Author: Dailyusastory

Fall 2024 offers a bumper crop of new books aimed at helping ecommerce entrepreneurs and execs. Here are 10 books that provide practical advice for multiple aspects of selling online, from getting started to communicating with partners and customers to selling the company. Most are available in print, digital, and audio. Books for Fall 2024 How to Sell Anything Online: The Ultimate Marketing Playbook to Grow Your Online Business by Anaita Sarkar How to Sell Anything Online Serial entrepreneur Sarkar offers tips and insights that cover all aspects of online selling — content and influencer marketing, search and social media…

Imagine you own a small business that invents an original product. If a copycat comes along and undercuts you, all your hard work goes down the drain and you probably won’t bother trying to invent anything else. Intellectual property law—and patent law in particular—can protect you and mean the difference between profit and a wipeout. Learn more about the most common kind of patent, the utility patent, what it covers, and what you need to do to obtain one. What is a utility patent? Utility patents, sometimes known as patents for inventions, are the most common type of patent in…

After years of legwork, you’ve finally developed the perfect product—but you’re not done yet. Even the greatest products don’t sell themselves. To woo investors with a brave new idea or convince your target audience to click Buy Now, develop stellar product presentation skills and seal the deal. Let’s take a look at what a product presentation is, what a product presentation aims to accomplish, and how to create product presentations that push your product across the finish line. What is a product presentation? A product presentation is the process of sharing your product with an audience—typically existing or potential customers,…

In the Pacific Ocean, there’s a floating heap of garbage twice the size of Texas called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It sounds like a solid island you can stand on, but that’s not quite right. Instead, pieces of plastic smaller than your fingernails float throughout the water column to form a sort of garbage soup. Most of these pieces are microplastics—tiny, broken-down debris left by bags, bottles, straws, caps, and other plastic goods. Plastic is relatively cheap and durable, which explains why it’s everywhere in our supply chain—from utensils to shock absorption devices that protect electronics during shipping. While…

Every day, brands reach out to consumers to forge connections. An athleisure brand might email its subscribers with a 25% off promotion code. A cosmetics company could post a TikTok video demonstrating a dramatic makeup transformation to promote its latest matte eyeshadow collection. An affordable furniture retailer might post an article with tips for small-space living, highlighting how its multifunctional pieces offer clever storage solutions. These are all examples of how consumer marketing aims to speak directly to buyers and nudge them toward a sale. Learn about the benefits of consumer marketing and explore examples from brands that have put…

Small business owners generate and send professional invoices to formalize sales, request payments, and keep records of transaction information. Without professional invoices, your payment tracking and record keeping can suffer, and you risk losing money. The trouble is, making an invoice from scratch can be tricky, especially when you oversee many transactions a day. Thankfully, there are all kinds of tools and apps designed to optimize and automate the invoicing process. Here’s what invoice apps do, how they can improve your business, and a list of the top apps on the Shopify App Store to get you started. What do…

Imagine you hired a new administrative assistant who’s fluent in more than 20 languages, holds more advanced degrees than you can count, and seems to have read everything. They’re also willing to work for a salary you can easily afford. The only problem? They’re completely unreliable up to a quarter of the time. Welcome to the current state of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite being sophisticated technologies and powerful drivers of business growth, today’s AI tools get things wrong regularly. A data analytics startup found AI chatbots make up the facts between 3% and 27% of the time, with these misfires…

For years, familiar credit card logos have dominated ecommerce checkout screens. Recent studies, however, suggest that pay-by-bank and other alternative payment methods may gradually overtake Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover. I discussed these findings with U.S. and European analysts. Javelin is a global strategy and research firm focused on payments, digital banking, and security. A Javelin report titled “2024 Emerging Trends and Predictions: Emerging Payments Technology,” published in November 2023, placed card-brand challenges in the same bucket as generative AI and digital identity: three trends to impact consumers. Researchers predicted that new options would unseat default-to-card payment methods, particularly…

With the internet at your fingertips, it’s easier than ever to search and compare product prices and features. All the more reason for your business to offer product comparison visualizations to give your customers the information they need at a quick glance. Learn how to use product comparisons to increase customer loyalty and reduce bounce rates on your website. What is a product comparison table? A product comparison table is a basic spreadsheet that stacks similar products, with the products listed as columns and the product’s key features or attributes (e.g., battery life, price, size) listed in rows. Also known…

Reaching out to people you don’t know can feel daunting, but the potential benefit of meeting new clients, partners, or mentors can outweigh the risks. For example, in a Shopify Masters podcast episode, entrepreneur Nadya Okamoto shares how she sent a cold email to a successful creative director and got valuable advice on brand design for her period care company, August. Whether you’re looking for partners, employees, or clients for your new business (or simply need some advice from an experienced entrepreneur), a good cold email can lead to important new connections. What is a cold email? A cold email…