As a company, Amazon booked record revenues of $386 billion in 2020, while its stock price appreciated 74%. Those weren’t its only impressive numbers, however. Its U.S. ad revenue last year grew to $15.7 billion, up an eye-popping 52.5% from 2019. Now here’s a little quiz about 2021: Who will be the leading share gainer...
More often than not, we tend to think of entrepreneurship and leadership as synonymous qualities. Entrepreneurs are expected to break new ground, be innovative, start something new. It only stands to reason they would naturally take charge of what they’ve created and lead it. However, it turns out that the required skills of an effective entrepreneur are almost entirely different from the required skills of an effective
Thousands of years ago, a guy named Aristotle had lots of ideas about everything from religion and ethics to medicine and science. He also happened to be a very persuasive speaker — so persuasive that his teachings still shape the way we think about the world today. But what does this all have to do...
The Onion jokes that Jeff Bezos’s advice to anyone starting a business is to “remember that someday I will crush you.” We nervously laugh because it feels a little too close to reality. When Amazon announced it was acquiring Whole Foods, the entire grocery industry quaked. Amazon is the company you don’t want to list...
Can you recognize this handsome devil? If you’ve ever been scrolling down your news feed and caught site of the gold-pooping unicorn video, you’ll recognize this long-haired prince from the ads for Squatty Potty. (If not, don’t worry! I embedded it under their section below just for you.) People remember him (and the product) because...
Rethinking the Customer Journey: How Ecommerce Companies Can Take Control of the Full Customer Experience The way we think about marketing, sales, and service is changing. In fact, things have already changed. For most online businesses–and especially ecommerce companies–the path to purchase is not linear. Very few customers land on your homepage, click onto your...
Can website speed really make a difference to your bottom line? It can, and in more ways than one. E-commerce is growing by leaps and bounds. According to Shopify, global retail e-commerce sales will reach $4.5 trillion by 2021. Image credit: Shopify That is a big pie, and website speed is one factor that will determine...
I hate work. To some extent, we all do. But I don’t hate my job, and sometimes my passion pushes me to work a lot harder and longer than I usually like to. Other times, circumstances do. In either case, pulling 80- or even 100-hour workweeks sucks beyond description. And while I’m not proud of it...
You’ve built a profitable ecommerce business — your shop is running smoothly, your fulfillment process has been optimized, and you finally have some time to think about how to scale. So where do you start? What’s the most important area to focus in on when you’re trying to develop new strategies, set new budgets, and...
Don’t worry – this isn’t a political post. It has nothing to do with Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, or the 2016 Presidential Election Fiasco. As you scale your business, the question that inevitably rears its head is, “Am I the right person to be the president of this company?” Sometimes the answer is yes and...
