#Scaling Ecommerce Business

[devynmerkies]

This Marketing Tactic 10X’d My ECommerce Business (No BS)

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[astranovaai]

 How AI Chatbots Are Changing the Real Estate Customer Experience

 How AI Chatbots Are Changing the Real Estate Customer Experience

In today’s fast-paced digital world, the real estate industry is evolving rapidly, and the expectations of buyers, sellers, and renters are changing along with it. As customers demand faster responses and more personalized services, real estate professionals are turning to AI Chatbots to enhance the customer experience. By leveraging AI Automation, real estate agents and companies can provide seamless, 24/7 support, gather leads more effectively, and offer a customized experience that meets the needs of modern buyers and sellers.

In this blog, we will explore how AI Chatbots in Real Estate are transforming the way customers interact with agents, properties, and services. We'll dive into the benefits of AI chatbots, how they work, and how they are revolutionizing customer interactions in the real estate industry. Whether you’re a real estate agent looking to improve your service offerings or a property manager exploring automation, this blog will help you understand the power of AI chatbots.

 Why AI Chatbots Are Essential for Real Estate

As the demand for faster, more personalized customer service grows, real estate agents face the challenge of balancing multiple inquiries while staying competitive. Traditional methods of client communication, like phone calls or email, often lead to delayed responses and missed opportunities. This is where AI chatbots come in to offer a solution.

1. 24/7 Availability and Instant Responses

   One of the key advantages of AI Chatbots is their ability to provide Instant Responses to customer inquiries at any time of the day. Whether a potential buyer is browsing properties late at night or a renter needs urgent information, an AI-powered chatbot can respond immediately, eliminating wait times and ensuring no query goes unanswered. This 24/7 availability gives real estate agencies a competitive edge, as customers no longer need to wait for business hours to get the information they need.

   - Example: A potential buyer visits a real estate website at midnight and asks about the availability of a property. The AI chatbot can instantly provide details, schedule a virtual tour, or even forward the lead to an agent for follow-up during business hours.

2. Lead Qualification and Nurturing

  AI chatbots play a crucial role in Lead Generation and Qualification. Instead of relying on agents to manually gather information from website visitors, chatbots can ask qualifying questions to determine if a lead is serious about purchasing or renting a property. This saves agents time by filtering out casual inquiries and focusing on high-quality leads that are ready to engage.

   Chatbots can also nurture these leads by sending automated follow-ups and providing valuable information, such as similar property listings, market trends, or financing options. Over time, this automation builds trust with potential buyers or sellers, increasing the likelihood of conversion.

   - Example: When a visitor shows interest in a property, the AI chatbot asks questions like, "What is your budget?" or "Are you looking to buy or rent?" Based on their responses, the chatbot can provide relevant listings and direct high-quality leads to an agent for further engagement.

3. Personalized Customer Experience

   One of the most exciting features of AI Chatbots in Real Estate is their ability to provide a Personalized Customer Experience. By using data from previous interactions, chatbots can tailor their responses to each user. Whether a buyer prefers certain neighborhoods or specific property types, the chatbot can suggest relevant listings that match their preferences, making the customer journey smoother and more enjoyable.

   Moreover, AI chatbots can remember customer preferences and provide personalized follow-up messages, ensuring the client feels valued and understood throughout the buying or renting process.

   - Example: A returning visitor who previously expressed interest in apartments in a specific area will receive personalized suggestions based on new listings in that location, creating a seamless, tailored experience.

 4. Virtual Property Tours and Scheduling

   AI chatbots are not limited to answering questions; they can also help schedule virtual or in-person property tours. With virtual tour options becoming increasingly popular, chatbots can assist customers by providing links to 360-degree virtual tours or setting up appointments for live tours with agents.

   This feature enhances the Real Estate Customer Experience, especially for international buyers or those looking for properties remotely. The ability to instantly schedule a tour through a chatbot without human intervention speeds up the process, helping clients make faster decisions.

   - Example: A chatbot asks a potential buyer if they’d like to schedule a property tour and offers available times. Once the buyer selects a time, the chatbot sends a calendar invite and confirmation.

5. Multilingual Capabilities

   Real estate businesses often serve clients from diverse linguistic backgrounds. **AI chatbots** equipped with multilingual capabilities can communicate with potential clients in their preferred language, breaking down language barriers and making the process more accessible.

   This feature is especially beneficial for agencies working with international clients or in multicultural areas, as it enables seamless communication and ensures that no potential lead is lost due to language difficulties.

   - Example: An AI chatbot can switch between languages based on the user’s preferences, allowing a non-English speaking buyer to inquire about properties and receive detailed responses in their native language.

6. AI Chatbots and Real Estate Marketing

   In addition to improving customer service, AI chatbots are revolutionizing Real Estate Marketing. By collecting data from interactions, chatbots can provide insights into customer preferences, which agents can use to tailor marketing campaigns. For instance, if a chatbot notices an increasing number of inquiries for properties in a particular area, it can alert agents to focus marketing efforts there.

   Chatbots can also integrate with social media platforms, responding to inquiries on Facebook Messenger, Instagram, or WhatsApp, providing real-time responses across multiple channels, which enhances visibility and engagement.

   - Example: A chatbot integrated with Facebook Messenger answers a user's inquiry about a new listing, and based on the conversation, the agent tailors their next marketing email to include similar properties in the same area.

Challenges of Implementing AI Chatbots in Real Estate

While the benefits of AI chatbots in real estate are substantial, there are also challenges to consider:

- Initial Setup Costs: Implementing AI chatbots can involve upfront investment in development, especially if customized features are needed. However, the long-term savings and increased efficiency typically outweigh these costs.

- Human Touch vs. Automation: Some clients may prefer interacting with a human agent, especially for more complex queries. It's essential to strike the right balance between automation and human interaction.

- Data Privacy Concerns: Real estate agents and businesses must ensure that AI chatbots comply with data privacy regulations, as they often handle sensitive customer information.

Conclusion: Transforming Real Estate with AI Chatbots

AI chatbots are revolutionizing the real estate customer experience by providing instant responses, qualifying leads, and delivering personalized service. They offer 24/7 support, ensuring that no opportunity is missed, and help agents focus on closing deals with serious clients. While there are some challenges, the benefits far outweigh them, making AI chatbots a valuable tool for real estate agents looking to enhance customer interactions and grow their business.

As a real estate professional, embracing AI Automation  will set you apart from competitors and improve your efficiency. If you're ready to take your real estate business to the next level with AI chatbots, contact us for a Free AI Audit to discover how we can tailor AI solutions to meet your specific needs.

Key Takeaways:

- AI chatbots provide 24/7 customer support, improving the client experience.

- They help qualify leads, allowing agents to focus on serious inquiries.

- Personalization and multilingual capabilities enhance customer satisfaction.

- AI chatbots streamline virtual tour scheduling and integrate with real estate marketing efforts.

Call to Action: Ready to revolutionize your real estate customer experience with AI chatbots? Contact Us today for a free consultation and AI audit tailored to your business needs.

Contact Us Today For A Free AI Audit.

[champstorymedia]

The Evolution of E-Commerce: Key Trends to Watch in 2024

E-commerce has come a long way since its inception, transforming the way consumers shop and how businesses operate. As we approach 2024, it is vital to examine the evolution of e-commerce and identify key trends that are shaping its future. This article delves into the significant shifts in the e-commerce landscape and highlights what businesses and consumers can expect in the coming year. The…

[abduinnovations]

Unlock the Future of Print on Demand with Printify! 🚀

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[rubixstudios]

Adding Products to Your Business Website Whether your business should add products to its website or delegate tasks to web developers is a critical decision. This article explores the pros and cons of both approaches, helping you choose the best fit for your company’s needs. Adding Products to Your Business Website

[webgarh]

Unlock the secrets to e-commerce success with our strategic guide. Learn how to build and scale your online store effectively, from product selection to marketing strategies. Master the marketplace with expert tips and insights.

[moneywiseavenue]

Scaling a dropshipping business is an exciting step for any entrepreneur. It means that the business is growing and it's time to take it to the next level.

[exeggcute]

the great reddit API meltdown of '23, or: this was always bound to happen

there's a lot of press about what's going on with reddit right now (app shutdowns, subreddit blackouts, the CEO continually putting his foot in his mouth), but I haven't seen as much stuff talking about how reddit got into this situation to begin with. so as a certified non-expert and Context Enjoyer I thought it might be helpful to lay things out as I understand them—a high-level view, surveying the whole landscape—in the wonderful world of startups, IPOs, and extremely angry users.

disclaimer that I am not a founder or VC (lmao), have yet to work at a company with a successful IPO, and am not a reddit employee or third-party reddit developer or even a subreddit moderator. I do work at a startup, know my way around an API or two, and have spent twelve regrettable years on reddit itself. which is to say that I make no promises of infallibility, but I hope you'll at least find all this interesting.

profit now or profit later

before you can really get into reddit as reddit, it helps to know a bit about startups (of which reddit is one). and before I launch into that, let me share my Three Types Of Websites framework, which is basically just a mental model about financial incentives that's helped me contextualize some of this stuff.

(1) website/software that does not exist to make money: relatively rare, for a variety of reasons, among them that it costs money to build and maintain a website in the first place. wikipedia is the evergreen example, although even wikipedia's been subject to criticism for how the wikimedia foundation pays out its employees and all that fun nonprofit stuff. what's important here is that even when making money is not the goal, money itself is still a factor, whether it's solicited via donations or it's just one guy paying out of pocket to host a hobby site. but websites in this category do, generally, offer free, no-strings-attached experiences to their users.

(I do want push back against the retrospective nostalgia of "everything on the internet used to be this way" because I don't think that was ever really true—look at AOL, the dotcom boom, the rise of banner ads. I distinctly remember that neopets had multiple corporate sponsors, including a cookie crisp-themed flash game. yahoo bought geocities for $3.6 billion; money's always been trading hands, obvious or not. it's indisputable that the internet is simply different now than it was ten or twenty years ago, and that monetization models themselves have largely changed as well (I have thoughts about this as it relates to web 1.0 vs web 2.0 and their associated costs/scale/etc.), but I think the only time people weren't trying to squeeze the internet for all the dimes it can offer was when the internet was first conceived as a tool for national defense.)

(2) website/software that exists to make money now: the type that requires the least explanation. mostly non-startup apps and services, including any random ecommerce storefront, mobile apps that cost three bucks to download, an MMO with a recurring subscription, or even a news website that runs banner ads and/or offers paid subscriptions. in most (but not all) cases, the "make money now" part is obvious, so these things don't feel free to us as users, even to the extent that they might have watered-down free versions or limited access free trials. no one's shocked when WoW offers another paid expansion packs because WoW's been around for two decades and has explicitly been trying to make money that whole time.

(3) website/software that exists to make money later: this is the fun one, and more common than you'd think. "make money later" is more or less the entire startup business model—I'll get into that in the next section—and is deployed with the expectation that you will make money at some point, but not always by means as obvious as "selling WoW expansions for forty bucks a pop."

companies in this category tend to have two closely entwined characteristics: they prioritize growth above all else, regardless of whether this growth is profitable in any way (now, or sometimes, ever), and they do this by offering users really cool and awesome shit at little to no cost (or, if not for free, then at least at a significant loss to the company).

so from a user perspective, these things either seem free or far cheaper than their competitors. but of course websites and software and apps and [blank]-as-a-service tools cost money to build and maintain, and that money has to come from somewhere, and the people supplying that money, generally, expect to get it back...

just not immediately.

startups, VCs, IPOs, and you

here's the extremely condensed "did NOT go to harvard business school" version of how a startup works:

(1) you have a cool idea.

(2) you convince some venture capitalists (also known as VCs) that your idea is cool. if they see the potential in what you're pitching, they'll give you money in exchange for partial ownership of your company—which means that if/when the company starts trading its stock publicly, these investors will own X numbers of shares that they can sell at any time. in other words, you get free money now (and you'll likely seek multiple "rounds" of investors over the years to sustain your company), but with the explicit expectations that these investors will get their payoff later, assuming you don't crash and burn before that happens.

during this phase, you want to do anything in your power to make your company appealing to investors so you can attract more of them and raise funds as needed. because you are definitely not bringing in the necessary revenue to offset operating costs by yourself.

it's also worth nothing that this is less about projecting the long-term profitability of your company than it's about its perceived profitability—i.e., VCs want to put their money behind a company that other people will also have confidence in, because that's what makes stock valuable, and VCs are in it for stock prices.

(3) there are two non-exclusive win conditions for your startup: you can get acquired, and you can have an IPO (also referred to as "going public"). these are often called "exit scenarios" and they benefit VCs and founders, as well as some employees. it's also possible for a company to get acquired, possibly even more than once, and then later go public.

acquisition: sell the whole damn thing to someone else. there are a million ways this can happen, some better than others, but in many cases this means anyone with ownership of the company (which includes both investors and employees who hold stock options) get their stock bought out by the acquiring company and end up with cash in hand. in varying amounts, of course. sometimes the founders walk away, sometimes the employees get laid off, but not always.

IPO: short for "initial public offering," this is when the company starts trading its stocks publicly, which means anyone who wants to can start buying that company's stock, which really means that VCs (and employees with stock options) can turn that hypothetical money into real money by selling their company stock to interested buyers.

drawing from that, companies don't go for an IPO until they think their stock will actually be worth something (or else what's the point?)—specifically, worth more than the amount of money that investors poured into it. The Powers That Be will speculate about a company's IPO potential way ahead of time, which is where you'll hear stuff about companies who have an estimated IPO evaluation of (to pull a completely random example) $10B. actually I lied, that was not a random example, that was reddit's valuation back in 2021 lol. but a valuation is basically just "how much will people be interested in our stock?"

as such, in the time leading up to an IPO, it's really really important to do everything you can to make your company seem like a good investment (which is how you get stock prices up), usually by making the company's numbers look good. but! if you plan on cashing out, the long-term effects of your decisions aren't top of mind here. remember, the industry lingo is "exit scenario."

if all of this seems like a good short-term strategy for companies and their VCs, but an unsustainable model for anyone who's buying those stocks during the IPO, that's because it often is.

also worth noting that it's possible for a company to be technically unprofitable as a business (meaning their costs outstrip their revenue) and still trade enormously well on the stock market; uber is the perennial example of this. to the people who make money solely off of buying and selling stock, it literally does not matter that the actual rideshare model isn't netting any income—people think the stock is valuable, so it's valuable.

this is also why, for example, elon musk is richer than god: if he were only the CEO of tesla, the money he'd make from selling mediocre cars would be (comparatively, lol) minimal. but he's also one of tesla's angel investors, which means he holds a shitload of tesla stock, and tesla's stock has performed well since their IPO a decade ago (despite recent dips)—even if tesla itself has never been a huge moneymaker, public faith in the company's eventual success has kept them trading at high levels. granted, this also means most of musk's wealth is hypothetical and not liquid; if TSLA dropped to nothing, so would the value of all the stock he holds (and his net work with it).

what's an API, anyway?

to move in an entirely different direction: we can't get into reddit's API debacle without understanding what an API itself is.

an API (short for "application programming interface," not that it really matters) is a series of code instructions that independent developers can use to plug their shit into someone else's shit. like a series of tin cans on strings between two kids' treehouses, but for sending and receiving data.

APIs work by yoinking data directly from a company's servers instead of displaying anything visually to users. so I could use reddit's API to build my own app that takes the day's top r/AITA post and transcribes it into pig latin: my app is a bunch of lines of code, and some of those lines of code fetch data from reddit (and then transcribe that data into pig latin), and then my app displays the content to anyone who wants to see it, not reddit itself. as far as reddit is concerned, no additional human beings laid eyeballs on that r/AITA post, and reddit never had a chance to serve ads alongside the pig-latinized content in my app. (put a pin in this part—it'll be relevant later.)

but at its core, an API is really a type of protocol, which encompasses a broad category of formats and business models and so on. some APIs are completely free to use, like how anyone can build a discord bot (but you still have to host it yourself). some companies offer free APIs to third-party developers can build their own plugins, and then the company and the third-party dev split the profit on those plugins. some APIs have a free tier for hobbyists and a paid tier for big professional projects (like every weather API ever, lol). some APIs are strictly paid services because the API itself is the company's core offering.

reddit's financial foundations

okay thanks for sticking with me. I promise we're almost ready to be almost ready to talk about the current backlash.

reddit has always been a startup's startup from day one: its founders created the site after attending a startup incubator (which is basically a summer camp run by VCs) with the successful goal of creating a financially successful site. backed by that delicious y combinator money, reddit got acquired by conde nast only a year or two after its creation, which netted its founders a couple million each. this was back in like, 2006 by the way. in the time since that acquisition, reddit's gone through a bunch of additional funding rounds, including from big-name investors like a16z, peter thiel (yes, that guy), sam altman (yes, also that guy), sequoia, fidelity, and tencent. crunchbase says that they've raised a total of $1.3B in investor backing.

in all this time, reddit has never been a public company, or, strictly speaking, profitable.

APIs and third-party apps

reddit has offered free API access for basically as long as it's had a public API—remember, as a "make money later" company, their primary goal is growth, which means attracting as many users as possible to the platform. so letting anyone build an app or widget is (or really, was) in line with that goal.

as such, third-party reddit apps have been around forever. by third-party apps, I mean apps that use the reddit API to display actual reddit content in an unofficial wrapper. iirc reddit didn't even have an official mobile app until semi-recently, so many of these third-party mobile apps in particular just sprung up to meet an unmet need, and they've kept a small but dedicated userbase ever since. some people also prefer the user experience of the unofficial apps, especially since they offer extra settings to customize what you're seeing and few to no ads (and any ads these apps do display are to the benefit of the third-party developers, not reddit itself.)

(let me add this preemptively: one solution I've seen proposed to the paid API backlash is that reddit should have third-party developers display reddit's ads in those third-party apps, but this isn't really possible or advisable due to boring adtech reasons I won't inflict on you here. source: just trust me bro)

in addition to mobile apps, there are also third-party tools that don’t replace the Official Reddit Viewing Experience but do offer auxiliary features like being able to mass-delete your post history, tools that make the site more accessible to people who use screen readers, and tools that help moderators of subreddits moderate more easily. not to mention a small army of reddit bots like u/AutoWikibot or u/RemindMebot (and then the bots that tally the number of people who reply to bot comments with “good bot” or “bad bot).

the number of people who use third-party apps is relatively small, but they arguably comprise some of reddit’s most dedicated users, which means that third-party apps are important to the people who keep reddit running and the people who supply reddit with high-quality content.

unpaid moderators and user-generated content

so reddit is sort of two things: reddit is a platform, but it’s also a community.

the platform is all the unsexy (or, if you like python, sexy) stuff under the hood that actually makes the damn thing work. this is what the company spends money building and maintaining and "owns." the community is all the stuff that happens on the platform: posts, people, petty squabbles. so the platform is where the content lives, but ultimately the content is the reason people use reddit—no one’s like “yeah, I spend time on here because the backend framework really impressed me."

and all of this content is supplied by users, which is not unique among social media platforms, but the content is also managed by users, which is. paid employees do not govern subreddits; unpaid volunteers do. and moderation is the only thing that keeps reddit even remotely tolerable—without someone to remove spam, ban annoying users, and (god willing) enforce rules against abuse and hate speech, a subreddit loses its appeal and therefore its users. not dissimilar to the situation we’re seeing play out at twitter, except at twitter it was the loss of paid moderators;  reddit is arguably in a more precarious position because they could lose this unpaid labor at any moment, and as an already-unprofitable company they absolutely cannot afford to implement paid labor as a substitute.

oh yeah? spell "IPO" backwards

so here we are, June 2023, and reddit is licking its lips in anticipation of a long-fabled IPO. which means it’s time to start fluffing themselves up for investors by cutting costs (yay, layoffs!) and seeking new avenues of profit, however small.

this brings us to the current controversy: reddit announced a new API pricing plan that more or less prevents anyone from using it for free.

from reddit's perspective, the ostensible benefits of charging for API access are twofold: first, there's direct profit to be made off of the developers who (may or may not) pay several thousand dollars a month to use it, and second, cutting off unsanctioned third-party mobile apps (possibly) funnels those apps' users back into the official reddit mobile app. and since users on third-party apps reap the benefit of reddit's site architecture (and hosting, and development, and all the other expenses the site itself incurs) without “earning” money for reddit by generating ad impressions, there’s a financial incentive at work here: even if only a small percentage of people use third-party apps, getting them to use the official app instead translates to increased ad revenue, however marginal.

(also worth mentioning that chatGPT and other LLMs were trained via tools that used reddit's API to scrape post and content data, and now that openAI is reaping the profits of that training without giving reddit any kickbacks, reddit probably wants to prevent repeats of this from happening in the future. if you want to train the next LLM, it's gonna cost you.)

of course, these changes only benefit reddit if they actually increase the company’s revenue and perceived value/growth—which is hard to do when your users (who are also the people who supply the content for other users to engage with, who are also the people who moderate your communities and make them fun to participate in) get really fucking pissed and threaten to walk.

pricing shenanigans

under the new API pricing plan, third-party developers are suddenly facing steep costs to maintain the apps and tools they’ve built.

most paid APIs are priced by volume: basically, the more data you send and receive, the more money it costs. so if your third-party app has a lot of users, you’ll have to make more API requests to fetch content for those users, and your app becomes more expensive to maintain. (this isn’t an issue if the tool you’re building also turns a profit, but most third-party reddit apps make little, if any, money.)

which is why, even though third-party apps capture a relatively small portion of reddit’s users, the developer of a popular third-party app called apollo recently learned that it would cost them about $20 million a year to keep the app running. and apollo actually offers some paid features (for extra in-app features independent of what reddit offers), but nowhere near enough to break even on those API costs.

so apollo, any many apps like it, were suddenly unable to keep their doors open under the new API pricing model and announced that they'd be forced to shut down.

backlash, blackout

plenty has been said already about the current subreddit blackouts—in like, official news outlets and everything—so this might be the least interesting section of my whole post lol. the short version is that enough redditors got pissed enough that they collectively decided to take subreddits “offline” in protest, either by making them read-only or making them completely inaccessible. their goal was to send a message, and that message was "if you piss us off and we bail, here's what reddit's gonna be like: a ghost town."

but, you may ask, if third-party apps only captured a small number of users in the first place, how was the backlash strong enough to result in a near-sitewide blackout? well, two reasons:

first and foremost, since moderators in particular are fond of third-party tools, and since moderators wield outsized power (as both the people who keep your site more or less civil, and as the people who can take a subreddit offline if they feel like it), it’s in your best interests to keep them happy. especially since they don’t get paid to do this job in the first place, won’t keep doing it if it gets too hard, and essentially have nothing to lose by stepping down.

then, to a lesser extent, the non-moderator users on third-party apps tend to be Power Users who’ve been on reddit since its inception, and as such likely supply a disproportionate amount of the high-quality content for other users to see (and for ads to be served alongside). if you drive away those users, you’re effectively kneecapping your overall site traffic (which is bad for Growth) and reducing the number/value of any ad impressions you can serve (which is bad for revenue).

also a secret third reason, which is that even people who use the official apps have no stake in a potential IPO, can smell the general unfairness of this whole situation, and would enjoy the schadenfreude of investors getting fucked over. not to mention that reddit’s current CEO has made a complete ass of himself and now everyone hates him and wants to see him suffer personally.

(granted, it seems like reddit may acquiesce slightly and grant free API access to a select set of moderation/accessibility tools, but at this point it comes across as an empty gesture.)

"later" is now "now"

TL;DR: this whole thing is a combination of many factors, specifically reddit being intensely user-driven and self-governed, but also a high-traffic site that costs a lot of money to run (why they willingly decided to start hosting video a few years back is beyond me...), while also being angled as a public stock market offering in the very near future. to some extent I understand why reddit’s CEO doubled down on the changes—he wants to look strong for investors—but he’s also made a fool of himself and cast a shadow of uncertainty onto reddit’s future, not to mention the PR nightmare surrounding all of this. and since arguably the most important thing in an IPO is how much faith people have in your company, I honestly think reddit would’ve fared better if they hadn’t gone nuclear with the API changes in the first place.

that said, I also think it’s a mistake to assume that reddit care (or needs to care) about its users in any meaningful way, or at least not as more than means to an end. if reddit shuts down in three years, but all of the people sitting on stock options right now cashed out at $120/share and escaped unscathed... that’s a success story! you got your money! VCs want to recoup their investment—they don’t care about longevity (at least not after they’re gone), user experience, or even sustained profit. those were never the forces driving them, because these were never the ultimate metrics of their success.

and to be clear: this isn’t unique to reddit. this is how pretty much all startups operate.

I talked about the difference between “make money now” companies and “make money later” companies, and what we’re experiencing is the painful transition from “later” to “now.” as users, this change is almost invisible until it’s already happened—it’s like a rug we didn’t even know existed gets pulled out from under us.

the pre-IPO honeymoon phase is awesome as a user, because companies have no expectation of profit, only growth. if you can rely on VC money to stay afloat, your only concern is building a user base, not squeezing a profit out of them. and to do that, you offer cool shit at a loss: everything’s chocolate and flowers and quarterly reports about the number of signups you’re getting!

...until you reach a critical mass of users, VCs want to cash in, and to prepare for that IPO leadership starts thinking of ways to make the website (appear) profitable and implements a bunch of shit that makes users go “wait, what?”

I also touched on this earlier, but I want to reiterate a bit here: I think the myth of the benign non-monetized internet of yore is exactly that—a myth. what has changed are the specific market factors behind these websites, and their scale, and the means by which they attempt to monetize their services and/or make their services look attractive to investors, and so from a user perspective things feel worse because the specific ways we’re getting squeezed have evolved. maybe they are even worse, at least in the ways that matter. but I’m also increasingly less surprised when this occurs, because making money is and has always been the goal for all of these ventures, regardless of how they try to do so.

[riturathiblog]

“Scaling Your E-Commerce Empire: How to Grow Your Dropshipping Business”

[shopivanawebsitebuilder]

Industry Experts’ Top Tips For Scaling Your Ecommerce Business

The e-commerce sector is seeing tremendous growth, so if you've already created an e-commerce website, you're already considering how to expand it to its maximum potential.

A modest, reliable retailer may develop into a significant online brand by scaling an e-commerce operation. However, you must be sure you have a strong foundation before considering increasing your e-commerce firm. Before considering growing, you must first ensure your website, customer support, and product quality are solid.

The good news is that the scale to which you may expand your eCommerce business is unrestricted if you have faith in the fundamentals of your company.

In this post, we'll look at industry experts’ top picks of tips on how to start an online business that scales to get the best outcomes.

Growing Vs. Scaling A Business

You may grow your company by expanding your company's resources—such as employees, product offerings, or capital expenditures—at the same pace as your sales. The income earned will be balanced by spending money on resources to increase sales. In this instance, the company has expanded in size but may not have turned a profit.

Scaling, however, refers to increasing income with little or no resources. Therefore, you would see a rise in revenue with constant overhead in this scenario.

The following are some top tips by industry experts to scale your online business

1. Look For Product Possibilities And Decide What To Sell

Knowing what goods you want to offer directly to consumers is the first step in creating an online business. The most challenging element of launching a new internet company is often this. This part will discuss how to uncover product possibilities, where to get the most pleasing product inspiration, and popular e-commerce items to look at.

2. Completely Investigate Your Rivals And Create A Business Strategy

You've zeroed down on a product, conducted preliminary market research, and found a potential vendor. However, before you can take on your competition, you must learn about them as much as possible. To differentiate your business from the competition and how to do so.

3. Develop A Marketing Plan

If no one knows your company even exists, you'll never be able to expand and scale your online business, which is why developing a successful marketing plan is crucial.

No one marketing approach works for all businesses, but there are undoubtedly important areas you may concentrate on that are likely to be successful.

4. Spend Money On Automation

When it comes to scaling your eCommerce business, you must invest in automation if you're serious about growing your company. You can use CRM, software, advanced analytics tools, and eCommerce website builders such as Shopivana.

To cut down on the number of person-hours you need to spend on routine chores, this entails outsourcing part of your present daily duties to automation providers.

Repricing, obtaining feedback, and customer assistance are all services you may automate.

It frees up your time to concentrate on other business-related responsibilities by automating some of the repetitive chores.

Additionally, when your company expands, you'll probably discover that there aren't enough hours in the day for you or even a crew of employees to do everything. 

5. Offer Top-Notch Customer Care 

While automating customer support using chatbots may often be a good move as your company expands, it shouldn't come at the expense of the customer support you provide.

Even if your items are excellent but if your customer service is terrible, people won't buy from you again or tell their friends about you.

Maintaining client satisfaction is crucial, and ensuring the human touch is present during the customer support process guarantees you're giving them the most outstanding experience possible.

To provide consumers with the most comprehensive support possible, we suggest combining automated services like chatbots for straightforward and commonly requested questions with live chat and telephone contact alternatives.

6. Contract Out Fulfillment

You will need to discontinue self-fulfilling orders as your firm grows.

When you initially start selling online, it could be doable to package and send each item individually. But as your company expands and the volume of orders rises, it will become more difficult for you to stay up.

We advise working with a fulfillment business to handle your products' handling, packing, and shipping.

If you're attempting to keep overhead costs low, the first expenditure could come as a shock, but it's an investment that will enable you to expand tenfold. In other words, you'll quickly recoup your investment.

7. Make Your Website Better

If you want to grow your company, the platform you use to sell your goods—your e-commerce website or a marketplace like Amazon or Etsy—is essential. To create a website, you must set up your website through an automation website builder like Shopivana.

It helps you to boost your business by 4x. Ensuring your website is friendly and attractive is crucial since first impressions matter. 

An excellent user experience is also crucial. Customers should be able to explore your website quickly and discover what they need without having to contend with intrusive pop-up ads or lengthy load times.

8. Make Your Market Strategy More Effective

You will have a lot of competition if you choose to sell your goods in a marketplace. On well-known online stores like Amazon, eBay, and Etsy, thousands of independent vendors are vying for customers.

Therefore, you'll need to stay on top of your market strategy to expand your firm effectively.

This entails routinely comparing consumer feedback to your rivals while also analyzing your pricing, product line, and delivery costs.

You must give prospective clients a compelling argument to choose you above other sellers.

9. Consult Customer Testimonials

Online purchases, unlike in-person purchases, prevent you from seeing the item in person before making a decision.

That explains why many shoppers read product reviews before making a purchase.

As a result, gathering evaluations has become a crucial component of the customer experience, and making them easily accessible might aid in accelerating your development.

The last push a person needs to make a purchase is often a positive review.

Trust is a significant element in persuading prospective consumers to purchase, which you may foster with your audience by displaying customer evaluations.

Conclusion

So, when you are looking at how to scale your eCommerce business, setting wise business objectives and devoting time and energy to achieving them are also necessary for growing your e-commerce firm.

The necessary actions to take if you're serious about growing your e-commerce firm are:

Develop a marketing plan.

Use a free website builder.

Finance Automation

Deliver top-notch client service

Delegate fulfillment

Clean up your webpage

Improve your market-based tactics

Use consumer reviews

Try out these strategies and let us know in the comments how you get on. There's no better time than the present to start scaling your eCommerce business.

[mariacallous]

In 2023, the fast-fashion giant Shein was everywhere. Crisscrossing the globe, airplanes ferried small packages of its ultra-cheap clothing from thousands of suppliers to tens of millions of customer mailboxes in 150 countries. Influencers’ “#sheinhaul” videos advertised the company’s trendy styles on social media, garnering billions of views.

At every step, data was created, collected, and analyzed. To manage all this information, the fast fashion industry has begun embracing emerging AI technologies. Shein uses proprietary machine-learning applications — essentially, pattern-identification algorithms — to measure customer preferences in real time and predict demand, which it then services with an ultra-fast supply chain.

As AI makes the business of churning out affordable, on-trend clothing faster than ever, Shein is among the brands under increasing pressure to become more sustainable, too. The company has pledged to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 25 percent by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions no later than 2050.

But climate advocates and researchers say the company’s lightning-fast manufacturing practices and online-only business model are inherently emissions-heavy — and that the use of AI software to catalyze these operations could be cranking up its emissions. Those concerns were amplified by Shein’s third annual sustainability report, released late last month, which showed the company nearly doubled its carbon dioxide emissions between 2022 and 2023.

“AI enables fast fashion to become the ultra-fast fashion industry, Shein and Temu being the fore-leaders of this,” said Sage Lenier, the executive director of Sustainable and Just Future, a climate nonprofit. “They quite literally could not exist without AI.” (Temu is a rapidly rising ecommerce titan, with a marketplace of goods that rival Shein’s in variety, price, and sales.)

In the 12 years since Shein was founded, it has become known for its uniquely prolific manufacturing, which reportedly generated over $30 billion of revenue for the company in 2023. Although estimates vary, a new Shein design may take as little as 10 days to become a garment, and up to 10,000 items are added to the site each day. The company reportedly offers as many as 600,000 items for sale at any given time with an average price tag of roughly $10. (Shein declined to confirm or deny these reported numbers.) One market analysis found that 44 percent of Gen Zers in the United States buy at least one item from Shein every month.

That scale translates into massive environmental impacts. According to the company’s sustainability report, Shein emitted 16.7 million total metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2023 — more than what four coal power plants spew out in a year. The company has also come under fire for textile waste, high levels of microplastic pollution, and exploitative labor practices. According to the report, polyester — a synthetic textile known for shedding microplastics into the environment — makes up 76 percent of its total fabrics, and only 6 percent of that polyester is recycled.

And a recent investigation found that factory workers at Shein suppliers regularly work 75-hour weeks, over a year after the company pledged to improve working conditions within its supply chain. Although Shein’s sustainability report indicates that labor conditions are improving, it also shows that in third-party audits of over 3,000 suppliers and subcontractors, 71 percent received a score of C or lower on the company’s grade scale of A to E — mediocre at best.

Machine learning plays an important role in Shein’s business model. Although Peter Pernot-Day, Shein’s head of global strategy and corporate affairs, told Business Insider last August that AI was not central to its operations, he indicated otherwise during a presentation at a retail conference at the beginning of this year.

“We are using machine-learning technologies to accurately predict demand in a way that we think is cutting edge,” he said. Pernot-Day told the audience that all of Shein’s 5,400 suppliers have access to an AI software platform that gives them updates on customer preferences, and they change what they’re producing to match it in real time.

“This means we can produce very few copies of each garment,” he said. “It means we waste very little and have very little inventory waste.” On average, the company says it stocks between 100 to 200 copies of each item — a stark contrast with more conventional fast-fashion brands, which typically produce thousands of each item per season, and try to anticipate trends months in advance. Shein calls its model “on-demand,” while a technology analyst who spoke to Vox in 2021 called it “real-time” retail.

At the conference, Pernot-Day also indicated that the technology helps the company pick up on “micro trends” that customers want to wear. “We can detect that, and we can act on that in a way that I think we’ve really pioneered,” he said. A designer who filed a recent class action lawsuit in a New York District Court alleges that the company’s AI market analysis tools are used in an “industrial-scale scheme of systematic, digital copyright infringement of the work of small designers and artists,” that scrapes designs off the internet and sends them directly to factories for production.

In an emailed statement to Grist, a Shein spokesperson reiterated Peter Pernot-Day’s assertion that technology allows the company to reduce waste and increase efficiency and suggested that the company’s increased emissions in 2023 were attributable to booming business. “We do not see growth as antithetical to sustainability,” the spokesperson said.

An analysis of Shein’s sustainability report by the Business of Fashion, a trade publication, found that last year, the company’s emissions rose at almost double the rate of its revenue — making Shein the highest-emitting company in the fashion industry. By comparison, Zara’s emissions rose half as much as its revenue. For other industry titans, such as H&M and Nike, sales grew while emissions fell from the year before.

Shein’s emissions are especially high because of its reliance on air shipping, said Sheng Lu, a professor of fashion and apparel studies at the University of Delaware. “AI has wide applications in the fashion industry. It’s not necessarily that AI is bad,” Lu said. “The problem is the essence of Shein’s particular business model.”

Other major brands ship items overseas in bulk, prefer ocean shipping for its lower cost, and have suppliers and warehouses in a large number of countries, which cuts down on the distances that items need to travel to consumers.

According to the company’s sustainability report, 38 percent of Shein’s climate footprint comes from transportation between its facilities and to customers, and another 61 percent come from other parts of its supply chain. Although the company is based in Singapore and has suppliers in a handful of countries, the majority of its garments are produced in China and are mailed out by air in individually addressed packages to customers. In July, the company sent about 900,000 of these to the US every day.

Shein’s spokesperson told Grist that the company is developing a decarbonization road map to address the footprint of its supply chain. Recently, the company has increased the amount of inventory it stores in US warehouses, allowing it to offer American customers quicker delivery times, and increased its use of cargo ships, which are more carbon-efficient than cargo planes.

“Controlling the carbon emissions in the fashion industry is a really complex process,” Lu said, adding that many brands use AI to make their operations more efficient. “It really depends on how you use AI.”

There is research that indicates using certain AI technologies could help companies become more sustainable. “It’s the missing piece,” said Shahriar Akter, an associate dean of business and law at the University of Wollongong in Australia. In May, Akter and his colleagues published a study finding that when fast-fashion suppliers used AI data management software to comply with big brands’ sustainability goals, those companies were more profitable and emitted less. A key use of this technology, Atker says, is to closely monitor environmental impacts, such as pollution and emissions. “This kind of tracking was not available before AI-based tools,” he said.

Shein told Grist it does not use machine-learning data management software to track emissions, which is one of the uses of AI included in Akter’s study. But the company’s much-touted usage of machine-learning software to predict demand and reduce waste is another of the uses of AI included in the research.

Regardless, the company has a long way to go before meeting its goals. Grist calculated that the emissions Shein reportedly saved in 2023 — with measures such as providing its suppliers with solar panels and opting for ocean shipping — amounted to about 3 percent of the company’s total carbon emissions for the year.

Lenier, from Sustainable and Just Future, believes there is no ethical use of AI in the fast-fashion industry. She said that the largely unregulated technology allows brands to intensify their harmful impacts on workers and the environment. “The folks who work in fast-fashion factories are now under an incredible amount of pressure to turn out even more, even faster,” she said.

Lenier and Lu both believe that the key to a more sustainable fashion industry is convincing customers to buy less. Lu said if companies use AI to boost their sales without changing their unsustainable practices, their climate footprints will also grow accordingly. “It’s the overall effect of being able to offer more market-popular items and encourage consumers to purchase more than in the past,” he said. “Of course, the overall carbon impact will be higher.”

[notfinancialadvice]

# atty rambles about wordpress

this is a tag I am creating because I am chewing hard on this bone and it is a weird stress reliever

as is this blog in general

SHOPIFY BLOG VERSUS WORDPRESS STORE

WordPress Store

WordPress can host (reasonably well) an ecommerce store. Via WooCommerce (their main system), Shopify's "here is a button" system, and/or countless other things.

WordPress does blogging very, very, very effectively at a very, very low cost. Pick a host, press a few buttons, you have a wordpress blog. Depending on the host, but for almost all of them, 99.9% of your maintenance will be handled for you.

The issue is less "an issue" and more "reality" in that a WordPress store is not a store, and so between 50% - 95% of the "store mechanics" are not in the box -- they have to be built, designed, written, maintained.

"Thank you for your order!" pages -- etc. there are ten billion tiny gears to a shop -- all have to be built. Maintained. Etc.

Shopify Blog

Shopify can handle the store mechanics very well. If your needs are specific and/or huge, you'll probably struggle, but to be blunt, at that level you are a medium-sized business (my opinion) and should be looking into a more bespoke system anyway. Either using Shopify as a backbone and/or something unique.

I am explicitly talking about thousands of products and hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales.

If you are not at that level, it (probably) can do everything (almost everything) you need it to do for somewhere between a few hundred and several hundred dollars very well-to-extremely-well.

Except. Blogging.

There is a limit of authors to users on your account, you cannot easily access or sort backend metadata (but you can create it, I say, interestingly enough, I say, angerily).

Tags, no categories, also difficult to sort.

Your ability to sort tags is brutally elementary. As is designing specific templates (tags, author, etc.)

It is an extremely weak system.

I think this is one of the reasons why art shops tend to be... difficult... to build and maintain.

Before there was social media (fuck I'm getting gray) there were blogs and webrings -- these still exist of course but not nearly in scope or scale.

Social media is "blog, public, in a forum" -- so it allows art shops etc. to replace / augment (let's be honest... replace) blogging, which has allowed ecommerce platforms the ability to ignore blogging as a platform to construct and flesh out.

My suggestion is WordPress (or someone else) replace Shopify's blogging system with a native structure

I would be willing to pay a huge chunk of cash for this. I hate Shopify's blogging system, it is so weak. I do not want to maintain a billion things on my own, so I am not interested in using blog-shop-structure.

I am fleshing out the Post's blog on Shopify's system anyway because it is the best possible of uncomfortable choices.

I am aware of all of the Shopify blogging apps. They are paint on a house that needs to be rebuilt.

[nikitadasssw]

Our website development services in Bhayander are tailored to help businesses establish an impactful online presence. From custom websites, WordPress Development -based solutions, or full eCommerce platforms – whether custom built from the ground up – or full scale eCommerce platforms with WooCommerce integration, our end-to-end development tailored exactly to your requirements is here for you.

Web design agency in Bhayander

[e-commercereblate]

How Alice Walton Became the Wealthiest Woman in the World as Walmart’s Owner

Watch how Alice Walton, the heir to Walmart's fortune, became the world's richest woman. Learn about her career, impact on the retail business, and significant contributions to art and philanthropy.

Alice Walton, the only daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, has long been a prominent figure in business. As of 2024, she is the world's richest woman, with a net worth exceeding $65 billion. However, her rise to this position is more than just the result of inheriting a retail empire. Alice Walton's journey illustrates her enormous impact on business and culture, particularly her commitment to philanthropy and the arts.

The Walton Family Legacy

Walmart, founded in 1962 by Sam Walton, transformed the retail business by committing to giving daily cheap costs. It swiftly became one of the world's largest retail organizations, having over 10,000 locations in 24 countries. Alice Walton was born into this legacy, acquiring a large amount of the company's riches after her father died in 1992.

While her brothers, Rob and Jim Walton, rose to leadership positions at Walmart, Alice's interests took a different path—one that would not only solidify her position in the world's wealth rankings but also establish her as a cultural and charitable figure.

Her Journey to Wealth

Although Alice Walton was not directly involved in Walmart's day-to-day operations, her income increased as the company grew. Walmart's relentless expansion, combined with strategic investments and innovations in retail, e-commerce, and logistics, has kept it at the top of the worldwide market. As the company's stock price rose, so did Walton's personal wealth.

Yet, Alice Walton's recent ascension to the rank of the world's richest woman can be credited to her strategic money management. She has diversified her wealth by investing in energy, real estate, and finance. Unlike many heirs to large fortunes, Walton has taken an active role in ensuring that her money is not just kept but increased.

Beyond Business: Alice Walton's Impact on Art and Philanthropy.

What genuinely distinguishes Alice Walton from many of the world's wealthiest persons is her strong devotion to philanthropy, particularly in the arts. Walton, a lifetime art lover, used most of her riches to construct the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in her hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas.

The museum opened in 2011 and has since become one of the most important cultural institutions in the United States, featuring works by iconic American painters such as Norman Rockwell, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Andy Warhol. Walton's interest in art extends beyond just collecting; she has worked to make art more accessible to a wider audience, ensuring that many works are available for free public viewing.

In addition to her contributions to the arts, Alice Walton has sponsored various humanitarian projects. She has spent billions of dollars through the Walton Family Foundation on education, environmental sustainability, and social welfare initiatives. Her dedication to enhancing the quality of life for individuals and communities all around the world exemplifies her vision of wealth as a force for good.

Alice Walton’s Future: What Does the Future Hold?

Alice Walton, the world's richest woman, continues to utilize her fortune and influence to support causes that are important to her. Her primary focus is on broadening the reach of the arts, funding innovative educational programs, and promoting measures that encourage sustainable development.

Recently, she has been an outspoken supporter of expanding healthcare access, particularly in marginalized populations. In 2020, she founded The Whole wellness Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to combining mental, physical, and emotional wellness. This effort exemplifies Walton's forward-thinking approach as she strives for a more holistic model of healthcare in the United States.

Conclusion

Alice Walton's rise to become the world's richest woman reflects not only Walmart's success but also her distinct vision for using wealth to benefit society. Her life is an encouraging example of how financial success and cultural and humanitarian activities may have a long-term impact on the world.

Reblate Solutions believes in recognizing those who use their power to effect positive change. Alice Walton is an excellent example of such a leader—one whose riches have benefited businesses, cultures, and communities alike.

Tags: Alice Walton, World’s Richest Woman, Walmart, Business Success, Philanthropy, Art, Crystal Bridges Museum, Walton Family Foundation, Reblate Solutions

[rokonuzzamanseo]

🎯 eCommerce Excellence Unleashed in Just 32 Days!

The clock was ticking, the stakes were high, and the vision was clear. Today, we’re excited to announce the successful launch of yurei works state-of-the-art eCommerce platform — delivered in a record-breaking 32 days!

🚀This isn’t just a website; it’s a growth engine, meticulously crafted to deliver exceptional shopping experiences and drive business success.

Key Milestones Achieved:

✨ Customer-Centric Design: Sleek, intuitive, and conversion-focused UI/UX that captivates customers at first glance.

✨ Mobile-First Optimization: Built for today’s on-the-go shoppers, ensuring lightning-fast performance across devices.

✨ Scalable Architecture: Ready to grow as yurei works grows, with future-proof tech integrations.

✨ Robust Security: Secure payments and data protection that build trust and loyalty.

✨ Advanced Analytics Integration: Empowering data-driven decisions to maximize ROI.

How Did We Do It?

🔗 Collaborative Partnership — Our close alignment with yurei works allowed us to move quickly and confidently.

🛠️ Tech Innovation — Leveraging cutting-edge tools and agile processes for unparalleled efficiency. 💡 Relentless Focus — Prioritizing what matters most: speed, quality, and customer impact.

This achievement is a powerful reminder of what’s possible when innovation meets execution. To yurei works, thank you for entrusting us with your vision. To our team, your talent and dedication made the impossible look easy.

The question is simple for businesses looking to scale their online presence:

What could we build together in the next 32 days?

Let’s connect and create something remarkable.

#eCommerce #Innovation #WebsiteLaunch #BusinessGrowth #DigitalTransformation