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July 10, 2019

Cloud SMBs Are Younger, Focused on Growth, Opportunity

As part of our recently released Modern Commerce Monitor™️, we developed something we call the Cloud-Based Services Buyer Index. The index offers a measurement of the characteristics that typify a small business moving into the cloud vs. a business that is more resistant to the shift. We’ve said many times that the generational shift taking…

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July 10, 2019

Forecasts: SMBs Driving Global Ad Growth, Local Revs to Hit $149 Billion

Ad revenue growth is slowing. The major forecasting firms have revised their global growth predictions for 2019 downward compared to 2018. Consensus estimates put digital ad revenues at or near 50% this year. And local revenues (including traditional media) are expected to reach $149 billion according to BIA Advisory Services (formerly BIA/Kelsey). Zenith, part of…

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July 9, 2019

Is Shopify’s Dual Business Model the Future?

As we posted a couple of weeks ago, Shopify is on a tear. In that post, we said that we’d cover the launch of their fulfillment network and discuss the company’s revenue mix. So here goes. At its investor event earlier this summer, the company announced plans for its new fulfillment network. Bloomberg reported that…

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July 9, 2019

Has Voice Search Stalled?

Amazon Prime Day is next week — it’s actually already underway — and the company will be pushing its various Alexa devices hard. Aggressive discounts and bundling will drive hundreds of thousands of sales of smart speakers, displays and smart home gadgets. Google will counter with discounts on Nest/Home products too. Then will come the…

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July 8, 2019

A Day in the Tech Life of an SMB, Pt. II

Last week we shared the first in the video series that we’re calling “A Day in the Tech Life”. The premise is simple. We visit small businesses and ask them to describe how they use technology to run their businesses. And in some cases, they tell us why they choose not to use any software…

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July 8, 2019

Survey: Most SMBs Spend 2 Unhappy Years of Marriage with SEO Provider

A recent survey of 1,200 US small business owners and decision-makers from Backlinko found high expectations of SEO providers and widespread dissatisfaction — only 30% would recommend their current providers. There was also evidence some confusion about SEO services and what they can accomplish. The findings showed that the average monthly spend on SEO services…

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July 3, 2019

A Day in the Tech Life of an SMB, Pt. I

During the weeks leading up to the LSA’s recent LOCALOGY:ENGAGE event in Washington, I spent a few afternoons visiting Chicago-area small businesses with a videographer to try and capture some stories that might illustrate the themes addressed in our Modern Commerce Monitor SMB survey research. We shared the videos at the event during those interstitial…

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July 3, 2019

Most DTC Brands Will Need an Offline Presence to Succeed

The hottest segment in retail is direct-to-consumer (DTC). In fact, reputation management platform Yotpo has almost completely repositioned as a technology provider for the DTC market. Most people are familiar with at least some DTC brands: Glossier, Everlane, Allbirds, Warby Parker, Leesa, Casper, Bonobos, Away and so on. While it’s not true that 100% of…

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July 2, 2019

Upserve’s Aggressive Move to Capture Market Share

Yesterday, we wrote a post based on some data and analysis we were pointed to about how Square has used a promotion to drive adoption of its Cash App. Today, we stumbled upon a promotion by restaurant SaaS company UpServe. The company is offering restaurant owners $2,000 and zero interest financing to replace their existing…

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July 2, 2019

How Do Small Businesses Benefit from Cloud Adoption?

We recently shared an article on the cloud accounting firm Xero’s plans to focus its growth efforts on North America, where it sees more upside than in its home markets of Australia and New Zealand. One nugget (sourced to the Small Business Administration) cited in the article was that small businesses that adopt cloud technology…

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