media is far more influential than national. Posting that coupon to social media and tagging the school for which it applies will help move it along to parents who, in turn, can make it go locally viral with minimal advertising efforts on your part,” says PromotionCode’s Catania.

Daniela Arango, public relations specialist for DoItWiser, also supports using social media to boost back-to-school promotions. Arango says that small-business owners can create excitement around back-to-school sales on social media by launching a pre-sale ad campaign to generate expectations around your offers and products.

She also recommends offering online coupons or promotions to visitors and clients on your website in exchange for subscriptions to your mailing list or follows on social media. “Your customers get a discount on their back-to-school purchases, and you build a community around your brand.”

Arango suggests that businesses take advantage of user-generated content to show how your customers use your products at school. This gives your future clients a sense of closeness, trust and familiarity with your brand.

Back-to-School Promotions for B2B

B2B businesses also find success with back-to-school promotions by taking advantage of email campaigns, social feeds and good deals.

Marc Joseph, former CEO and president of DollarDays, a B2B business that sells 225,000 general merchandise products by the case at wholesale and closeout prices to entrepreneurs, small businesses and nonprofit organizations, explains.

“Today, our banners feature office and school supplies, back-to-school clothing, accessories, writing instruments, and backpacks. All of these products tie together because we want to be the one-stop shop for all back-to-school needs,” says Joseph. “This also works with brick-and-mortar stores or online B2C sellers. Once a customer comes into your store, you don’t want them to leave. The best promotion is to offer everything they need.”

For example, DollarDays sells backpacks with a per-unit price starting at $3.19. Email campaigns and social media promote the item to draw people to the website. Once prospective customers land on the site for a backpack, they can see all the school supplies they need to fill the backpack—all in one place.

How to Promote Back-to-School Outside of Retail

Many back-to-school promotions center heavily on retail stores and online shops, but many small-business owners can capitalize on students and parents shopping for school-related deals. Ajmal Saleem, owner of Suprex Learning, a startup tutoring company, says the back-to-school promotion is especially important.

“Parents commonly seek our tutoring services during the summer to help their kids keep up their skills during the break; however, back-to-school is an excellent time to offer promotions, and parents are willing to spend the money if you can show them it’s a good investment,” says Saleem. “We offer bulk tutoring packages right before the school year starts. When a parent purchases more hours of tutoring, it not only provides us with sustained business, it helps parents keep their children’s momentum going.”

Even vCalc, a crowdsourced calculator-creation platform, offers back-to-school promotions. The vCalc platform invites people to use math knowledge to solve everyday challenges and to build and share free equations, algorithms, constants and collections.

Kurt Heckman, vCalc’s president, said they ran a student contest last fall that went so well that it’s now an annual back-to-school event. Called Coding for Community, this contest encourages students to use the vCalc platform to create free online calculators for the benefit of their communities. Prize money ranges from $25 for honorable mentions up to $1,000 for two grand-prize winners.

“The results have been surprising. Students have built free calculators that are now being used all over the world,” says Heckman. “This annual contest is a terrific way to get our product into the hands of more students every fall, and it’s now an ongoing part of our back-to-school promotion regimen.”

Check out another blog here: https://blog.dollardays.com/2021/06/21/ideas-for-starting-a-small-business/

5 Red Flags Signaling the Need for a New Wholesale Supplier

Every business owner knows the importance of a quality supplier. The supplier forms the very foundation of the business, providing you with a vast selection of quality merchandise, partially determining your profit margin and ensuring your shelves are always stocked. With the wrong supplier, your business will suffer, and keeping your doors open will feel like a perpetual challenge. Here are some signs that your wholesale supplier isn’t a good fit.

  1. Your profit margin is struggling. Settling on an appropriate profit margin is always a challenge for business. You need to keep prices high enough that your own profits are healthy, but prices need to remain low enough to compete with other businesses in the area. If you’re struggling to find a balance that’s conducive to business success, the problem could be your supplier. If your wholesale supplier is charging too much for merchandise, it will be impossible to maintain healthy profits while ensuring your prices are reasonable for customers. You need a wholesaler who puts your profits first by offering the lowest prices possible on high-quality merchandise.
  2. Your customers are complaining. Have you noticed an increase in customer complaints? If customers are routinely expressing concern over the quality of your merchandise, then you may need to find a new wholesale supplier. A great supplier is one that provides excellent merchandise at fair prices, and if customers are regularly irritated at the lack of quality, then this is a major red flag.
  3. Your shipments are late. To operate a business successfully, you need to streamline your inventory management so supplies are always ordered on time and always arrive when needed. If your shipments arrive late, it throws off countless aspects of business, making it difficult for employees to do their job and leaving a bad impression on customers. A shipment may be late every once in a while if items are out of stock or if weather is bad; however, if your shipments are perpetually arriving late, it may be time to find a new supplier who takes their deadlines seriously.
  4. They’re calling all the shots. As a business, you are the supplier’s customer, and it’s their job to take you seriously. You need a supplier who’s willing to work with you and can continually meet the commitments they’ve signed up for. If they’re routinely out of stock of the items you need, if their pricing is constantly fluctuating, or if their shipments are inconsistent, this is a huge red flag that the supplier isn’t the right fit for your store.
  5. They offer poor customer service.You need a supplier you can communicate with and that’s available to hear your concerns. You need someone who will perpetually be in contact and update you about the status of your orders. If communicating with your wholesaler feels like pulling teeth, then you’ll end up doing more work than necessary to ensure your shipments arrive as expected. It’s time to find a supplier who offers the customer service you need.

The supplier you choose for your store can greatly improve your ability to operate your business effectively. With the right supplier, you’ll be able to meet your own deadlines more efficiently and remain on top of inventory management. […]

Original article here: http://globalbizcircle.com/wholesale-supplier/