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  • 10 Innovative Product Experiences from Black-Owned Brands - Black History Month in the United States is a time to celebrate the contributions of Black individuals throughout history. Today, it has evolved to not only celebrate historical contributions, but to honor the achievements and cultural impact of the Black community in the present day. An American Express report found that Black women are the fastest growing demographic of entrepreneurs in the U.S. This growth trajectory is taking the commerce industry by storm.  At Elastic Path, we wanted to celebrate by featuring 10 innovative product experiences from Black-owned brands. 1. Albany Park Albany Park is a furniture brand specializing in luxury sofas, sectionals, and ottomans. Their PDP features customizable product configurations so customers are able to see what the sofa would look like in different variations. In addition, their website features lifestyle videos for consumers to have a better understanding of what the couch could look like in their home. The PDP also includes tutorial videos demonstrating how to assemble the sofas. 2. Clare  Clare is an online paint store that sells paint and paint supplies for the interior and exterior of homes and buildings. The brand focuses on creating a customized experience for their customers. Their website features a chatbox facilitated quiz called Clare Color Genius ™ to help you find the perfect paint shade for your home. 3. Oui The People Oui The People is a bodycare brand that sells products for various skincare needs from hyperpigmentation (dark spots) to keratosis pilaris (strawberry skin). They aim to curate personalized product recommendations for your specific skin care conditions. Their website features a Body Skin Care quiz, to help recommend products from their collections that will alleviate your personal skincare concerns. 4. Black Girl Sunscreen Black Girl Sunscreen is a brand that gained popularity in the Black community for its ability to provide a high SPF sunscreen that did not leave a white cast on darker skin tones. The brand has since branched off into cosmetics and apparel in addition to the SPF products. The website’s navigation features product bundles. Some of the noteworthy components of the bundles is the ability to pick and choose products in the bundle, also known as “dynamic bundles.”  For example, in their holiday bundle, customers can choose between a pine scent or vanilla scented candle. This merchandising strategy helps increase customer satisfaction and boost AOV. 5. The Honey Pot The Honey Pot is a feminine care product brand that focuses on natural, plant-based products for feminine needs. The products on their website are grouped both individually and bundled for specific concerns. For example, there is a “Nighttime Ritual” bundle and a “Soothe Ritual” bundle with products catered to those specific “rituals”. The Honey Pot is also following suit with other brands we’ve mentioned, offering a Quiz that aligns with your needs.   Read the Gartner® Predicts 2023: Digital Selling Excellence Protects the Bottom Line During Economic Uncertainty Get the report to see how your brand can speed up digital innovation. Read Gartner® Predicts 2023 6. NaturAll Club NaturAll Club is a brand focusing on natural products for curly hair textures. One of the unique aspects of their PDP page is that each product shows both written directions for how to use the product and video tutorials showing you how to style your hair with the products. The PDP page also includes the specific curl patterns the products are catered to. In addition, you can curate your personal product list from a quiz that you take explaining your hair type.   7. BLK + Green BLK + Green is a marketplace for natural products created by Black artisans. Customers not only get a commerce marketplace, but their “Our Story” tab leads to a podcast with interviews from some of Black-owned brands they feature. The “Our Story” tab also details their Toxic Twenty pledge, which is a pledge to ensure that none of the products are made with  20 harmful chemicals they’ve listed out.   8. Bolé Road Textiles Bolé Road Textiles is a home decor brand, specializing in items made from handwoven Ethiopian fabrics. Their website features a social commerce strategy, where customers can shop by lookbooks from the Bolé’s Instagram page.   9. lemlem Lemlem is an artisan-based collection of women’s, men’s and children’s home goods made entirely in Africa. The brand is multi-geo spanning across the US and Europe. On their website, you can seamlessly toggle between their US site to their European site. You can also filter products from bestselling, feature and the date added “New to Old” and “Old to New”. 10. Beauty Bakarie Beauty Bakarie is a cosmetics brand that focuses on natural cruelty-free products with clean ingredients. The brand has implemented a social commerce strategy with products you can buy “As Seen On TikTok”, which are the products they share on their TikTok page. They’ve also incorporated a Foundation Finder tool where you answer questions about your skin tone to help you find your correct color match for their foundation. Moreover, the brand merchandises by price categories such as “$40 and under” to “$20 and under”.    At Elastic Path, we empower merchandisers to create differentiated product experiences like these. You can learn more about how we power these experiences through Elastic Path Product Experience Manager (EP PXM).  
    Topics: skin, brands, website, specific, quiz, blackowned, paint, brand, products, black, innovative, features, product, experiences.
  • 10 Ways to Create Customer Centric Promotions in Elastic Path Commerce Cloud - Consumers are always searching for the purchase with the best value, and as such, promotional offers play a significant role in a customer’s shopping cycle. According to the Retailmenot Survey: 80% of consumers feel more encouraged to make a purchase with a new brand if they have offers and discounts 74% of consumers say offers are a top factor when deciding where and what to buy 48% of consumers said they would avoid brands that did not provide offers. With such a heavy precedence on promotional offers, it is imperative to be equipped with a variety of promotions available within your eCommerce solution. At Elastic Path, our engineering teams understand this need and have continued to update and add new promotions for our customers to leverage. In this article we will highlight 10 ways we support your promotional needs and demonstrate where you can access them in the platform’s Commerce Manager.   Cart-Level Promotions 1. Fixed Discount Promotions Cart-Level Fixed discounts allow your team to reduce the product price by a fixed amount, and is applied to the entire cart. This means you can offer a $10 reduction in price and have it applied to the cart total.   2. Percentage Discount Promotions Similarly to fixed discounts, Cart-Level Percentage discounts can also be applied to the entire cart. This promotion allows you to reduce the product price by a specific percentage such as 10% off. In addition to being able to add fixed and percentage discounts, our team has also made updates to allow for the exclusion of specific SKUs from each type of promotion. This means a seller will have the ability to run store-wide promotions and exclude one more SKUs. This can be of great use when you want to exclude specific tiered or exclusive products within your catalog.       Item Level Promotions 3. X for Y Discount Promotions The X for Y discount allows your team to offer bulk discounts based on the unit price. This promotion works by applying the price of Y (qty) to the X(qty). This a great use for “2 For 1” promotions.     4. X for amount Discount Promotions Similarly to the X for Y discount, the X for amount discount allows your team to offer a bulk discount based on a fixed price. This promotion works by applying a set ($) amount to a specific (qty) amount for a specific SKU. This promotion can be used to deploy “2 phones for $500 sales.”     5. Bundle Discount Promotions Bundle discounts allow your team to offer bulk discounts when selected products are purchased together. This promotion works by selecting SKUs and quantities, and applying a bundled price to it. An example of this promotion could look like offering your customers to buy any two items from a specific list at a specific price of $100.     6. Item Fixed Discounts Item Fixed discounts allow your team to reduce the price of multiple items by a fixed amount. In addition to providing a price reduction, it also allows you to limit the discount to a discrete number of items. For example, you will be able to offer $5.00 off a specific SKU like a shirt, and at the same time only allow the discount to be applied to the first 3 items (of the same SKU), leaving the 4th item(of the same SKU) added to cart as full price.     7. Percentage Item Discounts Similarly to Item Fixed discounts, Percent Item Discounts allow your team to reduce the price of multiple items by a specific percentage amount such as 10%. Your team will still be able to limit the discount to a discrete number of items.     8. Free Gift Discount Free Gift discounts allow your teams to offer a free item when a specific product or a group of products are purchased. You will also have the option to either send your customers a notification for them to add the free gift to the cart rather than having it automatically added only. This feature is especially helpful by limiting unwanted items being sent to your customers and creating an overall better shopping experience.     9. Usage Per Line Item Discount Usage Per Line Item promotions grant your team the ability to set usage per line item for all promotion times. This allows you to limit the buyer to use the promotion for a specific number of times. This type of promotion can be useful in giving your employees or influencers a discount with a quantity limit which can be used throughout the year and at multiple checkouts.     10. Max Application Per Cart Limit This promotion update allows your team to limit the quantity available for purchase at the promotion price. This type of promotion stops the risk of someone purchasing an exuberant quantity of an item at sale price.   As Elastic Path continues to innovate and make updates to our promotions engine, we will continue to keep you in the loop. Keep a lookout for upcoming promotions on the roadmap such as editable promotions, node category discounts, notification of available promos and more. In the meantime, stay up to date with our changelog and never get left behind on our newest innovations to Elastic Path Commerce Cloud.
    Topics: cloud, discounts, item, promotions, elastic, path, create, commerce, promotion, discount, team, allow, specific, price, fixed, centric, ways, customer.
  • 14 Real-Life Examples of CTA Copy YOU Should Copy - Moving people to act is a challenging task. With just a few words, CTA copy needs to show that you see where your audience is coming from and empathize with their issues. That CTA (call-to-action) must also motivate them to move toward a solution.
    Topics: example, reallife, action, needs, specific, copy, cta, youre, examples, offer, visitors, calltoaction.
  • 15 Facebook Ad Targeting Tips to Try in 2022 - More
    Topics: facebook, options, ad, try, audience, audiences, ads, tips, target, specific, targeting, brand.
  • 25 Slack Tips to Make You and Your Team More Effective - Slack changed workplace communication. It can be a helpful tool or an amusing diversion — and this makes Slack tips essential to cut through the noise.
    Topics: team, tips, using, slack, create, channels, effective, click, channel, specific, message, messages.
  • 29 Best Google Chrome Extensions for 2023 - Discover the top Chrome extensions of 2023, handpicked to boost your productivity, enhance your browsing experience, and make your online life easier. More
    Topics: specific, extension, page, best, extensions, youre, google, free, lets, chrome, web.
  • 40+ Resume Objective Examples to Help You Craft Your Own - With only six seconds to grab a recruiter’s attention, conventional wisdom might tell you to cut right to the chase when you write your resume, but that's not always the best way to go.
    Topics: company, data, business, experience, objective, skills, role, examples, help, resume, specific, marketing, craft.
  • 6 Best Practices for B2B Site Search - Search-led conversion rates are usually three to six times higher
    Topics: b2b, best, based, site, experience, practices, specific, merchants, search, product, merchandising, products, results.
  • Amazon’s Brand Analytics Lowers Ad Costs, Drives Sales - Amazon's Brand Analytics provides valuable metrics for sellers in the Brand Registry. The metrics include recent advertising changes, such as targeting competitors in ads and search terms. Used strategically, the data can bolster sales. 
    Topics: amazons, search, products, costs, comparison, purchase, lowers, drives, ad, brand, item, sales, specific, analytics, terms, data.
  • B2B ecommerce: the four challenges to face for long-term growth - Commerce innovation is not just for retailers and consumer brands, business-to-business organizations must capitalize on the disruptive trends that are...
    Topics: specific, platform, order, doesnt, need, b2b, partner, organizations, ecommerce, difficult, customer, technology.
  • Build a Better B2B Website in 3 Steps - Today’s B2B buyers rely on digital channels through every stage of their journeys -- even long after in-person sales interactions with reps.
    Topics: best, better, help, buying, websites, buyers, build, b2b, steps, suppliers, website, customers, specific.
  • Dote raises $12M and introduces live-streamed Shopping Parties - Mobile shopping startup Dote is announcing $12 million in new funding, as well as a new feature called Shopping Party. Founder and CEO Lauren Farleigh said her initial goal was to create “a truly native mobile experience” that made it “easy to check out across a lot of different stores.” Over time, recommendations from social […]
    Topics: introduces, livestreamed, live, theres, shopping, dote, party, experience, 12m, parties, mobile, specific, raises, influencers, app.
  • Ecommerce Machine Learning: AI’s Role in the Future of Online Shopping - Once you’ve been in ecommerce for a while, you’ll know the industry’s symbiotic relationship with technology. Ecommerce only exists thanks…
    Topics: specific, algorithms, data, machine, learning, tech, customer, work, thats, does, ecommerce, online.
  • First-Party Data: How You Can Optimize Your Ads Targeting By Relying On Yourself - “No one knows your customers better than you do.” We’ve all heard this old adage before, but it has never been truer than it is now.
    Topics: audiences, create, ad, targeting, firstparty, relying, ads, audience, thirdparty, data, specific, optimize, information.
  • How Micromarketing Can Take Your Strategy to the Next Level [+ Examples] - Good news: on the internet, your business can connect with hundreds of millions of potential customers.
    Topics: strategy, examples, potential, content, customers, micromarketing, coke, microinfluencers, campaign, specific, level, marketing.
  • How Nonprofits and Online Businesses Can Grow on Giving Tuesday - Giving Tuesday is a great way to connect generous donors with causes that need attention. Read 8 tips for your nonprofit or business to make it a success!
    Topics: goal, nonprofit, donors, nonprofits, help, online, say, specific, campaign, businesses, giving, grow, need, page.
  • - If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably got a ton of ideas for new projects or businesses in your head. And, you’re probably sure that they’re winning ideas too. But, the harsh reality is: ideas alone will rarely get you anywhere. What really matters is the way that you execute […]
    Topics: boost, youll, need, specific, productivity, set, smart, goal, achievable, goals, youre, achieve, setting.
  • - If you’re looking for ecommerce platforms that are generally easy to use and don’t require an upfront payment to launch a store, chances are you may have come across Wix in your search. Wix is an ecommerce platform that’s used… Continue reading How to Contact Wix Support in 2023
    Topics: option, specific, need, youre, information, support, youll, wix, issue, services, contact.
  • How to Create An Action Plan: A Straightforward Guide for Marketers - Have you ever sat down at your desk first thing in the morning and spent a good 45 minutes browsing social media or getting lost in your inbox because you can’t focus on what you need to do? At the end of the day, you feel as if you’ve wasted 8 hours of your life that you’ll never get back.
    Topics: steps, youll, plan, marketing, team, straightforward, create, marketers, need, plans, action, project, guide, specific.
  • How to Create Buyer Personas for Your Online Store - How much do you really know about your customers? Learn why buyer personas are the foundation of your business & how to create your own in just four steps.
    Topics: persona, personas, store, customers, create, information, online, toys, questions, buyer, specific, products, know.
  • How to Create a Link to Jump to a Specific Part of a Page - When most people think of hyperlinks, they think of connecting two different web pages — such as a blog and landing page — together. But that's not all hyperlinks can do, they can link to a specific part of a page as well.
    Topics: page, users, links, anchor, html, text, content, create, link, specific, jump.
  • - For online businesses, shipping is huge. That’s because it doesn’t matter how good your products are, or how strong your marketing is, if your products don’t actually make it to your customers.  Let’s be clear – it’s not just the products arriving that’s important. It’s the products being shipped out […]
    Topics: report, check, business, products, times, reliable, delivery, specific, sell, youre, suppliers, dropshipping, data.
  • - Finding a Shopify niche packed with profit potential is often easier said than done. There’s a lot of conflicting advice out there, from “follow your passions”, to “take advantage of the latest trends”. However, the reality is choosing the ideal… Continue reading How to Find Your Ideal Shopify Niche (And 10 Profitable Niche Ideas to Explore)
    Topics: help, choose, business, ideas, ideal, specific, youre, products, customers, profitable, shopify, market, explore, niche.
  • How to Find your Dream Job in 2022 - Finding a new job is a job in itself. It takes time and effort to apply, interview, and eventually land a position — even when you’re completely qualified.
    Topics: career, work, resume, search, specific, company, job, youre, remote, companies, dream.
  • How to Know If You Have Outgrown Your Commerce Platform - Your commerce platform is a critical piece of your strategy that can enable your brand to deliver unique customer experiences and drive revenue growth for your brand. But not all platforms are created equal and some actually hinder a brand’s ability to bring their vision to life. Whether it’s a dated reference architecture, clunky functionality, or antiquated pricing, brands find themselves held back instead of propelled forward by their technology. After speaking with many brands who are in the process of evaluating new commerce platforms, we have noticed a trend: those struggling tend to still be using dated, legacy commerce platforms.This simple fact can often go overlooked as brands stick with what they know and don't recognize how much of a hindrance their current commerce platform may be. Read on to see some of the common signs that your brand has outgrown your commerce platform and how transitioning to a more modern microservices-based platform can alleviate some of those ailments. Some of the common complaints we hear include spending too many resources on workarounds, waiting on IT teams to implement costly projects to add functionality, and increasing cost without continuous innovation. This results in a half-baked execution of your vision and underwhelming performance. If this sounds familiar, you are likely running a legacy all-in-one (monolithic) platform. When they first emerged in the early 2000s, legacy commerce platforms like Magento, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and Shopify were designed to address a wide plethora of basic commerce needs with a single offering. Indeed, they were successful in meeting the needs of the time. But, with the demands of customers evolving, the rigid nature of these platforms leaves brands being outpaced by competitors who have invested in new technology. Several point-providers for specific functionality have stepped in to provide a better solution than the relatively simplistic offerings from legacy all-in-one commerce platforms. With a Composable Commerce approach, you can leverage these best-of-breed third-party solutions and a headless commerce platform to develop a solution that delivers the customer experiences and performance your eCommerce teams envision. Struggles With Speed Limiting Your Brand's Growth The first sign that you have outgrown your commerce platform is inability to move fast. When evaluating the performance of your current commerce solution, speed is essential. We can talk about speed in two key facets—first, the speed of your platform, i.e., what your customers experience. Slow page load times or poor mobile experiences can lead to lost revenue. To learn more, check out our post here. Many brands will have ongoing projects to improve their stores' performance and see minor improvements on specific key metrics with changes to their CDNs, marketing tags, personalization engines, etc. However, these improvements are often incremental at best and generally lead to hitting a wall with what is possible with legacy architecture. Achieving the ideal 'under 4s' load time mark can be out of reach with a legacy commerce platforms' tightly coupled capabilities and reference architecture code base. With an API-first architecture, typical in Headless Commerce platforms like Elastic Path, achieving lightning-fast load times is simple because these solutions were designed around the speed and scalability delivered of cloud infrastructure. The second facet of 'speed' is how quickly (and easily) you can add on functionality like a mobile checkout touchpoint, best-in-class search capabilities, or a payment gateway to deliver experiences that your customers expect. With legacy platforms, brands often embark on costly extension projects requiring specific developer expertise. For example, those using Salesforce Commerce Cloud are only able to hire Salesforce developers and architects who cost $12,000 more per hire. Not only is it more expensive to undertake these projects, but they will also take significantly longer due to the architecture of the legacy commerce platforms necessitating extensive testing to ensure all connected pieces are working after making any additions.   Ready to Consider Replatforming? If your business has outgrown your current ecommerce platform, check out our webinar, "Replatforming Tips to Embrace Composable Commerce," for advice on how to move to a more modern solution. Watch the Webinar Business Teams Frustrated by Bottlenecks The second sign you have outgrown your commerce platform is rigid functionality that requires customization to meet your requirements. These bottlenecks to improvements can break down into two route causes. We often hear that marketing and merchandising teams struggle to keep pace with customers' demands since they need to wait on the IT team to implement seemingly simple changes. A prime example of this is when merchandising teams want to launch unique strategies like dynamic bundles, complex pricing, or child-variant level merchandising, but their commerce platform does not support it without custom developer work. And, this challenge isn’t just with legacy platforms, we see the same issues arise with some of the MACH-vendors in today’s landscape. Your merchandising team will end up with delayed time to market and missed opportunities all thanks for the lack of flexibility of catalog and merchandising capabilities. With Catalog Composer from Elastic Path, merchandisers can rapidly create complete catalogs that tailor to specific needs of your customers across channels, touchpoints, and geographies with ease. A similar challenge occurs for making frontend updates. With a legacy commerce platform, the ability for merchandisers to make quick changes to the storefront can simply be impossible. Instead, they have to submit a ticket to IT and wait until it is tackled. On the other hand, with a composable architecture, brands can choose a frontend technology and CMS (Content Management System) that allows business users to make these changes. This approach saves resource hours while also providing significantly more flexibility when delivering the vision of a unique front end that caters to the complexities of your specific business. Planned Expansions Hindered by Your Current Commerce Platform The third sign you have outgrown your commerce platform is inability to expand your digital business to meet revenue goals. At Elastic Path we see brands looking to increase their digital revenue by expanding to new business models (like B2B or B2B2C), geographies, brands, or touchpoints. Unfortunately, many legacy platforms were built in the early 2000s when this type of expansion was irrelevant. Therefore, their technology struggles to keep up with these new business needs without customization. In the case of business model extension where each model comes with its complexities, legacy platforms like Salesforce offer a wholly different product to cater to these needs. For example, brands who want to power both B2C and B2B need to run two entirely separate platforms. Running two platforms can double up the headaches caused by the problems discussed above but will also mean that you are paying license fees and staffing for both products individually. It is important to note that with other modern Headless Commerce vendors, you will need to use and pay for multiple platform instances rather than separate products to cater to use cases like multi-geo, multi-account, B2B, etc. The complexity introduced in these cases with the need for several differentiated catalogs with distinct hierarchies and pricebooks can be impossible to manage with a single instance. Additional instances are needed since other Headless Commerce vendors lack the flexibility a de-coupled catalog architecture provides. Catalog Composer delivers this flexibility with unlimited catalogs that allow you to create bespoke catalogs 5x faster for every route-to-market from a single instance of the platform. Even without channel expansion plans, brands looking to add functionality are forced into complicated implementations with a legacy commerce platform. A good example is payment gateways. Some legacy platforms might have the ability to add a specific third-party vendor to add Buy Now Pay Later capabilities. Managing multiple vendors for each payments capability is something two-thirds of brands are looking to avoid. Check out Elastic Path Payments to learn how you can easily accept payments across channels, touchpoints, and geographies from a single payment offering. Omnichannel commerce platforms like Elastic Path Commerce Cloud allow you to run all the channels and touchpoints your brand needs from a single instance of the platform. This way, you are cutting down on the Total Cost of Ownership while providing a better customer experience. Struggling to Increase Margins with an Expensive Commerce Platform As you will have noticed, a common challenge across many of the issues that brands face when outgrowing a legacy commerce platform is a high Total Cost of Ownership. By moving away from a legacy platform to a Headless Commerce platform, you can increase your top and bottom-line revenues as these benefits add up across lower platform fees, less expensive implementation projects, or simply lowering the cost associated with your team needing to manage the complexity of a legacy solution. For a more comprehensive look at how you can lower your Total Cost of Ownership, check out our guide here. Chat with us today if any of the common signs above hit close to home. We would be happy to help determine how to successfully circumvent the issues holding back your brand's growth and establish a commerce solution that fits your needs today and into the future.
    Topics: commerce, platforms, know, functionality, needs, platform, legacy, architecture, speed, brands, specific, outgrown.
  • How to Search Tweets Using Twitter Advanced Search - Let’s say you want to find a specific @elonmusk tweet about machine learning, but can’t find the tweet when you scroll back in your feed.
    Topics: advanced, search, words, twitter, results, using, specific, fields, tweets, account.
  • - Welcome to The Science Behind Success -- a new blog series that explores the best ways to help our brains perform better at work. With psychological research and interviews with leaders in the field, we're showing you how psychology can help you overcome workplace obstacles and excel in your career. Because a little mindset change could go a long way.
    Topics: psychology, mindset, goals, youre, specific, performance, workplace, role, help, winners, perform, champion, goal.
  • Is Blogging Too Saturated? Here’s How To Avoid Failure - Want to start a blog but worried that blogging is an oversaturated market? You may be wondering how your blog will stand out amongst numerous ones in the same industry.
    Topics: failure, saturated, blog, specific, blogs, market, audience, keywords, avoid, value, heres, blogging, keyword, content.
  • KOLs: What They Are & Why They're Key to Your Marketing Strategy - Over the past few years, influencer marketing has become an incredibly successful strategy for brands looking to reach a targeted audience on social media. And, with an average ROI of $6.50 for each dollar spent, it's undoubtedly powerful.
    Topics: kols, strategy, theyre, million, influencer, kol, audience, help, marketing, reach, specific, brand, product, key.
  • Letter of Interest Tips, Templates & Examples [A 2023 Guide] - In today's competitive job market, a carefully crafted letter of interest is a powerful tool for standing apart from the crowd.
    Topics: templates, examples, tips, team, company, way, letter, guide, hiring, specific, role, manager, interest, youre.
  • Make the Sale and Bring Them Back: 5 Tools to Reduce Cart Abandonment and Improve Customer Loyalty - Without sales, it doesn’t really matter what your site traffic looks like – it’s just a metric. Sales are what bring in money and keep your business going! So How Do You Get More People To Buy?
    Topics: site, loyalty, reduce, cart, customers, abandonment, points, products, customer, email, send, specific, product, tools, improve.
  • Management by Objectives: Everything You Need to Know - A very famous Cheshire cat once said, "If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there."
    Topics: organization, objectives, mbo, goals, employees, performance, specific, understand, management, need, know.
  • Maximize Your Impact: 205 Action Verbs to Use on Your Resume - So you’re working on your resume. Maybe you haven’t submitted your updated resume anywhere yet, or maybe you have, and it doesn’t seem to get anyone’s attention. Either way, you might be missing one of the most important elements of any resume: Action verbs.
    Topics: youre, impact, look, verbs, resumes, reading, youve, resume, maximize, specific, action, words.
  • My 3 Favorite Google Ads’ Filters - Filters in Google Ads save time. They can be applied to virtually any reporting column. Instead of scrolling through row after row of data, we could apply filters to show only the most important info.
    Topics: spend, filter, google, favorite, variant, filters, specific, high, data, set, ads, cpa, keywords.
  • Opportunity Knocks: 9 Niche Market Examples With Untapped Business Potential - Identifying a niche market can be one of the most effective ways to start a business off on the right foot or save an existing store that’s struggling to make sales. Here’s how to find a niche market, along with nine examples of niche markets and products you can sell to them.More
    Topics: google, business, inspire, product, products, examples, market, idea, finding, audience, specific, niche, ideas.
  • Product Strategy: Defining a Product's Purpose and Plan - Say I'm in the process of developing a new waffle iron. It's going to be capable of perfectly detecting when a waffle is golden brown no matter the volume or thickness of the batter. We're talking about next-level waffle technology. It could be an absolute game-changer, but in this scenario, something goes horribly wrong. 
    Topics: waffle, products, market, purpose, goals, business, target, plan, product, strategy, specific, going, defining.
  • Shipping Strategy: What If I’m Only Shipping Specific Products Internationally? - If some of your products are a fit to ship internationally, and others aren’t, how can you clearly communicate that to avoid customer confusion?More
    Topics: policy, available, shipping, strategy, international, internationally, dont, ship, specific, information, im, customers, product, products.
  • Should Marketers Use Pop-Up Forms? A Comprehensive Analysis - As inbound marketers, we care about creating lovable experiences for our website visitors -- but we also want to generate as many leads as we can for our sales teams. Most of the time we can do both without any problem. But when it comes to pop-up forms, conflict does emerge.
    Topics: forms, dont, visitor, visitors, user, analysis, specific, marketers, page, popups, content, popup, comprehensive.
  • - You’ve spent weeks crafting your website, and it looks great.
    Topics: search, specific, onsite, visitors, site, service, chances, product, secret, simply, google, conversion, team, page, doubling.
  • Social Media Analytics: The Ultimate Guide - With over 4.5 billion social media users across the globe, it's no wonder businesses need to be active on social media to connect with their audience.
    Topics: analytics, data, tools, software, reports, points, ultimate, media, audience, social, specific, guide.
  • Stockly lets e-commerce websites sell out-of-stock items from a shared inventory - Meet Stockly, a French startup that keeps the inventory of various e-commerce websites in sync. When you see an out-of-stock item on an e-commerce website, chances are you leave that website and try to find the same item on another site. If you operate an e-commerce website, Stockly lets you sell items even when they’re […]
    Topics: ecommerce, techcrunch, outofstock, website, startup, thirdparty, sell, items, shared, inventory, supplier, websites, specific, different, stockly, item, lets, various.
  • The Five Types of Utility in Marketing - How do prospective consumers spend their money? What matters to them when they make decisions about how much to spend, where to spend it, and which company earns their business?
    Topics: companies, products, specific, value, consumers, spend, marketing, types, utility, consumer.
  • The New Role of Digital Commerce Platforms - eCommerce continually re-invents itself. While the basic premise remains the same – purchase goods and services online – the techniques and technologies continue to evolve. While we can point to massive industry shifts including mobile adoption, social selling, and online marketplaces when it comes to the architecture of eCommerce platforms, we have seen four distinct waves. Build It In the early days of eCommerce there were no eCommerce platforms or off-the-shelf software to be purchased. Pioneering companies looking to enable online sales were forced to build the entire system in-house from the ground up. This was a highly expensive endeavor as it included everything from a dedicated server room up to the UX customers would interact with. These early companies made the investment to gain a competitive edge, but each company was forced to re-invent the wheel, implementing the same systems and writing the same software. As the number of companies wanting to sell online grew, the market for a standard system became a viable option. Pre-built Software This led to early eCommerce software which could be purchased and implemented to save time and money in bringing sales online. While initially quite simple in functionality these platforms tried to handle all the business’s requirements in a single package. They became larger codebases, encompassed more functionality, and became overly complex forcing retailers to change how they sold their products to comply with the opinions of the pre-built software. As the eCommerce market exploded the set of potential requirements outpaced what a single software solution allowed. This created opportunities for experts on the specific software offerings to create customizations and changes. To improve the customization process, eCommerce software vendors created guides and standard software interfaces allowing for a full ecosystem of plugins, themes, and customizations to be created. This system is what caused the transition from software to platform. Software is a set of instructions that tell a computer what to do.  Most often built as a standalone application that performs specific tasks. A platform, on the other hand, is a hardware or software environment in which a software application can run. It provides the necessary infrastructure and resources for the software to function properly. So, a platform may be the operating system, cloud environment, or server which runs multiple applications. Or in this case an eCommerce solution that can run multiple customizations and plugins to support the specific needs of the business using it. These customizations helped eCommerce software cover a wider range of use-cases but came with significant drawbacks which resulted in many companies choosing to stay with custom built systems or build their solutions from the ground up. These drawbacks included: Expensive development and maintenance by highly paid experts familiar with the platform being used. Upgrade issues with incompatible customizations and plugins. Security risks through low quality plugins or extensions that were poorly designed. Constant maintenance of the plugins and extensions that have been created. Performance issues as the system became more complex with little to no insight on where the issues live, the platform, the theme, or the many different plugins. Lock-in to a specific platform. Lack of flexibility. While these customizations gave more freedom, that freedom was limited to what was possible on the platform. This often resulted in eCommerce websites on a specific platform looking and behaving the same instead of reflecting the brand’s unique identity. Fully Hosted Software originally lived  on-premises (on-prem) where it was installed and run locally on a company’s own servers and hardware. These on-prem offerings were owned, maintained, and managed by the company using them, and required ongoing costs for hardware, maintenance, and IT support. To lower the barrier of entry and running costs, software vendors began offering fully hosted options. Typically referred to as Software as a Service (SaaS), these systems were delivered and accessed over the internet, rather than being installed and run locally. SaaS providers host and maintain the software allowing users to access it via web browser, client software, or API. This model also moved towards a subscription-based pricing model lowering initial costs in exchange for a monthly or annual fee. SaaS solutions are more convenient, cost-effective, and represent the largest segment of eCommerce software today. While all SaaS removes the need to install and manage the software, many vendors repurposed their on-prem software and simply hosted it for their clients in the cloud, a true multi-tenant solution comes with additional benefits. While easier to get started, these offerings still tried to handle all functionality or provide a platform to host any additional requirements. These solutions are known as all-in-one options in that they try to be the single piece of software that does it all. Composable Commerce No software is perfect, and it is impossible to handle every eCommerce requirement, especially as eCommerce has grown in both size and reach. This opened opportunities for smaller vendors to outperform these all-in-one options in a specific field. For example, a SaaS vendor may offer a significantly better search experience, pushing companies to purchase these products even though they are already paying for search functionality in their all-in-one platform. The new search would be so much better that the increase in conversion rate meant it was worthwhile for businesses to pay for search twice. This continued with each individual business function of an eCommerce operation – there was the built-in functionality of the eCommerce platform, but more advanced options serving that specific need. This gave rise to what Gartner coined “composable commerce”. They defined composable commerce as a new approach to building and operating commerce systems. This approach is designed to be more flexible, modular, and scalable than traditional all-in-one monoliths. In a composable commerce system, instead of buying a single platform that does it all, you opt for these focused vendors offering advanced options to handle each individual component. These are then assembled and rearranged to create a custom commerce solution that meets the specific needs of the business.   Several key characteristics of a composable commerce system include: Modularity: The ability to easily add, remove, or replace individual components or microservices. Flexibility: The ability to easily customize and configure the system to meet specific business needs. Scalability: The ability to easily add or remove capacity as needed to meet changing demands. Interoperability: The ability to easily integrate with other systems and platforms. While the shift from custom built to out of the box software and from on-premises to SaaS were slow transitions with many companies choosing not to adopt the change, the move to composable commerce has been swift. The early adopters of composable commerce have seen great lifts in conversion rate and total revenue along with lower costs and complexity. While moving to pre-built software came with trade-offs, saving development cost while losing customization, composable commerce creates both cost savings and brings us back to a bespoke design handling even the most extreme requirements and allowing for brands to fully express themselves in every user experience. This ability to adapt quickly, build exactly what is needed, and delight customers has made this shift a requirement to compete. In fact, Gartner predicts that “by 2023, organizations that have adopted a Composable Commerce approach will outpace the competition by 80%”. Want to learn more about Composable Commerce Essentials? Explore Composable Commerce here The Future of Digital Commerce Platforms With composable commerce being the clear future for companies moving off all-in-one software, away from custom built solutions, and for new companies looking to transact online we need to consider the role of the eCommerce platform. Some experts are now ready to declare the eCommerce platform dead – instead, all solutions will be made up of individual components (Products, Search, Cart, Discounts, etc.) each offered from a different vendor. They believe software companies should focus on building one or a few of these components. A team of developers then combines these to create a unique eCommerce experience. I agree that the all-in-one platform is dead. It does not make sense to rely on a single piece of software to handle every requirement or to rely on a single software vendor to meet every need. I do believe though there is a need for a new type of eCommerce platform, specifically a composable commerce platform. Those pushing for the creation and sale of individual components alone forget an important characteristic of composable commerce: interoperability. Having a team of developers spend months writing code to unify these individual components into a cohesive customer experience is one way to bring the pieces together, but it is not easy. Companies are selling what they call composable commerce but deliver individual pieces and the need for a massive development project. Instead, a true composable commerce platform acts as the center of a composable commerce solution, orchestrating the individual pieces and handling any data movement and integrations, allowing companies true interoperability. Embracing this view of a modern platform, Elastic Path has pioneered composable commerce. Elastic Path Commerce Cloud is the only solution that offers both industry leading components (i.e. PXM) and a robust Integrations Hub allowing for seamless interoperability. The new role of eCommerce platforms is to allow composable commerce to meet its full potential. Removing the need for massive development projects and allowing companies to adopt a composable approach as quickly and easily as an all-in-one SaaS solution. While not yet fully realized, the Elastic Path Integrations Hub, D2C Starter Kit, and Pre-Composed Solutions TM create an amazing ecosystem with the fastest route to a composable commerce implementation. Swapping out components as requirements or the landscape changes is now possible with a few mouse clicks instead of an extensive coding project. While Elastic Path has the first Composable Commerce Platform, expect to see more companies follow in this path as the market continues moving towards composable commerce.  
    Topics: digital, ecommerce, platforms, system, allinone, composable, specific, companies, commerce, role, software, individual, platform.
  • The Plain-English Guide to Local PPC - For the last few weeks, my husband and I have been ordering more takeout than ever. As we were trying to find a restaurant to order from, we came across an online ad for one of our favorite local restaurants that just started offering delivery. We were so excited and immediately placed an order. That's why local pay-per-click (PPC) can be a great option for local businesses.
    Topics: ad, online, plainenglish, extensions, ads, run, youre, specific, ppc, search, local, guide.
  • The Ultimate Guide to Local SEO - Does your business serve a local area? People are searching for you! Show up with seven proven, actionable strategies for local SEO. Top ways to start fast.
    Topics: search, reviews, ultimate, google, location, strategies, ecommerce, seven, guide, website, business, seo, information, specific, local.
  • The elements of a (successful) ecommerce strategy - The importance of an ecommerce strategy is clear. What is not clear is how to develop a good one. Some strategy statements do not provide a lot of direction, such ...
    Topics: start, uswhat, strategy, ecommerce, successful, elements, focus, specific, business, team, policy, projections, problems.
  • Verticalisation: Why Sector Specificity is the Future of MarTech - As marketers become more reliant on their tech stack to ensure efficiency, help them be data-led, and take over some of the heavy-lifting and repetitive day-to-day tasks, the choice of available marketing providers has skyrocketed. Ever cast your eye across Scott Brinker’s Martech Landscape?     When it started out in 2011 there were a casual 150 providers on it - a figure that has ballooned to nearly 7000 this year. As a marketer, the prospect of keeping track of this burgeoning landscape of solutions may be giving you palpitations. Instead of grabbing your magnifying glass to check out the endless possibilities in the infographic above, how about hearing us out on something we think is going to be big in the future of martech: verticalisation.  
    Topics: vertical, providers, provider, martech, sector, marketing, needs, customers, retail, able, specificity, verticalisation, specific, customer, future.
  • What Are Keywords? (and Why You Need to Know How to Find Them) - What do you do when you have a question or want to find something? Quickly. If you’re like most, you open your laptop or unlock your phone, pull up a web browser, and head for the search bar. Once you say or type a few words and hit “enter,” you browse the results until you click on a page that looks promising. After the page loads, lo and behold: the answer you need.
    Topics: content, keywords, know, search, specific, need, rank, ppc, website, seo, marketing, keyword.
  • What Is Demographic Segmentation, & How Do You Do It? - One of the greatest music videos ever made (according to MTV) was released in 1990, winning Best Choreography and the hearts of fans and parody-creators alike: "U Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer. This rap video (and those harem pants) made reverberations that are felt throughout pop culture today. But why am I talking about it on HubSpot's Marketing blog?
    Topics: market, specific, marketing, income, slice, segmentation, personalized, slices, demographic, target.
  • What Is a Direct Response Ad? - What led you to make your most recent purchase? Were you wishing for something for a while and decided to just go for it? Were you casually browsing a store and saw something you liked? Or were you browsing and an advertisement from a business convinced you that you need to buy it right then and there?
    Topics: direct, track, users, marketing, response, specific, ad, action, campaigns, ads, offer.
  • What is a Letter of Intent? How to Write One for a Job [+ Examples] - Standard job applications have a standard set of practices. You turn in a resume and cover letter, and then, if selected, you move through a few rounds of interviews and get the job.
    Topics: job, loi, letter, examples, interest, organization, youre, write, templates, intent, cover, specific.
  • What is a website taxomomy? - While scavenger hunts can be fun, users don't want to frantically search through a website to find answers to their questions. They want them quickly, and they want them to be easy to find.
    Topics: users, website, categories, taxonomy, search, page, taxomomy, site, specific, different, content.
  • Why You Need to Prioritize Direct-To-Consumer Strategies - Direct-to-customer strategies can grow your business exponentially.
    Topics: engine, keywords, specific, strategies, site, set, prioritize, retail, directtoconsumer, search, small, business, marketing, need.
  • Why You Still Need SMS Marketing & How to Get Started [+Data] - The average person spends five to six hours on their phones, while the average smartphone user unlocks their device around 150 times. 
    Topics: consent, specific, message, customer, sms, started, messages, data, contacts, sending, marketing, ensure, need.
  • eCommerce Couponing Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them - Everybody loves coupons – but too many coupons and discounts devalue your brand. When a store overuses coupons, it’s often a sign of an inferior product or a marketing person who’s out of ideas. It can also send the message that you don’t believe in your products, and they’re not worth what you’re charging. The best […]
    Topics: couponing, pitfalls, coupons, customers, reward, avoid, ecommerce, moment, discount, specific, cart, coupon, based, offer.
  • ‘Saying product is available soon is too vague’ - Online retailers aren’t allowed to state a product is available soon’ on a product page. It’s too vague. That’s what the Oberlandesgericht in Munich decided after it reviewed a case against MediaMarkt, which used this phrase to promote the Samsung Galaxy S6. The case against MediaMarkt has been filed by Continue reading
    Topics: delivery, soon, customers, vague, online, saying, specific, case, mediamarkt, product, available.