BBB Blog

E-Commerce is the buying and selling of goods or services over the internet. Internet sales skyrocketed during the pandemic. Estimations state that by 2023, e-commerce will make up 22% of global retail sales. Your online store operates on the same principles as a physical location. The difference is, your customers can shop from anywhere at any time.

When creating a successful online shopping experience, your site should be easy to navigate, virtually appealing, and optimized for mobile devices. 20 Killer Tips to Create a Successful Online Store Choose a website or e-commerce platform with a simple, streamlined check-out or booking process. Your check-out process shouldn’t be cumbersome. Too many steps or clicks to completion might turn off your customers or lead them to abandon their carts.

Your products and services should include a detailed description to match each listing. Include high-quality images to entice customers. The quality of photography can impact a product’s perceived value. However, it might not be in your budget to hire a professional photographer when you’re just starting. Here are 14 Product Photography Tips to Make You Look Like a Pro to help improve your DIY skills if you decide to be a pro isn’t in your budget.

Pros of E-Commerce:
>An online shop has relatively low overhead compared to a brick and mortar shop
>It operates no staff or set hours so customers can access your business 24/7
>Your reach extends beyond your geographic area
>It is easy to track your sales and shipments
>You are privy to customer data such as email addresses
>It can survive a pandemic
>It is easier to scale up an e-commerce business than a business with physical limitations

Cons of E-Commerce:
>Increased risk of fraudulent activity due to theft and hackers
>Some customers don’t want to shop online. They see it as a loss of personal touch. They want to touch the product, talk to a person, or try on a garment before purchasing. Some may be nervous about using their credit card online or prefer to pay in cash. 
>Increased competition. Depending on your industry you may have multiple competitors with similar products whether it’s polymer clay jewelry, ceramics, or screen printed t-shirts. This is why it is so important to stand out based on the quality of products, great customer service, or your brand’s unique style.
>Costs. No, you don’t have the same overhead as a physical location does but you do have internet costs, website hosting fees, payment processing fees, marketing costs, and packaging and shipping costs.
>Because of Amazon, customers are now programmed to want fast, free shipping.

Thank you for following along with The Big Bad Business Blog. Check out this on demand webinar offered by the Mississippi Small Business Development Center Grow with Google: Sell Online with E-Commerce Tools. Do you have an e-commerce tip that you’d like to share? CLICK HERE to tell us about it and sign up for The Big Bad Business Newsletter!

As an artist, chef, musician, writer, designer, or whatever your amazing skill is, you can offer your paying patrons an exclusive glimpse of content, recipes, poems, or songs that the general public does not have access to. Patreon might be a great way to diversify your revenue doing something you already do, creating content. 

Patreon: The best way for artists and creators to get sustainable income and connect with fans To get started with Patreon, you will need an account. You can set it up through Google, Facebook, or an email address. Then add a profile picture. Use your photo or your logo for your profile. Remember, be consistent with your branding! Add a short description of who you are and what you do. This is a great place to use your one-line USP (unique selling proposition). Go into more details in the about me section. Just remember, your Patreon is part of your brand, be consistent with your brand management!

YAC’s CSA participant, Katie Topberry of Mrs. Hippie’s Baked Goods, utilizes Patreon to connect with her audience. This is what she had to say about the platform:

“I create recipes and share kitchen tips and ideas for my Patreon content. So far, I have just grown my audience by sharing on my social media pages. Patreon is a small addition to my income, but it is nice to know that I always have that to count on. Even a little bit can add up quickly and helps to support my cookbook project. My favorite thing about the Patreon platform is that it allows me to share my recipes and ideas with an audience that values the information and is willing to compensate me for my time and effort. It is an equal energy exchange, which is hard to beat.”

Check out Katie’s culinary creations on Facebook: Mrs. Hippie's Baked Goods - Home

To support the CSA participants CLICK HERE. The Community Supported Artist Exhibit on display now at the Powerhouse, stop by and check it out!

Thank you for following along with The Big Bad Business Blog. CLICK HERE to tell us about your favorite Patreon and sign up for The Big Bad Business Newsletter!

Patreon is a platform in which you, as a creator, create content for a group of fans that pay a monthly subscription to get access to exclusive content. Patreon, in turn, takes a percentage (and transaction fees) from your monthly Patreon income. Patreon offers an additional, recurring revenue stream for your business or creative venture. I know jewelry makers, restaurant consultants, bartenders, and painters who have expanded their revenue stream by going this route.

Taariq David, a cohort of The Lab, answered a few questions regarding his Patreon experience creating content for his partnership culinary collective Hospitality Bruhs:

What kind of content do you create for your Patreon audience? We currently have 3 tiers of content. For $5 a month you get two recipe cards with the Hospitality Bruhs watermark that can be printed out on a 4x6 card. One food recipe and one cocktail recipe. For $10 you get the recipe cards and a video of Sam making the food selection and with me making the cocktail. For $25 you get the recipe cards, the videos, and another video of discussions between the Hospitality Bruhs about various topics connected to the culinary world. 

Does having a Patreon account help your income? It helps a little bit. I feel that we haven't fully taken advantage of the platform, but are working to gain more from it. 

How do you grow your audience? We are working on that. We have been posting on social media to get people to sign up, but most of my success has come from word of mouth. The handsell. 

What is your favorite thing about the Patreon platform? Honestly, just that it exists. And it's really easy to work with and set up. They also offer a lot of free workshops and such that I haven't been taking advantage of, but am going to invest more time into. 

For more details about using Patreon as an artist, musician, writer, or other creative see the article How To Use Patreon: Examples For Artists, Bloggers, and Creators. It breaks down the costs of the different pricing structures to help you decide what works for you or your business. CLICK HERE to tell us about your favorite Patreon and sign up for The Big Bad Business Newsletter!

Brand Loyalty is the tendency of consumers to continue to support one brand over another. If you consistently have customers that follow you, engage with you, and purchase from you over your competition, you have created brand loyalty. Brand loyalty falls into the category of emotional loyalty. There are four levels of loyalty:

• Habitual or Behavioral Loyalty:
• >>This is loyalty of convenience, habit, or daily routine. There is no emotional connection, the customer will swap for a better or more convenient option.
• >>Your neighborhood convenience store is an example of habitual loyalty. It is convenient and on your way home. If you switch routes or move will you continue to use the same convenience store when it is out of your way? Probably not, unless you have emotional loyalty.
• Rational Loyalty:
• >>The loyalty of a smart shopper. This occurs when a customer is committed to a brand for beneficial reasons, such as affordability or extended warranty. They will switch to another brand if they can find a better price or more desirable warranty.
• Transactional Loyalty:
• >>This type of loyalty usually comes with a benefit such as gathering points on purchases or accrual of benefits.
• >>Frequent flyer miles and gas points for groceries (I’m looking at you Kroger), and discount punch cards--spend a certain amount, get a discount on your next purchase--are examples of transactional loyalty.
• >>The goal of transactional loyalty is to get customers hooked and engaged as members of a reward program.
• • Emotional Loyalty:
  • >>This is the most desirable of consumer loyalty, your ride or die customers. Emotional loyalty occurs when customers are emotionally engaged. They believe in the brand. They will advocate for the brand.
  • >>When customers are emotionally loyal they will purchase goods or services regardless of price or convenience factors. They feel connected to a brand.
  • >>Why an Emotional Connection Matters in Loyalty and How to Achieve It
• Is there a brand or artist in town that you feel loyal to? CLICK HERE to tell us about them and sign up for The Big Bad Business Newsletter, bringing business bites to your inbox twice a month!
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Join us Thursday, May 20th at 5:30 for a panel discussion featuring artist Adrienne Brown-David, Tarasque, and End of All Music. These local business owners discuss how they were able to stay successful by pivoting in a pandemic. REGISTER HERE with in person or virtual options.

Adrienne joined us as a part of our Business Bites Video Series. She talks about working from home, being flexible with your schedule, her work processes, and her Instagram one painting a day project. Check out her work at adriennebrown-david.com

Thank you for following along with The Big Bad Business Blog. CLICK HERE to sign up for The Big Bad Business Newsletter!

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO is how search engines rank your business with others based on similar content. Your rank depends on different factors such as design and content. Some hosting providers have built in SEO. It is a main pitch of Squarespace’s marketing. By implementing relevant tactics and practices to your website you can keep your website up to date, link your social media, and can optimize your search engine ranking.

• Keywords-choose keywords that are relevant to your business-what customers might search for online to find you. Research the search keywords to optimize your targeted results. Images and videos uploaded to your site can contain tags and captions embedded in the metadata to take advantage of keywords.
• Regularly updating content to your website or publishing a blog. Link your social media to your website, regularly post fresh content on your social media pages.
• Links-Use internal links to keep users clicking to other pages on your site. Use external links that are applicable to the content of your website and make sense with your content, and external websites that lead to your site.
• Site Speed--You site should have fast loading times on mobile and desktop. Optimize content, images, and videos used should be compressed for fast loading times. Check your loading speed on a free site speed checker such as PageSpeed Insights. 
• Positive online reviews-think Google and Yelp-good reviews improve your SEO. Customer testimonials are also a great way to publish fresh content on your site.
• Having a mobile-friendly website. Most reputable subscriptions based web hosting/content management systems will automatically include a mobile ready site with their templates. This can be tweaked separately from your main desktop site to better fit phones and tablets.
• Install Google Analytics or other webmaster tools on your website. These tools track and analyze your site’s traffic. You can use data to learn about your audience, potential customers, and website visitors. Fun Fact: Google controls the lion's share of the market when it comes to search engines controlling 90% of search engine traffic. 

• Want to go a bit more in depth with videos? Check out One-Hour Guide to SEO - 6 Free Videos, it is a useful one hour video broken into 6 parts. This beginner level video is split into categories and breaks down the different parts of SEO from desktop vs. mobile, keyword research, and how Google shows searchers their results. Section 5 gets a little too technical for most viewers unless you are super into websites, URLs, and technical SEO.

  Thank you for following along with The Big Bad Business Blog. CLICK HERE to sign up for The Big Bad Business Newsletter!