On a weekly report I got this morning, the word “churn” came up several times. Sorry Paula Deen fans, we’re not making our own sweet cream butter here, we’re talking about “churn” as in loss of customers. In business it’s one of the seven words you never want to hear during the weekly meeting. What [...]

In case you don’t know, or just don’t care… today is Free Shipping Day. Did you feel that bit of excitement pulse through your body as I read that? No? Ok, we’re on the same page then. On the heels of Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, today is the day when a [...]

When Gordon Ramsay walks into your restaurant with the crew from Kitchen Nightmares, more than likely he’s a little too late. I’m sure you’ve seen at least one episode of the reality show where failing restaurant owners call upon the bombastic Chef Ramsay for one last shot at saving their sinking ship. Unfortunately, most of [...]

Like you, I got a butt-load of email promoting Cyber Monday sales. Some from stores I buy from, others from companies who just like to spam people. Being a big sales day, I would expect that merchants would take the time to make the Cyber Monday email blast the most compelling, best dressed email of [...]

At Thanksgiving dinner, my sister-in-law proudly proclaimed that she was going home to sleep so she could start shopping at midnight. It was at that point where I knew some type of intervention would be needed to snap her back to reality. But, there was no hope. She had her sights set on what she [...]

With only a few hours left until the holiday shopping season shifts into high gear, I have to ask…. are you ready? No, I mean are you really ready? Here are some things that I thought of that maybe you haven’t in regards to getting your operation ready for the mad rush. Customer Service: Adjust [...]

What are you doing for your shoppers on Cyber Monday? Please don’t tell me, “I’m not doing anything. Why should I cut into my profit margin when people are going to buy from me anyway.” That is an actual quote from an eCommerce store owner I talked to the other day. She followed it up [...]

The bank America loves to hate got another slap in the face, although this time it wasn’t over debit card fees. Shortly after Google announced that businesses could have a Google+ page, which is the equivalent of a Facebook Business Page, some scallywag jumped Bank of America’s claim and created an unflattering – yet amusing [...]

Is it me or does it seem like Christmas really does start in July? When I worked in radio, we started playing the Christmas music on Thanksgiving day, and then it was only one song an hour. Now radio stations across the country are queuing up “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” before [...]

I do a lot of things on my iPhone, but shopping isn’t one of them. That all changed when the company eCommerce store owners love to hate – Amazon.com – introduced their iPhone and iPad app. Being one of the curious, I installed it, it sat on my phone for a while taking up space, [...]