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Shopify’s latest acquisition gives merchants access to advanced fulfillment tech

Shopify’s latest acquisition gives merchants access to advanced fulfillment tech

Another step closer to Fulfilled By Shopify – with one day delivery standard for many Amazon Prime orders, the service bar for all eCommerce companies keeps rising. For companies using Shopify this provides an alternative to the 20-30% fees associated with FBA, IF you can keep your customers on your site and not buying through Amazon…

 Shopify’s latest acquisition gives merchants access to advanced fulfillment tech

Large Soft Pretzels

Pretzel 9

I like the recipe at Food Network, get it here —Alton Brown Homemade Soft Pretzels

Pretzel 1
A stand mixer is best for these
Pretzel 2
Mix at low
Pretzel 3
until it gets shaggy
Pretzel 4
Switch to medium and mix for 4-5 minutes until smooth
Pretzel 5
Spread out the dough
Pretzel 6
Slice into strips and fold into the traditional pretzel design
Pretzel 7
Boil in baking soda mix for 30 seconds
Pretzel 8
Place on parchment paper, brush with egg yolk and add salt to taste
Pretzel 9
Bake 12-14 minutes until golden brown

Don’t Let Metrics Undermine Your Business

Don’t Let Metrics Undermine Your Business

When you begin managing to the metrics instead of using them to measure your business, you have reversed cause and effect. For instance, a high NPS for your Call Center would be considered a good thing, but what happens when having a high NPS is how reps are rewarded? There is a major incentive for them to waive rules and polices to entice the customer to rate the rep highly…

 Don’t Let Metrics Undermine Your Business

5 Major Takeaways From the 2019 Mary Meeker Internet Trends Report

5 Major Takeaways From the 2019 Mary Meeker Internet Trends Report

Mary Meeker’s annual Internet Trends report is out and it’s showing that e-commerce now accounts for 15 percent of all retail purchases and e-commerce sales are growing by 12.4 percent year over year.

Inc’s take on this “In other words, business owners will want to think seriously about adding an e-commerce platform to their websites. Services like WooCommerce or Shopify can be good places to start.”

I’ve been helping companies with this and it is easier than most businesses think, but does have a lot of moving parts. Expect that it will take 3 – 6 months, depending on number and complexity of products, internal staff availability and overall commitment. Keep in mind that it’s not just the ecommerce cart you need, but a full integration with your accounting software, state sales tax reporting, inventory management, and shipping (determining how to fill retail orders). Third party marketplaces like Amazon and eBay have their advantages and can be quickly integrated as well. CRM and email systems are necessary for follow on success and allow you to be directly in touch with your customers.

5 Major Takeaways From the 2019 Mary Meeker Internet Trends Report

If Likes No Longer Matter on Social Media, Then What Does?

If Likes No Longer Matter on Social Media, Then What Does?

If Likes No Longer Matter on Social Media, Then What Does? Buffer is suggesting that attention is the new engagement metric (and they offer a service to easily measure this). While Likes are an easy signal to see, I’ve always struggled to tie them to sales, so moving to a model where the actual actions of a viewer is measured makes sense to me. I can see developing this into a customer conversion funnel and being able to accurately value each social post. Probably not coincidentally, Instagram looks to be focusing on more ad sales, since ads, which have historically had lower likes, will no longer have this disadvantage.

 If Likes No Longer Matter on Social Media, Then What Does?

6 Tips for Developing a User-Generated Content Mindset

6 Tips

Users find User Generated Content (UGC) very valuable and more authentic than most company generated content or influencers. The biggest issue is how to get it, for which you need a strategy that includes a compelling reason for users to take the time to create and share content. And as a bonus, Google rewards relevant content, which helps close the circle, move you up in search results and put your content in front of more users.

 6 Tips for Developing a User-Generated Content Mindset

Detroit Style Pan Pizza

Detroit Pizza 7

I like the recipe at Serious Eats, get it here —  Detroit-Style Pan Pizza Recipe

If you can\’t find Wisconsin Brick cheese, a block of Monterey Jack works very well too.

Detroit Pizza 1
Although it's in a pan like deep dish Chicago style, the crust goes only on the bottom - the side crust will be made from caramelized cheese.
Detroit Pizza 2
Layer pepperoni directly on the crust
Detroit Pizza 3
Cover with half inch cubed cheese
Detroit Pizza 4
Add Paramesan cheese
Detroit Pizza 5
and another layer of pepperoni
Detroit Pizza 6
Add three stripes of sauce
Detroit Pizza 7
After baking for 12-15 minutes at 550 degrees
Detroit Pizza 8
Ready to slice!
Detroit Pizza 9
There's the crust.

Casting the Dark Web in a New Light

Casting the Dark Web in a New Light

As SaaS grows, it appears that the dark web version of cyberattack-as-a-service (CAaaS) is also developing rapidly. Vendors stand ready to provide all types of services to assist criminals in their attacks, rather than conduct attacks themselves. The article gives as an example “Dream Market, one of the largest dark web marketplaces, where they could purchase a phishing service, along with an SMTP server, to replicate phishing emails, an automated mailer application to send the emails, fraudulent websites, and high-quality email lists of individuals and businesses. The collective cost: around $100 per month.”

 Casting the Dark Web in a New Light

Low mobile page speed scores may be killing your traffic

Low page speed

Slow loading sites are a major annoyance to most users, with surveys showing that between 40 – 50% will abandon a mobile site that takes 3 seconds to load. Google rolled out its Speed Update a year ago with the announced intention of penalizing organic rankings of the slowest mobile websites – results so far are mixed, with some slow sites seeing their search ranks drop, while others continue to place high even with very slow sites. Google did announce that a slow page may still rank highly if it \”has great, relevant content\”.

 Low mobile page speed scores may be killing your traffic

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