#there are. a surprising amount of them for sale on the walmart website
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did y'all know that you can buy caskets from walmart? cuz i did not. but now that i do, i keep getting ads for them
#there are. a surprising amount of them for sale on the walmart website#🎶if i die young bury me in satin lay me down in a walmart casket🎶#irl#just r's thoughts
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The Greatest Guides To Get No-Cost Amazon Gift Codes No Human Verification 2017
We're always looking for methods to boost our bottom line. One way we do that is to prevent pay top dollar, and to get advantage of all of the easy ways you can find to get free Amazon Gift cards. Why spend top dollar for something when you can get on the web and get a free of charge Amazon surprise code? I've been trying out a number of websites previously couple of years that ask you to accomplish points to be able to make free Amazon gift card codes. Some websites may ask you to shop through their site to be able to make Amazon surprise cards. Others may question you to fill out surveys, or sign up free of charge services. However the others will question you to publish opinions, or send other people to their service. What all of them have in keeping is that they are willing to pay you in free Amazon present cards. I understand these sites perform because I've applied all them to at least one degree or another. Take a look at my Amazon bill after a recent circular of surprise card articles!
Finding Free Amazon Gift Card Codes
A lot of people are looking for free amazon surprise cards, or free gift cards in general. Only look at a number of the high size search terms I discovered when studying this topic while publishing this information: For many of the keywords I found, over 100,000 people are looking for these matters in confirmed month on Google. Many others had countless amounts exploring: Amazon gift cards are good since you need to use them to buy almost anything you want, from clothes, food and toiletries, to cameras, telephones and televisions. They're easy, variable and almost as good as cash. The truth that individuals are seeking to locate techniques for getting these surprise cards free of charge is not any huge surprise. So the issue is, where may you obtain free Amazon present card rules quickly, with the least level of trouble? Let us have a look.
Places To Get A Free Amazon Gift Card Fast
There are a thousand and one areas where you can get free Amazon gift cards, but the ones I've outlined below are a few of the best. Why are they the most effective? They deliver the free Amazon surprise rules rapidly. They enable you to redeem for free gift cards and never having to generate too much (Some web sites have a higher money ceiling to receive a payout.). They are genuine internet sites which will actually pay out. They're maybe not a fraud and won't make you hanging. So without more ado, below are a few of my personal favorite sites and companies that will spend you in free Amazon gift cards.
Free Amazon Gift Card Codes At Swagbucks (And A $5 Bonus)
I've been using Swagbucks for all years to be able to generate free Amazon surprise cards via their site. So how exactly does it function? Just register for Swagbucks free of charge, then earn SB factors for addressing surveys, seeing movies, shopping online and more. Then you're able to redeem your SB details for free Amazon surprise cards, or gift cards from Target, Walmart, Star-bucks and more. You may also get money obligations via PayPal or Credit prize cards. The nice issue with Swagbucks is that they might need you to obtain a relatively minimal 300 points in order to get yourself a $3 Amazon present card, while a number of other web sites need you to earn enough to obtain $10 or $20 price of gift cards before redeeming. Amazon surprise cards usually move on sale at Swagbucks as well, and are available for a lowered position rate. Due to this I'll usually save my details until I see a present card on sale, and have more for my points. Obtain a $5 bonus only for signing up for Swagbucks through our link once you make 2,500 SB factors within the initial 60 days. Get to Swagbucks (Get Your $5 Bonus)
Free Amazon Gift Cards From Personal Capital (A $20 Bonus)
Particular Capital is just a free financial software that enables you track your complete economic condition from assets and debts, to expense accounts and home values. I have been applying Personal Capital myself for quite a while now and enjoy it. It is an important element of supporting me to produce my economic plan. Read our whole Particular Money review here. Whenever you subscribe for the free bill with Particular Money through our url below they're offering a free $20 Amazon gift card. All you have to complete is url at least one valid expense bill (brokerage, 401k, IRA, etc) comprising a balance in excess of $1000 within 30 days of registering. That shouldn't be described as a problem for some people. It's an easy free $20 Amazon surprise card!
Free Amazon Gift Cards From Ibotta (And A $10 Bonus)
Ibotta is a money straight back and rewards app for the Android or iOS device. Once you sign up and open the software, you'll see a variety of available income right back presents at shops you are shopping at anyhow, equally in-store and online. Just how I put it to use would be to just enter the app before I go out to the keep, and look at the available presents for the keep I'm going to. If they have a cash right back present available for something I need, I'll include that provide to my account. When you get house from the keep, you just have a image of your bill, and you'll receive the money included with your account simply speaking order. You can almost always find an offer to take advantage of because they often have cash back for such things as “any brand butter” or “any brand milk&rdquo ;.Occasionally they actually keep these things for only “any item”, in order to almost always save your self money. You can get a $10 bonus just for signing up for Ibotta through our link and activating your first provide within 15 days of signing up. Piece of cake – you will end up losing money if you do not subscribe! You like money, correct?
Free Amazon Gift Cards From Honey
Darling is a visitor extension that lets you save money with no energy whenever you shop on the web by instantly applying all their known coupon codes when you're examining out. Additionally, it can help you to save money by enabling you to check always the cost trend of Amazon things, therefore you will see if them is currently priced high or low. If it's high you can add it to your “droplist” and be notified when the price dates back down. To get free Amazon gift cards with Honey you certainly can do several things. First, you can just trigger a “Honey Gold” looking session often through their visitor extension, or through their website when searching online. When you do and you end up purchasing something, you'll make Baby Gold factors which can then be redeemed for Amazon surprise cards. Yet another way to generate details is always to send other users. You'll receive 500 items for each called user. After you have achieved 1000 Darling Silver items you have the ability to redeem the items for a $10 Amazon surprise card. You can even redeem your points for other present cards including Target, Walmart and others.
Free Gift Cards From WikiBuy
Similar to Baby, WikiBuy is really a visitor extension that you mount in Opera or Firefox and it helps you to find a very good coupon code, the most effective price, and alerts when issues you viewed carry on sale. Furthermore you can store on line through their site and get cash straight back breaks that can then be redeemed for surprise cards. The Opera expansion will even quick you allow cash right back for sites when it's available. You can even make credits by referring different users. When some one you introduced signs up and makes a obtain, you'll receive $5 in loans! When you've received enough breaks by mentioning different people or buying, only go with their website and click on the “redeem” tab. There you are able to redeem your credits for any number of available surprise cards. The final function I like when using the expansion is when you're buying on Amazon it will show you when you're able to discover exactly the same item for less on still another website. It will place a key as possible click and it'll take you to a full page where you are able to see decrease prices on that product, and wherever it's located. Very helpful.
Free Amazon Gift Cards From Drop App
The Drop application helps it be super an easy task to generate Amazon present cards, in fact I had a $5 present card delivered to my e-mail within a few minutes of signing up. So how can it function? First, you will need to get the software to your phone. Then, just url your credit or debit card to your new account. Then you can certainly view income straight back presents within the software at many different stores like Goal, Most useful Buy, Walmart and more. Make the most of the shopping presents in the app and buy utilizing your joined card. You can even complete surveys and do other projects to get bonus points. When you use the application to look and do other responsibilities you'll generate factors which are excellent towards a lot of different rewards, certainly one of which will be an Amazon present card. Read Full Story 10 Ways To Get Free Amazon Gift Card Codes
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Have you ever been to a concert? Yeah. I’ve been to about 6. What’s your favorite grocery store? We do our grocery shopping at Walmart. Do you still sleep with a stuffed animal? I have a few that sit on my bed. Has anyone ever wolf-whistled at you? No. Have you ever gotten a ticket for speeding? No. That was a joke I got often; though, as someone in a wheelchair. I can’t tell you how many times I heard that.
How do you feel about the last person you hugged? She’s my mom and I love her with all of my heart. She is what keeps me going. Have you ever had a member of the opposite sex in your room? Yeah. What’s the last thing you said on AIM/MSN/etc? I have no idea. I haven’t used AIM since like 2009. Where did you get your favorite piece of clothing? I don’t know what I’d choose as my favorite. I obviously like all my clothes, which is why I keep them. Do you like garage sales? No. What’s the best part about history class? I wouldn’t say there’s a “best” part. Yogurt on fruit, or whipped cream? Neither. Can you speak spanish? Very little. Would you like to go to Italy? Sure. Do you enjoy public speaking? Noooooo. Have you ever been in a car accident? No. Have you ever been chased by any sort of animal? Only playfully. What’s the last thing you got a cut from? I don’t recall. What eye color does the person who you last had a sleepover have? I haven’t had a sleepover in several years. What about the eye color of the last person you laughed with? Brown. Do you like the way you look? No. Do you forgive people too easily? I do. Whose the last person to make you cry? It was life and health stuff that last made me cry. Do you like mexican food? Yeah. Do your grandparents live in the same city as you? Nope. They live in another state. Was the last book you read good? Yes. Do you know who Peter Griffin is? Yes. What about Glen Quagmire? Yes, they’re from Family Guy. Pen or pencil? Pen. Has anyone surprised you in the past week? No. Was it a good surprise or a bad one? Is prom coming up for you? Do you already know what you’re wearing to it? My prom was back in 2008. Have you ever seen your best friend without any pants on? Yeah. Have you ever seen someone so drunk they passed out? No. Isn’t it just PAINFUL to get up at 7am to go to school? It was. Do you own a lot of DVDs? Not a lot, but a decent amount. Have you ever made a will? Actually, yes. It was an assignment for a class I had in college. Do you watch the Star Wars movies? I do. Did you get anything for Valentine’s day? My mom got me a couple stuffed animals. Whose birthday is coming up? One of my cousin’s. Do you have any friends who you secretly dislike? No. Do you gossip? Yeah, but my gossip is more of the celebrity gossip kind. Have you ever written anything mean about someone on a bathroom wall? No. Has anyone ever written anything mean about you on a bathroom wall? Not that I’m aware of. Have you ever lied about something really serious? Yes. Have you ever hid something from the people close to you? Yes. What shoes do you usually wear? Adidas. Where did you get them? They were a Christmas present. Have you ever worn a pair of bright colored pants? Yeah, I used to have a pair of yellow skinny jeans. Do you currently like someone who doesn’t know you exist? Alexander Skarsgard, ha. Do you wear hats? Yeah. What’s the weather like where you are? Cold. It’s supposed to rain all night and tomorrow. What is the last thing you ate? A banana bread muffin. Do you smoke cigarettes? No. Does anyone close to you do drugs? Not anyone in my immediate family, but some of my extended family members do. Have you ever seen snow? Yes. Do you go shopping often? No. Are you friends Am I friends? Do you like the smell of flowers? Some. What’s your favorite website to go on? Tumblr, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. Is your locker messy? I don’t have one. Do you have a full length mirror in your bedroom? I do. Do you eat meat? Yes. When is the last time you colored? This afternoon. What’s the last question you asked? “Should I put my order in, yet?” referring to my food order online.
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New Post has been published on https://vacationsoup.com/reef-safe-sunscreens/
Why Reef Safe Sunscreens Are Important To Hawaii
When traveling to Kauai, or any other Hawaiian island, be sure to pack some reef safe sunscreens in your checked luggage. In July, 2018, Hawaii became the first state in the United States to ban the sale of sunscreen containing the coral-harming chemicals oxybenzone and octinoxate. The new law goes into effect January 1, 2021, but many residents and visitors alike are already doing their best to be environmentally conscience.
Oxybenzone and octinoxate are not the only ingredients deemed to be potentially harmful to aquatic life, but according to several studies, they do contribute to coral bleaching. When coral bleaches, it is not dead, but under significant stress and subject to increased mortality levels. According to the National Park Service, 14,000 tons of sunscreen enter coral reefs every year. These two chemicals are believed to be one of the contributing factors to the coral reef destruction.
So, what does this mean to visitors?
As of now, the ban affects only the sell and distribution of sunscreens with these ingredients within the state but does not ban visitors from bringing them into the state. Given the reasons behind the law, however, please consider buying some reef safe sunscreens at home to bring with you or wait until you reach the islands to purchase one of these products. I am guessing that many of the major sunscreen brands will make adjustments to their ingredients list in order to meet the restrictions of the new law. In fact, I was at Walmart the other day and many of the popular sunscreen brands already have "reef safe" on the label.
No one, especially dermatologists, want you to skimp on using UV filters. Hawaii lies much closer to the equator than the mainland, and therefore sun exposure (even when it is cloudy) causes unwelcome sunburns. Alternate ingredients, including zinc oxide and titanium dioxide, provide different mechanisms of sun protection while causing less harm to the reefs.
What else can visitors do to avoid damage to skin and to the reefs?
If you plan to go into the water at the beach, the best way to protect both yourself and the environment may be to cover most of your body with UPF (ultraviolet protection factor) clothing, or even a regular T-shirt, which has been found to offer excellent protection. That way the amount of sunscreen one wears is limited to only exposed areas of the body. This reduces the amount of chemicals that go into the sea by about half.
Wear hats and sunglasses, find shade and limit the amount of time in the sun.
I found this list of reef safe sunscreens on one of our Hawaii blogs. Made in Hawaii sunscreens are marked with an *asterisk.
*Mama Kuleana Waterproof SPF 30 Reef-safe Sunscreen
*Kokua Sun Care Hawaiian SPF 50 Natural Zinc Sunscreen
*Little Hands Hawaii SPF 35+ All-natural and Organic Sunscreen
Manda Organic SPF 50 Sun Paste
*Raw Love SPF 35 All-natural Mineral Sunscreen
Thinksport SPF 50 Sunscreen
All Good SPF 30 Sport Sunscreen Lotion
Babo Botanicals SPF 30 Clear Zinc Lotion
Suntegrity Natural Mineral Sunscreen
Badger SPF 30 Unscented Sunscreen Cream
Raw Elements SPF 30 Certified Natural Sunscreen
Stream2Sea SPF 30 Mineral Sunblock
Loving Naturals Clear Body SPF 30+ All-natural Sunscreen
Reef Safe Oxybenzone Free Biodegradable SPF 50 Sunscreen
Banana Boat Simply Protect SPF 50+ Sunscreen (spray, not lotion)
Another blogger, Cate Lincoln at Hulaland, tried a few reef safe sunscreens herself and recommended these:
Coola: Coola is hands down my favorite sunscreen brand right now. It’s the perfect blend of an organic/natural sunscreen that keeps nasty chemicals to a minimum but is also convenient to apply. You know what they say…the best sunscreen is the one you’ll wear. And I LOVE Coola’s Eco-Luxe Spray (the guava mango scent is my favorite). It’s reef safe (does not contain oxybenzone or octinoxate) and it’s a CONTINUOUS, CLEAR spray. This is huge to me. There are a few cheaper, organic spray sunscreens (some that are reef safe), but they spray on white and you have to rub it in. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have time for that at the beach. Yes, Coola products aren’t cheap, but I’ve found them to be a home run because of the ingredients/convenience factor.
Also, their face sunscreens are one of the few that doesn’t make me break out. I have pretty sensitive skin and anything with zinc oxide is not my friend.
SunBum: SunBum has become a bit controversial lately, but they’re still a favorite of mine. They used to call themselves “reef safe,” but they’ve been called out on that since they do contain some chemicals that may be harmful to reefs (however they don’t include oxybenzone or octinoxate). This is my favorite lotion sunscreen because it goes on so smooth and smells really nice. They also make a continuous spray version which is somewhat more convenient, but it sprays on white and you still have to rub it in.
They have started making a mineral line, which is completely reef safe (it basically only contains zinc oxide) but like all mineral sunscreens it has a bright white tint which even when rubbed in tends to make skin appear a little ghostly. I’m not a fan of that however I do like to keep a small bottle of it in my beach bag to double up on areas that burn easily (shoulder tops) or patches that have already had a little too much sun.
Pacifica: Pacifica is a beauty brand that’s known for being pretty clean and organic so it’s no surprise that their sunscreen line doesn’t contain a lot of harsh chemicals. It’s a mineral line (which I said above I’m not a big fan of because of the whitish glow they create), however they make a “bronzing” version that’s tinted so it doesn’t have that problem. It kind of reminds me of those “spray on panty hose” products that make your legs look all smooth and silky ; ) This spray (still has to be rubbed in) is a good option for a mineral sunscreen, but I will warn you that it can be a little messy if you’re wearing a light colored swim suit.
*Kate may make a little money if you purchase the products through the above links.
It may be a little overwhelming trying to choose the best reef safe sunscreens for you and your family. But, in the end, you will probably feel better knowing you are making smarter choices concerning the products you put on your body and the fewer negative effects they will have on our environment.
For more of my blogs, go to the right hand side of this page (full screen computers). To view photos and information about our Kauai vacation rental, Honu Point, check out the other pages of this website. Mahalo!
#beaches#Hawaii#HolidayOnKauai#honupoint#kauai#kauaivacationrentals#Princeville#reefsafesunscreens#VacationInHawaii#VacationOnKauai#VacationSoup#VisitKauai#whattodo
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Ecommerce Wars: Who Are the Top Online Retailers This Holiday Season? [New Data]
Here in the U.S., today marks "Cyber Monday": an unofficial holiday observed on the Monday after Thanksgiving that celebrates and encourages online shopping with special deals and sales.
Online holiday shopping, however, is far from limited to just one day of the year. In fact, it began early, with online spending seeing record amounts on this year's Thanksgiving Day.
But when it comes to the battle of online retailers, who's at the top? As it turns out, there's been a shakeup in the ecommerce leaderboard.
Here's how the ecommerce wars are shaping up, and who's taking the lead in this year's holiday season.
Walmart Overtakes Apple
Most people might not think of Apple as an online retailer. It has brick-and-mortar locations that offer its branded, on-site "Genius" consultants that help customers pick products and troubleshoot technical issues.
But enough people purchase Apple products from the company's website, it seems, to rank it as the #3 online retailer in the U.S., according to eMarketer.
Source: eMarketer
That's changed in 2018, though. This year, eMarketer has projected that Walmart will overtake Apple's #3 position on the top five list of online retailers, bumping the latter to #4.
There are a few reasons for this projection, but according to eMarketer's report, many of them point to disparities in growth. Whereas Walmart has been identified as having one of the fastest-growing business in the ecommerce landscape, Apple's growth has slowed -- dropping 18% from last year's 26.1%.
Source: eMarketer
Walmart, meanwhile, is eyeing 2018 ecommerce sales growth of 39.4% -- more than 2X as much as Apple's.
Again, a few factors could be contributing to this disparity, ranging from missed expectations on demand for Apple's latest iPhones (to the point where the company cut production on all three models announced in September) to Walmart's online business diversification by way of acquisitions.
Source: Digital Commerce 360
eBay, meanwhile -- which has maintained its #2 spot on the list in 2018 -- is seeing its share of ecommerce sales slipping, dropping .4% from 2017.
But all three -- Apple, eBay, and Walmart -- have quite a way to go in the road to #1.
Amazon Continues to Take the Lead
Amazon has not only maintained its #1 position on the list, as well as its lead lead over the other top four online retails on the list -- but has actually increased its lead over others on the list.
This growth possibly underscores Amazon's competitive edge in the area of digital ads, as well -- -- especially given that one of Amazon's advertising competitors, Facebook, experienced a glitch on its platform that made creating new campaigns a challenge for some marketers.
Before 2020, eMarketer also predicts that ads spend on the leading online retail site will increase by about 3%, slightly eating into the current "duopoly" held by Facebook and Google.
Source: eMarketer
But where there is more online buying behavior, there could be more motivation to spend on ads. Consider, for instance, that Amazon recently reached a deal with Apple to sell new iPhones and iPads on its site -- which carries the potential to increase Amazon's market share of ecommerce sales while continuing to chip away at Apple's.
And as Amazon's physical presence, too, continues to grow -- between its cashierless brick-and-mortar stores and two new slated HQ locations -- it raises the questions of what additional selling partnerships the ecommerce giant could form with other online retail leaders.
Have a look at this list of the top ten:
Source: eMarketer
Given Amazon's existing history of such deals -- as well as its acquisition portfolio -- it might not come as a huge surprise should Amazon acquire or strike similar agreements with other companies on this list. That would lead to further growth of Amazon's ecommerce sales market share and, in turn, perhaps encourage more ad spend.
What Marketers and SMBs Should Do Now
In any case, ecommerce is growing, presenting new opportunities for marketers and small-to-midsize businesses (SMBs) alike -- when approached with caution.
In its annual Holiday Predictions report, Adobe highlights a few key takeaways for navigating the holiday marketing (and shopping) landscape.
Be Mobile-Friendly
Over half of online transactions this season will take place on smartphone.
Source: Adobe
Get Appy
Also within the realm of mobile, start to think about ways your business could create and make use of an app -- as app users are twice as likely to convert into customers.
Source: Adobe
Lean Into New Customers
According to Adobe's report, businesses with $100 million or less in annual online revenue see more value from new customers -- with only a small portion of that revenue coming from recurring customers.
And Here's One From Us
Any time of year -- especially during the frenzied holiday season -- make it easy for people to reach you and, in turn, become customers. For example, advises HubSpot VP of Marketing Jon Dick, for those who prefer to use messaging to reach you, build a way for them to do that (through apps, for example, like Messenger or WhatsApp).
"More B2B buyers are communicating with their sales reps through messaging, because more B2B buyers connect with their friends through SMS and messaging," says Dick. "If you're an SMB B2B company, you need to be implementing a buying process that is easy and is aligned with how people like to communicate, shop and buy today."
Good luck out there. And, of course -- happy holidays.
from Marketing https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/ecommerce-wars-who-are-the-top-online-retailers-this-holiday-season-new-data
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How Online Shopping Makes Suckers of Us All
By Jerry Useem, The Atlantic, April 18, 2017
As Christmas approached in 2015, the price of pumpkin-pie spice went wild.
It didn’t soar, as an economics textbook might suggest. Nor did it crash. It just started vibrating between two quantum states. Amazon’s price for a one-ounce jar was either $4.49 or $8.99, depending on when you looked. Nearly a year later, as Thanksgiving 2016 approached, the price again began whipsawing between two different points, this time $3.36 and $4.69.
We live in the age of the variable airfare, the surge-priced ride, the pay-what-you-want Radiohead album, and other novel price developments. But what was this? Some weird computer glitch? More like a deliberate glitch, it seems. “It’s most likely a strategy to get more data and test the right price,” Guru Hariharan explained, after I had sketched the pattern on a whiteboard.
The right price--the one that will extract the most profit from consumers’ wallets--has become the fixation of a large and growing number of quantitative types, many of them economists who have left academia for Silicon Valley. It’s also the preoccupation of Boomerang Commerce, a five-year-old start-up founded by Hariharan, an Amazon alum. He says these sorts of price experiments have become a routine part of finding that right price--and refinding it, because the right price can change by the day or even by the hour. (Amazon says its price changes are not attempts to gather data on customers’ spending habits, but rather to give shoppers the lowest price out there.)
It may come as a surprise that, in buying a seasonal pie ingredient, you might be participating in a carefully designed social-science experiment. But this is what online comparison shopping hath wrought. Simply put: Our ability to know the price of anything, anytime, anywhere, has given us, the consumers, so much power that retailers--in a desperate effort to regain the upper hand, or at least avoid extinction--are now staring back through the screen. They are comparison shopping us.
They have ample means to do so: the immense data trail you leave behind whenever you place something in your online shopping cart or swipe your rewards card at a store register, top economists and data scientists capable of turning this information into useful price strategies, and what one tech economist calls “the ability to experiment on a scale that’s unparalleled in the history of economics.” In mid-March, Amazon alone had 59 listings for economists on its job site, and a website dedicated to recruiting them.
Not coincidentally, quaint pricing practices--an advertised discount off the “list price,” two for the price of one, or simply “everyday low prices”--are yielding to far more exotic strategies.
“I don’t think anyone could have predicted how sophisticated these algorithms have become,” says Robert Dolan, a marketing professor at Harvard. “I certainly didn’t.” The price of a can of soda in a vending machine can now vary with the temperature outside. The price of the headphones Google recommends may depend on how budget-conscious your web history shows you to be, one study found. For shoppers, that means price--not the one offered to you right now, but the one offered to you 20 minutes from now, or the one offered to me, or to your neighbor--may become an increasingly unknowable thing. “Many moons ago, there used to be one price for something,” Dolan notes. Now the simplest of questions--what’s the true price of pumpkin-pie spice?--is subject to a Heisenberg level of uncertainty.
Which raises a bigger question: Could the internet, whose transparency was supposed to empower consumers, be doing the opposite?
If the marketplace was a war between buyers and sellers, the 19th-century French sociologist Gabriel Tarde wrote, then price was a truce. And the practice of setting a fixed price for a good or a service--which took hold in the 1860s--meant, in effect, a cessation of the perpetual state of hostility known as haggling.
As in any truce, each party surrendered something in this bargain. Buyers were forced to accept, or not accept, the one price imposed by the price tag (an invention credited to the retail pioneer John Wanamaker). What retailers ceded--the ability to exploit customers’ varying willingness to pay--was arguably greater, as the extra money some people would have paid could no longer be captured as profit. But they made the bargain anyway, for a combination of moral and practical reasons.
The Quakers--including a New York merchant named Rowland H. Macy--had never believed in setting different prices for different people. Wanamaker, a Presbyterian operating in Quaker Philadelphia, opened his Grand Depot under the principle of “One price to all; no favoritism.” Other merchants saw the practical benefits of Macy’s and Wanamaker’s prix fixe policies. As they staffed up their new department stores, it was expensive to train hundreds of clerks in the art of haggling. Fixed prices offered a measure of predictability to bookkeeping, sped up the sales process, and made possible the proliferation of printed retail ads highlighting a given price for a given good.
Companies like General Motors found an up-front way of recovering some of the lost profit. In the 1920s, GM aligned its various car brands into a finely graduated price hierarchy: “Chevrolet for the hoi polloi,” Fortune magazine put it, “Pontiac … for the poor but proud, Oldsmobile for the comfortable but discreet, Buick for the striving, Cadillac for the rich.” The policy--”a car for every purse and purpose,” GM called it--was a means of customer sorting, but the customers did the sorting themselves. It kept the truce.
Customers, meanwhile, could recover some of their lost agency by clipping coupons--their chance to get a deal denied to casual shoppers. The new supermarket chains of the 1940s made coupons a staple of American life. What the big grocers knew--and what behavioral economists would later prove in detail--is that while consumers liked the assurance the truce afforded (that they would not be fleeced), they also retained the instinct to best their neighbors. They loved deals so much that, to make sense of their behavior, economists were forced to distinguish between two types of value: acquisition value (the perceived worth of a new car to the buyer) and transaction value (the feeling that one lost or won the negotiation at the dealership).
The idea that there was a legitimate “list price,” and that consumers would occasionally be offered a discount on this price--these were the terms of the truce. And the truce remained largely intact up to the turn of the present century. The reigning retail superpower, Walmart, enforced “everyday low prices” that did not shift around.
But in the 1990s, the internet began to erode the terms of the long peace. Savvy consumers could visit a Best Buy to eyeball merchandise they intended to buy elsewhere for a cheaper price, an exercise that became known as “showrooming.” In 1999, a Seattle-based digital bookseller called Amazon.com started expanding into a Grand Depot of its own.
The era of internet retailing had arrived, and with it, the resumption of hostilities.
In retrospect, retailers were slow to mobilize. Even as other corporate functions--logistics, sales-force management--were being given the “moneyball” treatment in the early 2000s with powerful predictive software (and even as airlines had fully weaponized airfares), retail pricing remained more art than science. In part, this was a function of internal company hierarchy. Prices were traditionally the purview of the second-most-powerful figure in a retail organization: the head merchant, whose intuitive knack for knowing what to sell, and for how much, was the source of a deep-seated mythos that she was not keen to dispel.
Two developments, though, loosened the head merchant’s hold.
The first was the arrival of data. Thomas Nagle was teaching economics at the University of Chicago in the early 1980s when, he recalls, the university acquired the data from the grocery chain Jewel’s newly installed checkout scanners. “Everyone was thrilled,” says Nagle, now a senior adviser specializing in pricing at Deloitte. “We’d been relying on all these contrived surveys: ‘Given these options at these prices, what would you do?’ But the real world is not a controlled experiment.”
The Jewel data overturned a lot of what he’d been teaching. For instance, he’d professed that ending prices with .99 or .98, instead of just rounding up to the next dollar, did not boost sales. The practice was merely an artifact, the existing literature said, of an age when owners wanted to force cashiers to open the register to make change, in order to prevent them from pocketing the money from a sale. “It turned out,” Nagle recollects, “that ending prices in .99 wasn’t big for cars and other big-ticket items where you pay a lot of attention. But in the grocery store, the effect was huge!”
The effect, now known as “left-digit bias,” had not shown up in lab experiments, because participants, presented with a limited number of decisions, were able to approach every hypothetical purchase like a math problem. But of course in real life, Nagle admits, “if you did that, it would take you all day to go to the grocery store.” Disregarding the digits to the right side of the decimal point lets you get home and make dinner.
By the early 2000s, the amount of data collected on retailers’ internet servers had become so massive that it started exerting a gravitational pull. That’s what triggered the second development: the arrival, en masse, of the practitioners of the dismal science.
This was, in some ways, a curious stampede. For decades, academic economists had generally been as indifferent to corporations as corporations were to them. (Indeed, most of their models barely acknowledged the existence of corporations at all.)
But that began to change in 2001, when the Berkeley economist Hal Varian--highly regarded for the 1999 book Information Rules--ran into Eric Schmidt. Varian knew him but, he says, was unaware that Schmidt had become the CEO of a little company called Google. Varian agreed to spend a sabbatical year at Google, figuring he’d write a book about the start-up experience.
At the time, the few serious economists who worked in industry focused on macroeconomic issues like, say, how demand for consumer durables might change in the next year. Varian, however, was immediately invited to look at a Google project that (he recalls Schmidt telling him) “might make us a little money”: the auction system that became Google AdWords. Varian never left.
Others followed. “eBay was Disneyland,” says Steve Tadelis, a Berkeley economist who went to work there for a time in 2011 and is currently on leave at Amazon. “You know, pricing, people, behavior, reputation”--the things that have always set economists aglow--plus the chance “to experiment at a scale that’s unparalleled.”
At first, the newcomers were mostly mining existing data for insights. At eBay, for instance, Tadelis used a log of buyer clicks to estimate how much money one hour of bargain-hunting saved shoppers. (Roughly $15 was the answer.)
Then economists realized that they could go a step further and design experiments that produced data. Carefully controlled experiments not only attempted to divine the shape of a demand curve--which shows just how much of a product people will buy as you keep raising the price, allowing retailers to find the optimal, profit-maximizing figure. They tried to map how the curve changed hour to hour. (Online purchases peak during weekday office hours, so retailers are commonly advised to raise prices in the morning and lower them in the early evening.)
By the mid-2000s, some economists began wondering whether Big Data could discern every individual’s own personal demand curve--thereby turning the classroom hypothetical of “perfect price discrimination” (a price that’s calibrated precisely to the maximum that you will pay) into an actual possibility.
As this new world began to take shape, the initial consumer experience of online shopping--so simple! and such deals!--was losing some of its sheen.
It’s not that consumers hadn’t benefited from the lower prices available online. They had. But some of the deals weren’t nearly as good as they seemed to be. And for some people, glee began to give way to a vague suspicion that maybe they were getting ripped off. In 2007, a California man named Marc Ecenbarger thought he had scored when he found a patio set--list price $999--selling on Overstock.com for $449.99. He bought two, unpacked them, then discovered--courtesy of a price tag left on the packaging--that Walmart’s normal price for the set was $247. His fury was profound. He complained to Overstock, which offered to refund him the cost of the furniture.
But his experience was later used as evidence in a case brought by consumer-protection attorneys against Overstock for false advertising, along with internal emails in which an Overstock employee claimed it was commonly known that list prices were “egregiously overstated.”
In 2014, a California judge ordered Overstock to pay $6.8 million in civil penalties. (Overstock has appealed the decision.) The past year has seen a wave of similar lawsuits over phony list prices, reports Bonnie Patten, the executive director of TruthinAdvertising.org. In 2016, Amazon began to drop most mentions of “list price,” and in some cases added a new reference point: its own past price.
This could be seen as the final stage of decay of the old one-price system. What’s replacing it is something that most closely resembles high-frequency trading on Wall Street. Prices are never “set” to begin with in this new world. They can fluctuate hour to hour and even minute to minute--a phenomenon familiar to anyone who has put something in his Amazon cart and been alerted to price changes while it sat there. A website called camelcamelcamel.com even tracks Amazon prices for specific products and alerts consumers when a price drops below a preset threshold. The price history for any given item--Classic Twister, for example--looks almost exactly like a stock chart. And as with financial markets, flash glitches happen. In 2011, Peter A. Lawrence’s The Making of a Fly (paperback edition) was briefly available on Amazon for $23,698,655.93, thanks to an algorithmic price war between two third-party sellers that had run amok.
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The 6 Best Ecommerce Marketing Companies of 2020
Ecommerce is still growing.
Statista says worldwide ecommerce sales will grow from 4.2 trillion in 2020 to 6.5 trillion by 2023. The worldwide pandemic and the growth of remote work continues to boost ecommerce growth. This is a huge opportunity for ecommerce companies that are ready for this change.
Your ecommerce business will need help.
The huge growth in ecommerce means competition; as a result, ecommerce companies are struggling to get customers to their business. Choosing the right marketing company can be the difference between failure and success.
Here’s a list of the best ecommerce marketing companies.
1. NP Digital – Best for Maximizing ROI
NP Digital is my e-commerce marketing company. I’ve built several successful companies, including KISSmetrics, Crazy Egg, Hello Bar, and several other agencies. I’ve helped large companies like Amazon, NBC, GM, HP, and Viacom grow their revenue. I’ve built ecommerce companies of all sizes — from startups to established Fortune 500 brands.
One thing that sets NP Digital apart from other agencies is our focus.
Every improvement we make needs to lead to revenue in some way. If we’re optimizing images, rewriting copy, or redesigning graphics, it needs to lead to revenue. Our focus on revenue changes how we approach problems; it forces us to analyze the profitability of each decision. If it doesn’t work financially, we generally try to avoid it.
NP Digital’s client list includes:
Facebook
Viacom
Google
GM
eBay
NBC
Thomson Reuters foundation
TechCrunch
Cheezburger
American Greetings
2. Upgrow – Best for Strategic Planning
Upgrow is an e-commerce marketing agency based in San Francisco.
They follow a specific e-commerce marketing process that focuses on brand discovery, creating a strategic plan, tracking and reporting set up, and ongoing optimization. They’re one of the few e-commerce agencies that provide complete A-to-Z coverage and optimization. They can design, create, optimize, and promote your e-commerce business.
Upgrow is data and process-driven; as a result, the average client experiences a 259 percent ROI.
Think of their agency as an expert generalist. They’re comfortable working with e-commerce clients regardless of their industry, whether they’re selling $1 pencils or $5,000 vacation packages.
They have approximately 33 clients, manage a client budget of 6.1 million, and they’ve generated more than 125,000 conversions for their clients.
Upgrow’s client list includes:
Talkdesk
memSQL
Nurx
Impact Fund
Cloud Logistics
Platform9
Miss Jones Baking Co.
Seal
Stessa
Juris.co
Knowable Magazine
3. Inflow – Best for Ecommerce Specialist
Inflow is an award-winning e-commerce agency based in Denver.
While other agencies provide A-to-Z support covering design, optimization, and promotion, Inflow focuses exclusively on the marketing and advertising side. They offer SEO, PPC, paid social, and CRO services. If you’re looking for an agency to provide you with marketing and advertising support, but you can handle the design and creative services on your own, Inflow may be a fit.
Here’s one thing that sets Inflow apart.
Inflow doesn’t have account managers. Clients work directly with industry veterans on their campaigns. These experts have a significant amount of experience in their chosen specialty, whether that’s search engine optimization, paid advertising, or conversion optimization.
They prioritize search engine optimization, conversion optimization, and pay per click management in that order. That’s an important detail to keep in mind if you prefer one channel over another.
Inflow’s client list includes:
Amazon
Overstock
Moving.com
Vince
Mountain House
Gaia
Colorado State University
Aviator Gear
Tilebar
4. Single Grain – Best for a Custom Marketing Plan
In 2014, entrepreneur and marketing guru Eric Siu bought a failing SEO agency — Single Grain — for $2. Using his marketing expertise and growth mentality, Eric rebuilt Single Grain, turning it into the digital marketing powerhouse it is today.
Single Grain focuses on rapid growth.
When it comes to ecommerce marketing, many e-commerce marketing companies rely on an assembly line approach. They apply the same strategies and tactics they’ve used with other clients; they repeat the same procedure until it’s overused.
Single Grain creates a unique digital marketing campaign for each of their clients. They analyze their client’s circumstances, creating custom strategies on a case-by-case basis. This sounds obvious, but it’s also the strategy that enables Single Grain to grow its client businesses at such a fast pace.
Single Grain’s client list includes:
Cafepress
Fujitsu
KitchenAid
Random House
Nordstrom Rack
Airbnb
Alexa
Amazon
Uber
TurboTax
5. 1Digital – Best for Bigcommerce Customization
1Digital is a full-service agency focusing exclusively on e-commerce optimization and marketing.
While other agencies focus on a specific e-commerce platform, 1Digital works with a variety of mainstream platforms, including Shopify, Magento, Volusion, Woo Commerce, and others. They’re known for their work with BigCommerce and Shopify.
Their focus on e-commerce includes design and development, SEO, and CRO. They’re not as heavily invested in paid advertising, so that’s something to consider if you’re looking for an agency with significant advertising expertise.
1Digital’s client list includes:
MiR Tactical
Oakwood Veneer Company
VitaRx
Everything for Offices
Mac Me an Offer
Maca
Kids N Cribs
Atlantic Cigar
Genius Ecommerce
6. Avex – Best for Shopify Plus
Avex is a boutique creative e-commerce agency based in New York City. Their agency focuses exclusively on e-commerce. They design, build and optimize e-commerce websites for beauty, luxury, lifestyle, and fashion companies. As Shopify Plus Partners, they’re focused primarily on optimizing and marketing Shopify websites.
As an agency, they’re heavily focused on the creative and design side of marketing. They provide their clients with additional support in the form of conversion rate optimization, usability testing, split testing, marketing, and consulting.
They’re a small 20+ person team that’s focused on serving a specific group of clients in particular niches. This is a good fit for clients who specialize as well — fashion, luxury, or beauty companies are an obvious fit. They may also be a good fit for e-commerce companies with a broad product offering, as long as they’re comfortable with the specialization that Avex offers.
Avex client list includes:
O’Neill
Simmons Bedding
Wolf & Shepherd
Hugo Boss
Kith
Marchesa
TomboyX
Haus
Starter
Pony Sneakers
Packer
Coffee for Less
4 Characteristics That Make a Great Ecommerce Marketing Company
E-commerce companies are facing more competition than they’ve ever met before. Great ecommerce marketing companies have the following characteristics.
1. In-depth knowledge of your business
E-commerce businesses aren’t created equal. Every industry has its own set of expectations; it’s own culture, unique jargon, and unique problems. Your agency should have an in-depth knowledge of your customers, your business, and the industry as a whole.
If your e-commerce business focuses on health and wellness, or fashion, you’ll want to work with an agency that has significant experience in that space. The more technical or specialized your industry, the more important it is to have subject matter experts who understand your customers, business, and the industry well.
This is important because this knowledge gives your agency the know-how they need to promote your business effectively. They’ll have a clear idea of the images that work best for your company, the words they should use, and the promotions your customers will respond to.
2. Obsessive customer focus
Your e-commerce customers are the priority. Your agency should focus on helping you serve your customers. They should work to get to know your customers as well as you do. This isn’t just an understanding of the things your customers want and need. It’s an understanding of the way you work with your customers.
Zappos focuses on customer service. Apple focuses on quality. Walmart focuses on low prices. A great agency understands your business and your focus, so they’re able to create offers, content, or ads that appeal to your audience. This is important because it means you can create marketing you know will work. By understanding your customers, and your business, your agency has the knowledge they need to generate the results you need. It’s also helpful because it helps you manage the financials on your end.
If your agency understands your breakeven cost, and they know what your margins are, they’ll avoid creating ads with offers that put them in the negative. For example, if margins are tight, discounts should be out. Instead of creating discounts on the front end to win customers, your agency can make low price guarantees and warranties to win customers over.
3. Sales and revenue-focused
Your agency should focus on generating leads, sales, and revenue. Everything your agency does should be oriented around you closing the sale and enticing customers to buy. If your agency wants to focus on brand building with no long term plan to generate revenue, they’re probably not a good fit.
Your agency should help you find ways to reduce expenses, particularly those due to shipping or returns. They should work to consistently lower advertising costs while increasing your return on ad spend. This sounds like it’s pretty obvious advice, but you’d be surprised at the number of agencies that ignore this.
4. Your agency should understand your metrics and KPIs
There are lots of ecommerce metrics you can track, but it’s probably not a good idea to try and track them all. A better idea would be to identify the most important metrics you need to maintain and grow your business, then build on the metrics you need, on an as-needed basis.
Your agency should focus their attention on your:
Website traffic rates: You’ll want to identify several details with your traffic: The traffic sources that make you money, sources that cost you money, and the sources that lead to increased conversion rates over time. If you have a steady supply of good traffic from interested customers, you’ll have the demand you need to sell more products. If your agency’s CRO protocols are consistent, you should be able to increase revenue whenever you increase your traffic.
Sales conversion rates: You’re probably already familiar with this, but for those who aren’t, your conversion rate is sales divided by users times 100 percent. The average ecommerce conversion rate is 2 to 4.9 percent in the United States. Your agency, with consistent testing, should be able to increase your conversion rates year-over-year. Your agency should also be tracking both micro and macro conversion rates.
Average order values: This tracks the dollar amount spent by your customers each time an order is placed on your website. Your agency should be able to provide you with concrete steps you can take to increase your average order values (and customer lifetime values) over time.
Email opt-in rates: According to Campaign Monitor, email produces an ROI of $42 for every $1 spent. Building an email list means you’re less dependent on paid media to grow. Your agency should be able to help you build your email list. The more reliant you are on earned media (i.e., email), the more stable your cash flow and revenue.
Refund and Return rates: A good agency will help you find the hidden problems behind your refunds and returns. They should be able to use non-traditional sources like online reviews and competitor research as well as traditional sources like customer feedback to help you reduce your refund and return rates.
Ecommerce churn rate: Churn measures customer attrition; this is a problem for ecommerce. How do you measure churn rates if your customer never cancels? Your agency should be able to use metrics like repeat purchase rate or time between orders to calculate your churn rate and provide you with a plan to reduce churn in the future.
The ecommerce marketing company you choose should have these characteristics. They should be able to provide you with the information you need to grow your business.
What To Expect From a Great E-Commerce Marketing Company
Before you hire an agency, you’ll want to make sure you’re prepared for their help. You should expect your budget to mirror the kind of attention, value, and support you receive. Big budgets = lots of attention and support.
A clear track record: Your agency should be able to provide you with samples, references, case studies, and reviews showing their performance. If you found your agency through marketing, it’s a good indication that they know how to market your business. If you are introduced through partnerships or referrals, the same concept applies.
Clarity on their expertise: Your agency should be able to explain their strengths and weaknesses candidly without any weasel words, generalities, or weird marketing speak. They should be able to provide you with clear samples showing that they have the expertise and experience needed to sell your products well.
A clear timeline: Your agency should be able to provide you with a clear timeline showing you how to approach her campaign, how long everything will take to implement, and when they anticipate you’ll begin seeing results.
Questions about your capacity: Your agency may have questions about who handles what — which tasks will be handled by the agency and which jobs will be handled in-house (by you). Set clear boundaries and expectations ahead of time, so there’s no confusion in the middle of your marketing campaigns.
A list of their credentials: Is your agency a Google Premier Partner or Facebook Pro Partner? Are they HubSpot certified? You want to get a list of the credentials they have. This will verify their experience and expertise in several areas.
Their process, policies, and procedures: You’ll want to see how your agency plans on approaching your campaign or project. They should be able to breakdown their approach to marketing your business, how they’ll approach your campaign, and their internal dos and don’ts as it applies to your business.
Communication guidelines: When and how will their team communicate with you (e.g., Slack, Skype, Trello, or email, etc.)? Who will be your point-of-contact? Are you free to call your point of contact whenever you need help, or is there a specific time they’re available? Is support included (it should be).
Your agency should provide you with detailed specifics for each of these points. If you have more questions or concerns, you’ll want to bring those up with your agency.
Conclusion
Ecommerce sales will continue to grow. This growth means more competition for ecommerce businesses. Today, ecommerce businesses are struggling to get customers. Your ecommerce business will need help. Choosing the right ecommerce marketing company can be the difference between failure and success. Choose the right company, and your growth skyrockets. Choose the wrong company, and your business takes a giant step backward. Use this list to identify the pros and cons of the ecommerce company you hire. Invest with the right company, and your business will grow faster than you expect.
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The 6 Best Ecommerce Marketing Companies of 2020
Ecommerce is still growing.
Statista says worldwide ecommerce sales will grow from 4.2 trillion in 2020 to 6.5 trillion by 2023. The worldwide pandemic and the growth of remote work continues to boost ecommerce growth. This is a huge opportunity for ecommerce companies that are ready for this change.
Your ecommerce business will need help.
The huge growth in ecommerce means competition; as a result, ecommerce companies are struggling to get customers to their business. Choosing the right marketing company can be the difference between failure and success.
Here’s a list of the best ecommerce marketing companies.
1. NP Digital – Best for Maximizing ROI
NP Digital is my e-commerce marketing company. I’ve built several successful companies, including KISSmetrics, Crazy Egg, Hello Bar, and several other agencies. I’ve helped large companies like Amazon, NBC, GM, HP, and Viacom grow their revenue. I’ve built ecommerce companies of all sizes — from startups to established Fortune 500 brands.
One thing that sets NP Digital apart from other agencies is our focus.
Every improvement we make needs to lead to revenue in some way. If we’re optimizing images, rewriting copy, or redesigning graphics, it needs to lead to revenue. Our focus on revenue changes how we approach problems; it forces us to analyze the profitability of each decision. If it doesn’t work financially, we generally try to avoid it.
NP Digital’s client list includes:
Facebook
Viacom
Google
GM
eBay
NBC
Thomson Reuters foundation
TechCrunch
Cheezburger
American Greetings
2. Upgrow – Best for Strategic Planning
Upgrow is an e-commerce marketing agency based in San Francisco.
They follow a specific e-commerce marketing process that focuses on brand discovery, creating a strategic plan, tracking and reporting set up, and ongoing optimization. They’re one of the few e-commerce agencies that provide complete A-to-Z coverage and optimization. They can design, create, optimize, and promote your e-commerce business.
Upgrow is data and process-driven; as a result, the average client experiences a 259 percent ROI.
Think of their agency as an expert generalist. They’re comfortable working with e-commerce clients regardless of their industry, whether they’re selling $1 pencils or $5,000 vacation packages.
They have approximately 33 clients, manage a client budget of 6.1 million, and they’ve generated more than 125,000 conversions for their clients.
Upgrow’s client list includes:
Talkdesk
memSQL
Nurx
Impact Fund
Cloud Logistics
Platform9
Miss Jones Baking Co.
Seal
Stessa
Juris.co
Knowable Magazine
3. Inflow – Best for Ecommerce Specialist
Inflow is an award-winning e-commerce agency based in Denver.
While other agencies provide A-to-Z support covering design, optimization, and promotion, Inflow focuses exclusively on the marketing and advertising side. They offer SEO, PPC, paid social, and CRO services. If you’re looking for an agency to provide you with marketing and advertising support, but you can handle the design and creative services on your own, Inflow may be a fit.
Here’s one thing that sets Inflow apart.
Inflow doesn’t have account managers. Clients work directly with industry veterans on their campaigns. These experts have a significant amount of experience in their chosen specialty, whether that’s search engine optimization, paid advertising, or conversion optimization.
They prioritize search engine optimization, conversion optimization, and pay per click management in that order. That’s an important detail to keep in mind if you prefer one channel over another.
Inflow’s client list includes:
Amazon
Overstock
Moving.com
Vince
Mountain House
Gaia
Colorado State University
Aviator Gear
Tilebar
4. Single Grain – Best for a Custom Marketing Plan
In 2014, entrepreneur and marketing guru Eric Siu bought a failing SEO agency — Single Grain — for $2. Using his marketing expertise and growth mentality, Eric rebuilt Single Grain, turning it into the digital marketing powerhouse it is today.
Single Grain focuses on rapid growth.
When it comes to ecommerce marketing, many e-commerce marketing companies rely on an assembly line approach. They apply the same strategies and tactics they’ve used with other clients; they repeat the same procedure until it’s overused.
Single Grain creates a unique digital marketing campaign for each of their clients. They analyze their client’s circumstances, creating custom strategies on a case-by-case basis. This sounds obvious, but it’s also the strategy that enables Single Grain to grow its client businesses at such a fast pace.
Single Grain’s client list includes:
Cafepress
Fujitsu
KitchenAid
Random House
Nordstrom Rack
Airbnb
Alexa
Amazon
Uber
TurboTax
5. 1Digital – Best for Bigcommerce Customization
1Digital is a full-service agency focusing exclusively on e-commerce optimization and marketing.
While other agencies focus on a specific e-commerce platform, 1Digital works with a variety of mainstream platforms, including Shopify, Magento, Volusion, Woo Commerce, and others. They’re known for their work with BigCommerce and Shopify.
Their focus on e-commerce includes design and development, SEO, and CRO. They’re not as heavily invested in paid advertising, so that’s something to consider if you’re looking for an agency with significant advertising expertise.
1Digital’s client list includes:
MiR Tactical
Oakwood Veneer Company
VitaRx
Everything for Offices
Mac Me an Offer
Maca
Kids N Cribs
Atlantic Cigar
Genius Ecommerce
6. Avex – Best for Shopify Plus
Avex is a boutique creative e-commerce agency based in New York City. Their agency focuses exclusively on e-commerce. They design, build and optimize e-commerce websites for beauty, luxury, lifestyle, and fashion companies. As Shopify Plus Partners, they’re focused primarily on optimizing and marketing Shopify websites.
As an agency, they’re heavily focused on the creative and design side of marketing. They provide their clients with additional support in the form of conversion rate optimization, usability testing, split testing, marketing, and consulting.
They’re a small 20+ person team that’s focused on serving a specific group of clients in particular niches. This is a good fit for clients who specialize as well — fashion, luxury, or beauty companies are an obvious fit. They may also be a good fit for e-commerce companies with a broad product offering, as long as they’re comfortable with the specialization that Avex offers.
Avex client list includes:
O’Neill
Simmons Bedding
Wolf & Shepherd
Hugo Boss
Kith
Marchesa
TomboyX
Haus
Starter
Pony Sneakers
Packer
Coffee for Less
4 Characteristics That Make a Great Ecommerce Marketing Company
E-commerce companies are facing more competition than they’ve ever met before. Great ecommerce marketing companies have the following characteristics.
1. In-depth knowledge of your business
E-commerce businesses aren’t created equal. Every industry has its own set of expectations; it’s own culture, unique jargon, and unique problems. Your agency should have an in-depth knowledge of your customers, your business, and the industry as a whole.
If your e-commerce business focuses on health and wellness, or fashion, you’ll want to work with an agency that has significant experience in that space. The more technical or specialized your industry, the more important it is to have subject matter experts who understand your customers, business, and the industry well.
This is important because this knowledge gives your agency the know-how they need to promote your business effectively. They’ll have a clear idea of the images that work best for your company, the words they should use, and the promotions your customers will respond to.
2. Obsessive customer focus
Your e-commerce customers are the priority. Your agency should focus on helping you serve your customers. They should work to get to know your customers as well as you do. This isn’t just an understanding of the things your customers want and need. It’s an understanding of the way you work with your customers.
Zappos focuses on customer service. Apple focuses on quality. Walmart focuses on low prices. A great agency understands your business and your focus, so they’re able to create offers, content, or ads that appeal to your audience.
This is important because it means you can create marketing you know will work. By understanding your customers, and your business, your agency has the knowledge they need to generate the results you need. It’s also helpful because it helps you manage the financials on your end.
If your agency understands your breakeven cost, and they know what your margins are, they’ll avoid creating ads with offers that put them in the negative. For example, if margins are tight, discounts should be out. Instead of creating discounts on the front end to win customers, your agency can make low price guarantees and warranties to win customers over.
3. Sales and revenue-focused
Your agency should focus on generating leads, sales, and revenue. Everything your agency does should be oriented around you closing the sale and enticing customers to buy. If your agency wants to focus on brand building with no long term plan to generate revenue, they’re probably not a good fit.
Your agency should help you find ways to reduce expenses, particularly those due to shipping or returns. They should work to consistently lower advertising costs while increasing your return on ad spend. This sounds like it’s pretty obvious advice, but you’d be surprised at the number of agencies that ignore this.
4. Your agency should understand your metrics and KPIs
There are lots of ecommerce metrics you can track, but it’s probably not a good idea to try and track them all. A better idea would be to identify the most important metrics you need to maintain and grow your business, then build on the metrics you need, on an as-needed basis.
Your agency should focus their attention on your:
Website traffic rates: You’ll want to identify several details with your traffic: The traffic sources that make you money, sources that cost you money, and the sources that lead to increased conversion rates over time. If you have a steady supply of good traffic from interested customers, you’ll have the demand you need to sell more products. If your agency’s CRO protocols are consistent, you should be able to increase revenue whenever you increase your traffic.
Sales conversion rates: You’re probably already familiar with this, but for those who aren’t, your conversion rate is sales divided by users times 100 percent. The average ecommerce conversion rate is 2 to 4.9 percent in the United States. Your agency, with consistent testing, should be able to increase your conversion rates year-over-year. Your agency should also be tracking both micro and macro conversion rates.
Average order values: This tracks the dollar amount spent by your customers each time an order is placed on your website. Your agency should be able to provide you with concrete steps you can take to increase your average order values (and customer lifetime values) over time.
Email opt-in rates: According to Campaign Monitor, email produces an ROI of $42 for every $1 spent. Building an email list means you’re less dependent on paid media to grow. Your agency should be able to help you build your email list. The more reliant you are on earned media (i.e., email), the more stable your cash flow and revenue.
Refund and Return rates: A good agency will help you find the hidden problems behind your refunds and returns. They should be able to use non-traditional sources like online reviews and competitor research as well as traditional sources like customer feedback to help you reduce your refund and return rates.
Ecommerce churn rate: Churn measures customer attrition; this is a problem for ecommerce. How do you measure churn rates if your customer never cancels? Your agency should be able to use metrics like repeat purchase rate or time between orders to calculate your churn rate and provide you with a plan to reduce churn in the future.
The ecommerce marketing company you choose should have these characteristics. They should be able to provide you with the information you need to grow your business.
What To Expect From a Great E-Commerce Marketing Company
Before you hire an agency, you’ll want to make sure you’re prepared for their help. You should expect your budget to mirror the kind of attention, value, and support you receive. Big budgets = lots of attention and support.
A clear track record: Your agency should be able to provide you with samples, references, case studies, and reviews showing their performance. If you found your agency through marketing, it’s a good indication that they know how to market your business. If you are introduced through partnerships or referrals, the same concept applies.
Clarity on their expertise: Your agency should be able to explain their strengths and weaknesses candidly without any weasel words, generalities, or weird marketing speak. They should be able to provide you with clear samples showing that they have the expertise and experience needed to sell your products well.
A clear timeline: Your agency should be able to provide you with a clear timeline showing you how to approach her campaign, how long everything will take to implement, and when they anticipate you’ll begin seeing results.
Questions about your capacity: Your agency may have questions about who handles what — which tasks will be handled by the agency and which jobs will be handled in-house (by you). Set clear boundaries and expectations ahead of time, so there’s no confusion in the middle of your marketing campaigns.
A list of their credentials: Is your agency a Google Premier Partner or Facebook Pro Partner? Are they HubSpot certified? You want to get a list of the credentials they have. This will verify their experience and expertise in several areas.
Their process, policies, and procedures: You’ll want to see how your agency plans on approaching your campaign or project. They should be able to breakdown their approach to marketing your business, how they’ll approach your campaign, and their internal dos and don’ts as it applies to your business.
Communication guidelines: When and how will their team communicate with you (e.g., Slack, Skype, Trello, or email, etc.)? Who will be your point-of-contact? Are you free to call your point of contact whenever you need help, or is there a specific time they’re available? Is support included (it should be).
Your agency should provide you with detailed specifics for each of these points. If you have more questions or concerns, you’ll want to bring those up with your agency.
Conclusion
Ecommerce sales will continue to grow. This growth means more competition for ecommerce businesses. Today, ecommerce businesses are struggling to get customers. Your ecommerce business will need help.
Choosing the right ecommerce marketing company can be the difference between failure and success. Choose the right company, and your growth skyrockets. Choose the wrong company, and your business takes a giant step backward.
Use this list to identify the pros and cons of the ecommerce company you hire. Invest with the right company, and your business will grow faster than you expect.
The post The 6 Best Ecommerce Marketing Companies of 2020 appeared first on Neil Patel.
Original content source: https://neilpatel.com/blog/ecommerce-marketing-companies/ via https://neilpatel.com
The original post, The 6 Best Ecommerce Marketing Companies of 2020, has been shared from https://imtrainingparadise.wordpress.com/2020/10/06/the-6-best-ecommerce-marketing-companies-of-2020/ via https://imtrainingparadise.wordpress.com
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The 6 Best Ecommerce Marketing Companies of 2020
Ecommerce is still growing.
Statista says worldwide ecommerce sales will grow from 4.2 trillion in 2020 to 6.5 trillion by 2023. The worldwide pandemic and the growth of remote work continues to boost ecommerce growth. This is a huge opportunity for ecommerce companies that are ready for this change.
Your ecommerce business will need help.
The huge growth in ecommerce means competition; as a result, ecommerce companies are struggling to get customers to their business. Choosing the right marketing company can be the difference between failure and success.
Here’s a list of the best ecommerce marketing companies.
1. NP Digital – Best for Maximizing ROI
NP Digital is my e-commerce marketing company. I’ve built several successful companies, including KISSmetrics, Crazy Egg, Hello Bar, and several other agencies. I’ve helped large companies like Amazon, NBC, GM, HP, and Viacom grow their revenue. I’ve built ecommerce companies of all sizes — from startups to established Fortune 500 brands.
One thing that sets NP Digital apart from other agencies is our focus.
Every improvement we make needs to lead to revenue in some way. If we’re optimizing images, rewriting copy, or redesigning graphics, it needs to lead to revenue. Our focus on revenue changes how we approach problems; it forces us to analyze the profitability of each decision. If it doesn’t work financially, we generally try to avoid it.
NP Digital’s client list includes:
Facebook
Viacom
Google
GM
eBay
NBC
Thomson Reuters foundation
TechCrunch
Cheezburger
American Greetings
2. Upgrow – Best for Strategic Planning
Upgrow is an e-commerce marketing agency based in San Francisco.
They follow a specific e-commerce marketing process that focuses on brand discovery, creating a strategic plan, tracking and reporting set up, and ongoing optimization. They’re one of the few e-commerce agencies that provide complete A-to-Z coverage and optimization. They can design, create, optimize, and promote your e-commerce business.
Upgrow is data and process-driven; as a result, the average client experiences a 259 percent ROI.
Think of their agency as an expert generalist. They’re comfortable working with e-commerce clients regardless of their industry, whether they’re selling $1 pencils or $5,000 vacation packages.
They have approximately 33 clients, manage a client budget of 6.1 million, and they’ve generated more than 125,000 conversions for their clients.
Upgrow’s client list includes:
Talkdesk
memSQL
Nurx
Impact Fund
Cloud Logistics
Platform9
Miss Jones Baking Co.
Seal
Stessa
Juris.co
Knowable Magazine
3. Inflow – Best for Ecommerce Specialist
Inflow is an award-winning e-commerce agency based in Denver.
While other agencies provide A-to-Z support covering design, optimization, and promotion, Inflow focuses exclusively on the marketing and advertising side. They offer SEO, PPC, paid social, and CRO services. If you’re looking for an agency to provide you with marketing and advertising support, but you can handle the design and creative services on your own, Inflow may be a fit.
Here’s one thing that sets Inflow apart.
Inflow doesn’t have account managers. Clients work directly with industry veterans on their campaigns. These experts have a significant amount of experience in their chosen specialty, whether that’s search engine optimization, paid advertising, or conversion optimization.
They prioritize search engine optimization, conversion optimization, and pay per click management in that order. That’s an important detail to keep in mind if you prefer one channel over another.
Inflow’s client list includes:
Amazon
Overstock
Moving.com
Vince
Mountain House
Gaia
Colorado State University
Aviator Gear
Tilebar
4. Single Grain – Best for a Custom Marketing Plan
In 2014, entrepreneur and marketing guru Eric Siu bought a failing SEO agency — Single Grain — for $2. Using his marketing expertise and growth mentality, Eric rebuilt Single Grain, turning it into the digital marketing powerhouse it is today.
Single Grain focuses on rapid growth.
When it comes to ecommerce marketing, many e-commerce marketing companies rely on an assembly line approach. They apply the same strategies and tactics they’ve used with other clients; they repeat the same procedure until it’s overused.
Single Grain creates a unique digital marketing campaign for each of their clients. They analyze their client’s circumstances, creating custom strategies on a case-by-case basis. This sounds obvious, but it’s also the strategy that enables Single Grain to grow its client businesses at such a fast pace.
Single Grain’s client list includes:
Cafepress
Fujitsu
KitchenAid
Random House
Nordstrom Rack
Airbnb
Alexa
Amazon
Uber
TurboTax
5. 1Digital – Best for Bigcommerce Customization
1Digital is a full-service agency focusing exclusively on e-commerce optimization and marketing.
While other agencies focus on a specific e-commerce platform, 1Digital works with a variety of mainstream platforms, including Shopify, Magento, Volusion, Woo Commerce, and others. They’re known for their work with BigCommerce and Shopify.
Their focus on e-commerce includes design and development, SEO, and CRO. They’re not as heavily invested in paid advertising, so that’s something to consider if you’re looking for an agency with significant advertising expertise.
1Digital’s client list includes:
MiR Tactical
Oakwood Veneer Company
VitaRx
Everything for Offices
Mac Me an Offer
Maca
Kids N Cribs
Atlantic Cigar
Genius Ecommerce
6. Avex – Best for Shopify Plus
Avex is a boutique creative e-commerce agency based in New York City. Their agency focuses exclusively on e-commerce. They design, build and optimize e-commerce websites for beauty, luxury, lifestyle, and fashion companies. As Shopify Plus Partners, they’re focused primarily on optimizing and marketing Shopify websites.
As an agency, they’re heavily focused on the creative and design side of marketing. They provide their clients with additional support in the form of conversion rate optimization, usability testing, split testing, marketing, and consulting.
They’re a small 20+ person team that’s focused on serving a specific group of clients in particular niches. This is a good fit for clients who specialize as well — fashion, luxury, or beauty companies are an obvious fit. They may also be a good fit for e-commerce companies with a broad product offering, as long as they’re comfortable with the specialization that Avex offers.
Avex client list includes:
O’Neill
Simmons Bedding
Wolf & Shepherd
Hugo Boss
Kith
Marchesa
TomboyX
Haus
Starter
Pony Sneakers
Packer
Coffee for Less
4 Characteristics That Make a Great Ecommerce Marketing Company
E-commerce companies are facing more competition than they’ve ever met before. Great ecommerce marketing companies have the following characteristics.
1. In-depth knowledge of your business
E-commerce businesses aren’t created equal. Every industry has its own set of expectations; it’s own culture, unique jargon, and unique problems. Your agency should have an in-depth knowledge of your customers, your business, and the industry as a whole.
If your e-commerce business focuses on health and wellness, or fashion, you’ll want to work with an agency that has significant experience in that space. The more technical or specialized your industry, the more important it is to have subject matter experts who understand your customers, business, and the industry well.
This is important because this knowledge gives your agency the know-how they need to promote your business effectively. They’ll have a clear idea of the images that work best for your company, the words they should use, and the promotions your customers will respond to.
2. Obsessive customer focus
Your e-commerce customers are the priority. Your agency should focus on helping you serve your customers. They should work to get to know your customers as well as you do. This isn’t just an understanding of the things your customers want and need. It’s an understanding of the way you work with your customers.
Zappos focuses on customer service. Apple focuses on quality. Walmart focuses on low prices. A great agency understands your business and your focus, so they’re able to create offers, content, or ads that appeal to your audience. This is important because it means you can create marketing you know will work. By understanding your customers, and your business, your agency has the knowledge they need to generate the results you need. It’s also helpful because it helps you manage the financials on your end.
If your agency understands your breakeven cost, and they know what your margins are, they’ll avoid creating ads with offers that put them in the negative. For example, if margins are tight, discounts should be out. Instead of creating discounts on the front end to win customers, your agency can make low price guarantees and warranties to win customers over.
3. Sales and revenue-focused
Your agency should focus on generating leads, sales, and revenue. Everything your agency does should be oriented around you closing the sale and enticing customers to buy. If your agency wants to focus on brand building with no long term plan to generate revenue, they’re probably not a good fit.
Your agency should help you find ways to reduce expenses, particularly those due to shipping or returns. They should work to consistently lower advertising costs while increasing your return on ad spend. This sounds like it’s pretty obvious advice, but you’d be surprised at the number of agencies that ignore this.
4. Your agency should understand your metrics and KPIs
There are lots of ecommerce metrics you can track, but it’s probably not a good idea to try and track them all. A better idea would be to identify the most important metrics you need to maintain and grow your business, then build on the metrics you need, on an as-needed basis.
Your agency should focus their attention on your:
Website traffic rates: You’ll want to identify several details with your traffic: The traffic sources that make you money, sources that cost you money, and the sources that lead to increased conversion rates over time. If you have a steady supply of good traffic from interested customers, you’ll have the demand you need to sell more products. If your agency’s CRO protocols are consistent, you should be able to increase revenue whenever you increase your traffic.
Sales conversion rates: You’re probably already familiar with this, but for those who aren’t, your conversion rate is sales divided by users times 100 percent. The average ecommerce conversion rate is 2 to 4.9 percent in the United States. Your agency, with consistent testing, should be able to increase your conversion rates year-over-year. Your agency should also be tracking both micro and macro conversion rates.
Average order values: This tracks the dollar amount spent by your customers each time an order is placed on your website. Your agency should be able to provide you with concrete steps you can take to increase your average order values (and customer lifetime values) over time.
Email opt-in rates: According to Campaign Monitor, email produces an ROI of $42 for every $1 spent. Building an email list means you’re less dependent on paid media to grow. Your agency should be able to help you build your email list. The more reliant you are on earned media (i.e., email), the more stable your cash flow and revenue.
Refund and Return rates: A good agency will help you find the hidden problems behind your refunds and returns. They should be able to use non-traditional sources like online reviews and competitor research as well as traditional sources like customer feedback to help you reduce your refund and return rates.
Ecommerce churn rate: Churn measures customer attrition; this is a problem for ecommerce. How do you measure churn rates if your customer never cancels? Your agency should be able to use metrics like repeat purchase rate or time between orders to calculate your churn rate and provide you with a plan to reduce churn in the future.
The ecommerce marketing company you choose should have these characteristics. They should be able to provide you with the information you need to grow your business.
What To Expect From a Great E-Commerce Marketing Company
Before you hire an agency, you’ll want to make sure you’re prepared for their help. You should expect your budget to mirror the kind of attention, value, and support you receive. Big budgets = lots of attention and support.
A clear track record: Your agency should be able to provide you with samples, references, case studies, and reviews showing their performance. If you found your agency through marketing, it’s a good indication that they know how to market your business. If you are introduced through partnerships or referrals, the same concept applies.
Clarity on their expertise: Your agency should be able to explain their strengths and weaknesses candidly without any weasel words, generalities, or weird marketing speak. They should be able to provide you with clear samples showing that they have the expertise and experience needed to sell your products well.
A clear timeline: Your agency should be able to provide you with a clear timeline showing you how to approach her campaign, how long everything will take to implement, and when they anticipate you’ll begin seeing results.
Questions about your capacity: Your agency may have questions about who handles what — which tasks will be handled by the agency and which jobs will be handled in-house (by you). Set clear boundaries and expectations ahead of time, so there’s no confusion in the middle of your marketing campaigns.
A list of their credentials: Is your agency a Google Premier Partner or Facebook Pro Partner? Are they HubSpot certified? You want to get a list of the credentials they have. This will verify their experience and expertise in several areas.
Their process, policies, and procedures: You’ll want to see how your agency plans on approaching your campaign or project. They should be able to breakdown their approach to marketing your business, how they’ll approach your campaign, and their internal dos and don’ts as it applies to your business.
Communication guidelines: When and how will their team communicate with you (e.g., Slack, Skype, Trello, or email, etc.)? Who will be your point-of-contact? Are you free to call your point of contact whenever you need help, or is there a specific time they’re available? Is support included (it should be).
Your agency should provide you with detailed specifics for each of these points. If you have more questions or concerns, you’ll want to bring those up with your agency.
Conclusion
Ecommerce sales will continue to grow. This growth means more competition for ecommerce businesses. Today, ecommerce businesses are struggling to get customers. Your ecommerce business will need help. Choosing the right ecommerce marketing company can be the difference between failure and success. Choose the right company, and your growth skyrockets. Choose the wrong company, and your business takes a giant step backward. Use this list to identify the pros and cons of the ecommerce company you hire. Invest with the right company, and your business will grow faster than you expect.
The post The 6 Best Ecommerce Marketing Companies of 2020 appeared first on Neil Patel.
Original content source: https://neilpatel.com/blog/ecommerce-marketing-companies/ via https://neilpatel.com
See the original post, The 6 Best Ecommerce Marketing Companies of 2020 that is shared from https://imtrainingparadise.weebly.com/home/the-6-best-ecommerce-marketing-companies-of-2020 via https://imtrainingparadise.weebly.com/home
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Text
The 6 Best Ecommerce Marketing Companies of 2020
Ecommerce is still growing.
Statista says worldwide ecommerce sales will grow from 4.2 trillion in 2020 to 6.5 trillion by 2023. The worldwide pandemic and the growth of remote work continues to boost ecommerce growth. This is a huge opportunity for ecommerce companies that are ready for this change.
Your ecommerce business will need help.
The huge growth in ecommerce means competition; as a result, ecommerce companies are struggling to get customers to their business. Choosing the right marketing company can be the difference between failure and success.
Here’s a list of the best ecommerce marketing companies.
1. NP Digital – Best for Maximizing ROI
NP Digital is my e-commerce marketing company. I’ve built several successful companies, including KISSmetrics, Crazy Egg, Hello Bar, and several other agencies. I’ve helped large companies like Amazon, NBC, GM, HP, and Viacom grow their revenue. I’ve built ecommerce companies of all sizes — from startups to established Fortune 500 brands.
One thing that sets NP Digital apart from other agencies is our focus.
Every improvement we make needs to lead to revenue in some way. If we’re optimizing images, rewriting copy, or redesigning graphics, it needs to lead to revenue. Our focus on revenue changes how we approach problems; it forces us to analyze the profitability of each decision. If it doesn’t work financially, we generally try to avoid it.
NP Digital’s client list includes:
Facebook
Viacom
Google
GM
eBay
NBC
Thomson Reuters foundation
TechCrunch
Cheezburger
American Greetings
2. Upgrow – Best for Strategic Planning
Upgrow is an e-commerce marketing agency based in San Francisco.
They follow a specific e-commerce marketing process that focuses on brand discovery, creating a strategic plan, tracking and reporting set up, and ongoing optimization. They’re one of the few e-commerce agencies that provide complete A-to-Z coverage and optimization. They can design, create, optimize, and promote your e-commerce business.
Upgrow is data and process-driven; as a result, the average client experiences a 259 percent ROI.
Think of their agency as an expert generalist. They’re comfortable working with e-commerce clients regardless of their industry, whether they’re selling $1 pencils or $5,000 vacation packages.
They have approximately 33 clients, manage a client budget of 6.1 million, and they’ve generated more than 125,000 conversions for their clients.
Upgrow’s client list includes:
Talkdesk
memSQL
Nurx
Impact Fund
Cloud Logistics
Platform9
Miss Jones Baking Co.
Seal
Stessa
Juris.co
Knowable Magazine
3. Inflow – Best for Ecommerce Specialist
Inflow is an award-winning e-commerce agency based in Denver.
While other agencies provide A-to-Z support covering design, optimization, and promotion, Inflow focuses exclusively on the marketing and advertising side. They offer SEO, PPC, paid social, and CRO services. If you’re looking for an agency to provide you with marketing and advertising support, but you can handle the design and creative services on your own, Inflow may be a fit.
Here’s one thing that sets Inflow apart.
Inflow doesn’t have account managers. Clients work directly with industry veterans on their campaigns. These experts have a significant amount of experience in their chosen specialty, whether that’s search engine optimization, paid advertising, or conversion optimization.
They prioritize search engine optimization, conversion optimization, and pay per click management in that order. That’s an important detail to keep in mind if you prefer one channel over another.
Inflow’s client list includes:
Amazon
Overstock
Moving.com
Vince
Mountain House
Gaia
Colorado State University
Aviator Gear
Tilebar
4. Single Grain – Best for a Custom Marketing Plan
In 2014, entrepreneur and marketing guru Eric Siu bought a failing SEO agency — Single Grain — for $2. Using his marketing expertise and growth mentality, Eric rebuilt Single Grain, turning it into the digital marketing powerhouse it is today.
Single Grain focuses on rapid growth.
When it comes to ecommerce marketing, many e-commerce marketing companies rely on an assembly line approach. They apply the same strategies and tactics they’ve used with other clients; they repeat the same procedure until it’s overused.
Single Grain creates a unique digital marketing campaign for each of their clients. They analyze their client’s circumstances, creating custom strategies on a case-by-case basis. This sounds obvious, but it’s also the strategy that enables Single Grain to grow its client businesses at such a fast pace.
Single Grain’s client list includes:
Cafepress
Fujitsu
KitchenAid
Random House
Nordstrom Rack
Airbnb
Alexa
Amazon
Uber
TurboTax
5. 1Digital – Best for Bigcommerce Customization
1Digital is a full-service agency focusing exclusively on e-commerce optimization and marketing.
While other agencies focus on a specific e-commerce platform, 1Digital works with a variety of mainstream platforms, including Shopify, Magento, Volusion, Woo Commerce, and others. They’re known for their work with BigCommerce and Shopify.
Their focus on e-commerce includes design and development, SEO, and CRO. They’re not as heavily invested in paid advertising, so that’s something to consider if you’re looking for an agency with significant advertising expertise.
1Digital’s client list includes:
MiR Tactical
Oakwood Veneer Company
VitaRx
Everything for Offices
Mac Me an Offer
Maca
Kids N Cribs
Atlantic Cigar
Genius Ecommerce
6. Avex – Best for Shopify Plus
Avex is a boutique creative e-commerce agency based in New York City. Their agency focuses exclusively on e-commerce. They design, build and optimize e-commerce websites for beauty, luxury, lifestyle, and fashion companies. As Shopify Plus Partners, they’re focused primarily on optimizing and marketing Shopify websites.
As an agency, they’re heavily focused on the creative and design side of marketing. They provide their clients with additional support in the form of conversion rate optimization, usability testing, split testing, marketing, and consulting.
They’re a small 20+ person team that’s focused on serving a specific group of clients in particular niches. This is a good fit for clients who specialize as well — fashion, luxury, or beauty companies are an obvious fit. They may also be a good fit for e-commerce companies with a broad product offering, as long as they’re comfortable with the specialization that Avex offers.
Avex client list includes:
O’Neill
Simmons Bedding
Wolf & Shepherd
Hugo Boss
Kith
Marchesa
TomboyX
Haus
Starter
Pony Sneakers
Packer
Coffee for Less
4 Characteristics That Make a Great Ecommerce Marketing Company
E-commerce companies are facing more competition than they’ve ever met before. Great ecommerce marketing companies have the following characteristics.
1. In-depth knowledge of your business
E-commerce businesses aren’t created equal. Every industry has its own set of expectations; it’s own culture, unique jargon, and unique problems. Your agency should have an in-depth knowledge of your customers, your business, and the industry as a whole.
If your e-commerce business focuses on health and wellness, or fashion, you’ll want to work with an agency that has significant experience in that space. The more technical or specialized your industry, the more important it is to have subject matter experts who understand your customers, business, and the industry well.
This is important because this knowledge gives your agency the know-how they need to promote your business effectively. They’ll have a clear idea of the images that work best for your company, the words they should use, and the promotions your customers will respond to.
2. Obsessive customer focus
Your e-commerce customers are the priority. Your agency should focus on helping you serve your customers. They should work to get to know your customers as well as you do. This isn’t just an understanding of the things your customers want and need. It’s an understanding of the way you work with your customers.
Zappos focuses on customer service. Apple focuses on quality. Walmart focuses on low prices. A great agency understands your business and your focus, so they’re able to create offers, content, or ads that appeal to your audience. This is important because it means you can create marketing you know will work. By understanding your customers, and your business, your agency has the knowledge they need to generate the results you need. It’s also helpful because it helps you manage the financials on your end.
If your agency understands your breakeven cost, and they know what your margins are, they’ll avoid creating ads with offers that put them in the negative. For example, if margins are tight, discounts should be out. Instead of creating discounts on the front end to win customers, your agency can make low price guarantees and warranties to win customers over.
3. Sales and revenue-focused
Your agency should focus on generating leads, sales, and revenue. Everything your agency does should be oriented around you closing the sale and enticing customers to buy. If your agency wants to focus on brand building with no long term plan to generate revenue, they’re probably not a good fit.
Your agency should help you find ways to reduce expenses, particularly those due to shipping or returns. They should work to consistently lower advertising costs while increasing your return on ad spend. This sounds like it’s pretty obvious advice, but you’d be surprised at the number of agencies that ignore this.
4. Your agency should understand your metrics and KPIs
There are lots of ecommerce metrics you can track, but it’s probably not a good idea to try and track them all. A better idea would be to identify the most important metrics you need to maintain and grow your business, then build on the metrics you need, on an as-needed basis.
Your agency should focus their attention on your:
Website traffic rates: You’ll want to identify several details with your traffic: The traffic sources that make you money, sources that cost you money, and the sources that lead to increased conversion rates over time. If you have a steady supply of good traffic from interested customers, you’ll have the demand you need to sell more products. If your agency’s CRO protocols are consistent, you should be able to increase revenue whenever you increase your traffic.
Sales conversion rates: You’re probably already familiar with this, but for those who aren’t, your conversion rate is sales divided by users times 100 percent. The average ecommerce conversion rate is 2 to 4.9 percent in the United States. Your agency, with consistent testing, should be able to increase your conversion rates year-over-year. Your agency should also be tracking both micro and macro conversion rates.
Average order values: This tracks the dollar amount spent by your customers each time an order is placed on your website. Your agency should be able to provide you with concrete steps you can take to increase your average order values (and customer lifetime values) over time.
Email opt-in rates: According to Campaign Monitor, email produces an ROI of $42 for every $1 spent. Building an email list means you’re less dependent on paid media to grow. Your agency should be able to help you build your email list. The more reliant you are on earned media (i.e., email), the more stable your cash flow and revenue.
Refund and Return rates: A good agency will help you find the hidden problems behind your refunds and returns. They should be able to use non-traditional sources like online reviews and competitor research as well as traditional sources like customer feedback to help you reduce your refund and return rates.
Ecommerce churn rate: Churn measures customer attrition; this is a problem for ecommerce. How do you measure churn rates if your customer never cancels? Your agency should be able to use metrics like repeat purchase rate or time between orders to calculate your churn rate and provide you with a plan to reduce churn in the future.
The ecommerce marketing company you choose should have these characteristics. They should be able to provide you with the information you need to grow your business.
What To Expect From a Great E-Commerce Marketing Company
Before you hire an agency, you’ll want to make sure you’re prepared for their help. You should expect your budget to mirror the kind of attention, value, and support you receive. Big budgets = lots of attention and support.
A clear track record: Your agency should be able to provide you with samples, references, case studies, and reviews showing their performance. If you found your agency through marketing, it’s a good indication that they know how to market your business. If you are introduced through partnerships or referrals, the same concept applies.
Clarity on their expertise: Your agency should be able to explain their strengths and weaknesses candidly without any weasel words, generalities, or weird marketing speak. They should be able to provide you with clear samples showing that they have the expertise and experience needed to sell your products well.
A clear timeline: Your agency should be able to provide you with a clear timeline showing you how to approach her campaign, how long everything will take to implement, and when they anticipate you’ll begin seeing results.
Questions about your capacity: Your agency may have questions about who handles what — which tasks will be handled by the agency and which jobs will be handled in-house (by you). Set clear boundaries and expectations ahead of time, so there’s no confusion in the middle of your marketing campaigns.
A list of their credentials: Is your agency a Google Premier Partner or Facebook Pro Partner? Are they HubSpot certified? You want to get a list of the credentials they have. This will verify their experience and expertise in several areas.
Their process, policies, and procedures: You’ll want to see how your agency plans on approaching your campaign or project. They should be able to breakdown their approach to marketing your business, how they’ll approach your campaign, and their internal dos and don’ts as it applies to your business.
Communication guidelines: When and how will their team communicate with you (e.g., Slack, Skype, Trello, or email, etc.)? Who will be your point-of-contact? Are you free to call your point of contact whenever you need help, or is there a specific time they’re available? Is support included (it should be).
Your agency should provide you with detailed specifics for each of these points. If you have more questions or concerns, you’ll want to bring those up with your agency.
Conclusion
Ecommerce sales will continue to grow. This growth means more competition for ecommerce businesses. Today, ecommerce businesses are struggling to get customers. Your ecommerce business will need help. Choosing the right ecommerce marketing company can be the difference between failure and success. Choose the right company, and your growth skyrockets. Choose the wrong company, and your business takes a giant step backward. Use this list to identify the pros and cons of the ecommerce company you hire. Invest with the right company, and your business will grow faster than you expect.
The post The 6 Best Ecommerce Marketing Companies of 2020 appeared first on Neil Patel.
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The Best Online Jobs for Teens 18 Years of Age and Under (Mom-Approved)
https://120profit.com/?p=2453&utm_source=SocialAutoPoster&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Tumblr Some of the links in this post may be from our sponsors. Policy Page There’s no shortage of online jobs for teens to choose from. And that’s a good thing since being a teen these days seems to be getting more and more expensive. Places to go, people to see! It’s a time of your life when so much is happening and changing, doing things with your friends is so important. Keeping up with peers in terms of fashion, the latest technology, etc. while maintaining an active social life — is it any surprise that teens are looking to earn extra cash? Not to mention the sooner teens start saving money and managing it wisely, the better off they’ll be as adults. With college fees looming and the safety net of living at home soon to be removed, earning extra money is the best thing that many teens can do. Luckily, we live in an age where there are good paying jobs for teens all over the internet. If you’re looking for the best online jobs for teens, you’ve come to the right place. Here are the best teen jobs on the web today. Online Survey Sites For Teens Companies are constantly trying to improve their products for the next generation of buyers. And they’re willing to pay for valuable opinions to help them do so. That’s what makes paid online surveys one of the best online jobs for teens today. Some people are put off by survey sites because they see the small amount that you get from them. However, they’re a super easy way to make extra money while binge-watching the latest Netflix series, and they are real online jobs for teenagers that pay. Survey Junkie Survey Junkie is an online survey site where you answer questions and give your opinions. Companies use this market research data to improve their products for their target audience. For each survey you complete, you receive points. In Survey Junkie terms, 100 points equal $1. Once you get 1,000 points ($10), you can redeem them for PayPal cash or free gift cards. Surveys take anywhere from 1 to 20 minutes to complete. Typically, the longer the survey, the more points you can earn. To learn more, check out our complete Survey Junkie review. Swagbucks Swagbucks is one of the most popular survey sites around. The fact that they offer a free $10 sign-up bonus probably helps. According to their website, they’ve paid out over $288 million to users to date and give away over 7,000 gift cards every single day. Swagbucks works much the same way as Survey Junkie. Take surveys, earn points (called “Swagbucks” or SBs), and cash out for gift cards or PayPal credit. However, Swagbucks offers more than just surveys. You can also earn cash by watching videos, shopping online, searching the web, playing games, buying gift cards, and more. It’s free to join, and the surveys range in point value from 1 to 1000 SBs. The number of points you need depends on which prize you choose. Most of the surveys pay at least 60 Swagbucks, and 500 Swagbucks will get you a $5 Amazon gift card. If you want to find out more ways that you can earn money with Swagbucks, check out our full-length Swagbucks review. Earning Station Earning Station is a well-established site that offers paid market research opportunities. This site, like many of the others on this list, operates on a point system. You can earn Station Dollars by completing online surveys, shopping online, playing games, and doing various other online tasks. Station Dollars can then be redeemed for gift cards to your favorite retailers (Amazon, Walmart, etc.). Our favorite thing about Earning Station is that it’s very user-friendly. All you do is create an account and choose the types of activities you’re interested in. Then turn on Netflix and start making some extra cash. MyPoints MyPoints is owned by Swagbucks, so the two are very similar. Right now MyPoints is offering a bonus — earn $5 when you take your first five surveys. A great thing about this site is that if you take the prequalification questions and don’t qualify for a survey, you still receive 5 points. You can earn up to 25 disqualification points per day. MyPoints gives you the option to redeem points for gift cards, PayPal cash, or get travel miles if you have a United MileagePlus account. CashCrate CashCrate is another survey site pays cash for your opinions. In addition to online surveys, CashCrate also rewards you for shopping online, playing games, and referring new members. For every person you refer, you get 20% of their future earnings. New surveys are available daily. CashCrate will also send you surveys specifically curated based on the demographic information you fill out in your profile. So in order to get the best-paying surveys, make sure your profile is complete. Make your first $3 with CashCrate just by signing up. Tutoring Jobs For Teens Tutoring is a great way for teens to make extra money. Here are the best tutoring sites that hire teenagers. SameSpeak SameSpeak pays you to teach students from other countries how to speak natural English. The students also have formal English lessons, but they learn faster by conversing with a natural English speaker (that’s you). To participate in SameSpeak, you must be at least 16 years old. You will also need a computer with high-speed broadband access, a headset with a microphone, and a Skype account. The coaching sessions last 30 minutes, and the payout is $10 per half hour that you complete. Once you have $100 in your account, you can withdraw your earnings via PayPal. SkimaTalk This site is similar to SameSpeak. With SkimaTalk, you conduct 25-minute sessions with students via Skype. After you sign up for an account and complete your profile, you’ll need to complete a few simple tests. Once you’re approved, you can set your availability and rates and begin teaching. In order to teach with SkimaTalk, you must be 18 years or older. You’ll also need the same equipment as with SameSpeak — high-speed Internet, headset, microphone, and a Skype account. SkimaTalk teachers are paid once per month via PayPal. Writing Jobs For Teenagers Freelance writing can be a perfect online job for teens because you can fit it around your schedule. You are probably used to writing assignments at school, so why not get paid for it? Upwork On Upwork, businesses post jobs and freelancers submit pitches to apply. The fees on this site will range from job to job, but there are many freelancers out there who have started on Upwork and gained repeat clients from it. The fee structure is based on your lifetime billings with each client: 20% for the first $500 billed 10% for total billings of $500.01 to $10,000 5% for total billings above $10,000 Upwork isn’t just for writers. Other categories include marketing, web development, customer service, and design to name a few. Bid on projects across several categories to find what most interests you. Fiverr Fiverr is another digital freelancer marketplace. As the name suggests, you can buy or sell for as little as $5. Jobs on this site are referred to as ‘gigs.’ Typical gigs include graphic design, digital marketing, writing and translation, video and animation, programming and tech — basically anything that you can do online. This is a perfect site for website owners to come and get services on an ad-hoc basis. You can price your gigs however you want. If you take a look at the gigs that are available on there, there aren’t actually that many for only $5. You can also tier your offering with additional services at a premium price. If you’re handy with design, technology, words, or a host of other online skills, you could easily make good money from offering your services on Fiverr. Textbroker Textbroker doesn’t pay quite as much as other freelance platforms, but it’s still a good way for teens to make some extra money. One of the benefits of writing on a site like this is that you’ll get a lot of good practice (the more you write, the better you tend to get). You’ll also build a portfolio you can use to pitch higher-paid writing jobs. Your fee depends on whether the job is an OpenOrder, DirectOrder, or TeamOrder: OpenOrders pay per word and depend on your quality rating level. You can choose from thousands of orders at your preferred quality level. A DirectOrder is an order that is sent directly to you. This could either be because a client has worked with you previously and wants to work with you again, or because they have seen your profile and are impressed enough to reach out and work with you. If you have a Direct Order, you set your own rate per word. TeamOrders are for working with the same clients consistently. These projects are open to any author on your team on a first come, first serve basis. The client sets the rate per word for the whole team, and there is no limit to how many teams you can join. Other Legit Ways for Teens to Make Cash Online Tutoring gigs and paid surveys aren’t the only ways for teens to make money online. Here are some more ideas for inspiration. Cafepress Cafepress is an online gift shop or, as they claim, the world’s best online gift shop. You create items to sell, and they do the marketing for you. Popular categories include: Men’s clothing Women’s clothing Accessories Baby clothing Home and decor Drinkware Stationary Stickers and signs You can design your own products on there by heading to the ‘Design Your Own’ section on the website. Select the product that you want to design and use a Cafepress designer to produce the item. The amount of money that you make depends on how much markup you put on your items. You get to choose how much to charge, so it’s entirely up to you. In the Cafepress marketplace, you will earn 5-10% of the sale price for whatever you sell. Instagram Instagram isn’t just a place to share photos of your food or your furry companion. It’s also a platform that you can use to earn some serious cash. Just look at some of the biggest Instagram influencers out there who earn thousands per post. Yes, you read that correctly. Thousands! The amount of money that you are able to make depends on how many followers you have, how engaged they are, and the size of your influence. You can make money from sponsored posts, affiliate marketing, or selling your own products or services. There are other ways to make money on Instagram, but these are the main ones. Care.com When you create a free account with Care.com, you’ll be matched with people in your area who are willing to pay for your services. Care.com offers various opportunities to make money, such as childcare, pet care, housekeeping, and more. You set your own rate. However, Care.com provides a handy calculator to help you determine the best fee to charge. Input your location, years of experience, and availability, and they’ll give you suggestions for how to set your rate. You can also see what other people in your area are charging. Sitter City Similar to Care.com, Sitter City offers services for a babysitter, nanny, pet sitter, housekeeper, or elderly companion. Again, creating a profile is free and easy, and you choose your own rate. Results for each site may vary depending on your location. If you want to make money by providing any of these services, you’ll get the most options for potential matches by signing up for both. Etsy Etsy is a site where you can sell (and buy) unique, handmade, and vintage items. If you’re a crafty person, this is a great site to sell and make money on. Most people think you have to know how to knit or create elaborate jewelry to make money on Etsy, but that’s not necessarily the case. I know several people who sell printables on the website (usually things like inspirational quotes) that do really well. I also know someone who’s had massive success on Etsy selling simple handmade jewelry and leather bracelets. The amount of money you make depends on what you sell and how much people are willing to pay for your items. However, the income potential is massive. Slice The Pie Slice The Pie is a website that pays people for reviews. You can review songs, clothes, commercials, and more before they go live. Your feedback helps artists, record labels, and brands make important decisions about their products. Some reviews will pay you more, which you’ll see on the Category page. You will also get paid more depending on the quality of your review and your star rating on the site. For example, a 1-star reviewer earns $0.03 per track review, while a 5-star reviewer makes $0.15 for each track reviewed. Cash out via PayPal once your account hits $10. You also get bonus points for referring your friends. Teen Jobs: Tips For Getting Started Keep these tips in mind when searching for the best ways to make money online as a teen. Get a PayPal Account As you may have noticed from reading through this list of online jobs for teens, most sites pay via PayPal. Therefore, in order to accept payments, you’ll need to sign up for an account of your own. Setting up a PayPal account is easy. In order to complete your account, PayPal will send a couple small deposits to your bank account and have you verify the amounts. That means you need to set up your account ahead of time. If you wait until you’re ready to transfer your earnings, you’ll have to hold off a few extra days. Keep Your Parents In The Loop I know it’s tempting to keep things to yourself, but if you’re suddenly earning extra money and not explaining where it’s coming from, your parents are going to be worried. For your own safety and benefit, let them know what you’re doing. Tell them how you’ve been researching all kinds of online jobs for students to earn money. A strong work ethic, particularly from a young age, is very impressive and they will appreciate your initiative! Which of these online jobs for teens have you tried? Let us know in the comments! 120profit.com - https://120profit.com/?p=2453&utm_source=SocialAutoPoster&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Tumblr
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Ecommerce Wars: Who Are the Top Online Retailers This Holiday Season? [New Data]
Here in the U.S., today marks "Cyber Monday": an unofficial holiday observed on the Monday after Thanksgiving that celebrates and encourages online shopping with special deals and sales.
Online holiday shopping, however, is far from limited to just one day of the year. In fact, it began early, with online spending seeing record amounts on this year's Thanksgiving Day.
But when it comes to the battle of online retailers, who's at the top? As it turns out, there's been a shakeup in the ecommerce leaderboard.
Here's how the ecommerce wars are shaping up, and who's taking the lead in this year's holiday season.
Walmart Overtakes Apple
Most people might not think of Apple as an online retailer. It has brick-and-mortar locations that offer its branded, on-site "Genius" consultants that help customers pick products and troubleshoot technical issues.
But enough people purchase Apple products from the company's website, it seems, to rank it as the #3 online retailer in the U.S., according to eMarketer.
Source: eMarketer
That's changed in 2018, though. This year, eMarketer has projected that Walmart will overtake Apple's #3 position on the top five list of online retailers, bumping the latter to #4.
There are a few reasons for this projection, but according to eMarketer's report, many of them point to disparities in growth. Whereas Walmart has been identified as having one of the fastest-growing business in the ecommerce landscape, Apple's growth has slowed -- dropping 18% from last year's 26.1%.
Source: eMarketer
Walmart, meanwhile, is eyeing 2018 ecommerce sales growth of 39.4% -- more than 2X as much as Apple's.
Again, a few factors could be contributing to this disparity, ranging from missed expectations on demand for Apple's latest iPhones (to the point where the company cut production on all three models announced in September) to Walmart's online business diversification by way of acquisitions.
Source: Digital Commerce 360
eBay, meanwhile -- which has maintained its #2 spot on the list in 2018 -- is seeing its share of ecommerce sales slipping, dropping .4% from 2017.
But all three -- Apple, eBay, and Walmart -- have quite a way to go in the road to #1.
Amazon Continues to Take the Lead
Amazon has not only maintained its #1 position on the list, as well as its lead lead over the other top four online retails on the list -- but has actually increased its lead over others on the list.
This growth possibly underscores Amazon's competitive edge in the area of digital ads, as well -- -- especially given that one of Amazon's advertising competitors, Facebook, experienced a glitch on its platform that made creating new campaigns a challenge for some marketers.
Before 2020, eMarketer also predicts that ads spend on the leading online retail site will increase by about 3%, slightly eating into the current "duopoly" held by Facebook and Google.
Source: eMarketer
But where there is more online buying behavior, there could be more motivation to spend on ads. Consider, for instance, that Amazon recently reached a deal with Apple to sell new iPhones and iPads on its site -- which carries the potential to increase Amazon's market share of ecommerce sales while continuing to chip away at Apple's.
And as Amazon's physical presence, too, continues to grow -- between its cashierless brick-and-mortar stores and two new slated HQ locations -- it raises the questions of what additional selling partnerships the ecommerce giant could form with other online retail leaders.
Have a look at this list of the top ten:
Source: eMarketer
Given Amazon's existing history of such deals -- as well as its acquisition portfolio -- it might not come as a huge surprise should Amazon acquire or strike similar agreements with other companies on this list. That would lead to further growth of Amazon's ecommerce sales market share and, in turn, perhaps encourage more ad spend.
What Marketers and SMBs Should Do Now
In any case, ecommerce is growing, presenting new opportunities for marketers and small-to-midsize businesses (SMBs) alike -- when approached with caution.
In its annual Holiday Predictions report, Adobe highlights a few key takeaways for navigating the holiday marketing (and shopping) landscape.
Be Mobile-Friendly
Over half of online transactions this season will take place on smartphone.
Source: Adobe
Get Appy
Also within the realm of mobile, start to think about ways your business could create and make use of an app -- as app users are twice as likely to convert into customers.
Source: Adobe
Lean Into New Customers
According to Adobe's report, businesses with $100 million or less in annual online revenue see more value from new customers -- with only a small portion of that revenue coming from recurring customers.
And Here's One From Us
Any time of year -- especially during the frenzied holiday season -- make it easy for people to reach you and, in turn, become customers. For example, advises HubSpot VP of Marketing Jon Dick, for those who prefer to use messaging to reach you, build a way for them to do that (through apps, for example, like Messenger or WhatsApp).
"More B2B buyers are communicating with their sales reps through messaging, because more B2B buyers connect with their friends through SMS and messaging," says Dick. "If you're an SMB B2B company, you need to be implementing a buying process that is easy and is aligned with how people like to communicate, shop and buy today."
Good luck out there. And, of course -- happy holidays.
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Article about popular game Cards Against Humanity
Where to buy Cards Against Humanity?
Where can I buy Cards Against Humanity, you might be asking?
First of all, you wouldn’t want to buy it if you didn’t know what it was, right? For all of you that are reading this yet don’t know what Cards Against Humanity is, I’m going to quickly break it down for you.
It’s basically a multiplayer party game, intended to be used by adults, so if you’re under 18 you might want to consider something else. You can continue reading though since we have a list of similar games that you could play.
The game was funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign back in 2011. It’s based on games such as Magic The Gathering and Charades. What’s amazing about it is that just in the first month of release, it skyrocketed to the first place on Amazon.com, that’s surely something to be proud of.
Oh, and for all of you that got here by searching for Card Against Humanity, do take note that it’s actually called Cards Against Humanity, since there’s a lot of different cards and outcomes you can play with. You wouldn’t want to go into a store and ask for a single Card Against Humanity.
By now you must be wondering, where can I actually buy Cards Against Humanity?
The simple answer is, Amazon.com. Amazon has Cards Against Humanity for sale. The biggest online store in the US, where you can find basically anything you want, and this game is no exception. There shouldn’t really be a reason for you to want to buy it from somewhere else, only if you hate online stores, or you just love to go shopping by foot, in a most-likely crowded place. The game is only $25 and now that the holidays are coming, it’s a perfect get away game to grab and play with your friends or your family. We advise you play it with friends though.
What stores sell Cards Against Humanity?
You don’t want to buy online or simply dislike Amazon.com? No problem, there are a bunch of stores that sell Cards Against Humanity, you just have to know where to go.
The answer for where can I buy Cards Against Humanity in stores might seem simple, but the game isn’t that easy to find in stores. But we are here for you, and we are going to list a few places where you can buy the board game.
Your first though might have been Toys’R’Us. Yeah, that’s what we also thought, but to our surprise they didn’t have the game. At least not when we visited them.
After this little disappointment, we thought about book stores. They are kind of struggling to stay relevant in today’s society so we figured they will probably carry the game. Well that wasn’t the case. The Cards Against Humanity game was nowhere to be found in Barnes and Noble, Hastings or BooksAMillion. We were even wondering if the game is that popular after all, since we couldn’t find any tracks of it in stores.
So, who sells the game? Last chance we’ve got are the discount retail stores and well, get ready for more disappointment. No traces of the game at K-Mart, Sears nor Target. Which is kind of weird, since Target was actually running an advertisement for the game? Oh well. The only retail store that actually carries the game is Walmart, so there’s that. If you can’t find it in your local Walmart, then make sure to check their online website, it’s surely going to be on there.
An alternative to both Amazon.com and the non-stop running through the city is to actually download the game directly from Cardsagainsthumanity.com. Well yes, it’s available to buy on the official website as well, but that’s not what we’re talking about. What we’re saying is, you can download the printable cards for free as a pdf, then you can print the cards yourself. This is probably the easiest and cheapest solution but it requires a bit of work, so might not be for everyone.
What is Cards Against Humanity?
If you know about the game but want to maybe learn more, keep on reading. We’ve summarized it for you.
As we said, the game was crowded as a Kickstarter back in 2011 by a bunch of white guys. “A party game for horrible people.” is what they are describing the game with, and it’s kind of true actually. The game features a lot of racist, homophobic, sexist and rape-culture jokes. If you are easily offended, then this game is probably not for you.
There have been cases where people were bullied, for one of the reasons listed above or simply because they were easily offended. You wouldn’t want to be the guy that gets offended, would you?
There’s a total of 550 cards, 460 of them being white and 90 black (white supremacy joke even in the number of cards huh). It’s said that there are about 13 duodecillion possible rounds if you play with 5 other people, so it’s not that likely for it to be repetitive. Although it does get boring and slightly repetitive after a while, but that’s what expansion packs are for.
The quality of the actual cards is no joke, being printed on premium playing cards. You’d figure a game this popular won’t have any quality material issues.
#1 Amazon’s Best Seller for a very long time, the board game has over 90% 5-star reviews. That’s amazing and rarely found really, 1-star reviews are also only 1% of the total. (probably by people that got easily offended).
There are also over 30.000 reviews on Amazon.com in case you’re feeling bored or want to really get into details.
How to play Cards Against Humanity?
Playing Cards Against Humanity is really simple, you need more than two players, free time and an at least mediocre sense of humor. The number of players is really important, so it’s great if you can drag as many people into this as possible.
A way to play the game is as follows: One player draws a black card and places it down while reading the text on it. The black card is a fill-in-the-blank type of card. The other players draw a number of white cards, usually 10, and they pick the best response to the black card, while also reading it out. The answer has to be funny, or very true. Then, the Card Czar, aka the player who placed the black card down, reads all the white cards out loud and picks his favorite. The game ends when a person has reached a certain amount of points, usually 10 or 15.
There’s also the democratic way to play the game, when everyone picks their favorite, but this mode is a tad riskier since you don’t want to start a fight over who’s the funniest of your friends.
It has been said that this one simple board game can reveal your inner nature. But it probably just highlights your ability to pick the funniest card out of the ten. Or who knows, you might actually just be a horrible person.
Cards Against Humanity’s rules.
Even though it’s great to feel limitless, there’s bound to be chaos if you go on that path, so it’s better to keep it clean and have some rules. The rules of Cards Against Humanity are listed above and couldn’t be easier. The Card Czar picks a black card, then everyone else picks a white card, then one player gets a point for having the best white card. What you can’t and shouldn’t do in this game is to just draw endlessly until you get the funniest cards ever, make alliances against a certain someone that’s winning a bit too much (although that would be funny) or things like having the “a big, black dick” card up your sleeve.
You can play Cards Against Humanity online
Yep, you can play online Cards Against Humanity. If you desire to, and you don’t have the friends necessary to play the game in real life, there’s a bunch of websites where you can play the game. Although it’s not official, it works. There was a more official version of the game online at one point, but it got took down because of server issues, as in the host couldn’t pay for them anymore. What a shame. There’s also a bunch of mobile apps that copy or mock the gameplay but these aren’t really that close to the real thing, so we advise against them.
Cards Against Humanity: Examples!
Some examples of Cards Against Humanity? Now we’re sure you want to hear some of the cards texts, so we’ve got some examples for you.
These are some of the best cards or funny cards that we could find online at least, they are definitely not the best of the best, since that’s a matter of subjectivity really.
Here are some example questions:
“I got 99 problems but _____ ain’t one”
“How did I lose my virginity?”
“During sex, I like to think about _____”
“What gives me uncontrollable gas?”
Now some of these are only funny if combined with the right white card:
“My sex life”
“Miley Cyrus at 55”
“Daddy issues”
“A micropenis”
We’re not going to spoil everything to you, since you might want to play the game for yourself. But we just had to include some of the combinations we encountered.
“The school trip was completely ruined by ____” to which the answer is, “Sexual tension.” We all know it’s true, and on top of that it’s also funny.
Last one, we promise.
“What’s the most emo?” to which the answer is as simple as “Puberty”. That’s pretty offensive, but that’s what the game is about.
These are just example Cards Against Humanity outcomes, you might find better, funnier ones, while some might just not fit.
Cards Against Humanity expansion packs!
No game would be complete without expansions! That’s why there are a bunch of Cards Against Humanity expansion packs out there.
The expansion list goes like this: From First Expansion pack until the Sixth, all consisting of 112 cards with the introduction of blank cards, The Red Box, Blue Box and Green Box, bigger expansion packs with 300 total cards.
There’s other smaller themed packs such as The Bigger Blacker Box which is basically an empty storage room that also comes with 51 cards and the New Bigger Blacker Box which is a larger variant to the previous one.
On top of that, there have been different Holiday Pack releases as well, in 2012, 2013, and 2014, all consisting of 30 cards. These ones are special because all the profit was donated to different charities.
If that’s not enough for you, take notice that there’s more. A bunch of miscellaneous packs featuring themes such as the 90s Nostalgia, the Design Pack, Food Pack, Fantasy Pack, and even a Jew Pack
The recently over political fight between Trump and Hillary also made them release two political themed packs, in which they mock the candidates. The “Post-Trump Pack” with a radioactive hazard symbol and 30 total cards and the “Vote for Hillary Pack” with 15 cards and a check mark symbol.
Also, if you happened to visit PAX East you might have gotten your hands on the limited time PAX exclusive packs, from 2012, 2013, and 2014.
Most of these expansion packs are, or were, quite easy to grab. An exception to this rule is the Hanukkah LOL Pack which was only printed 3 times. So, if you’re a hardcore fan, you’re probably never going to be able to complete your collection.
Games like cards against humanity
If you like Cards Against Humanity, there’s a bunch of similar games out there. Most of them can be found of Amazon.com.
Exploding Kittens is one of them, a game about kittens and explosions, and sometimes goats. The game retails for $20. This is a family-friendly alternative party game for 2-5 players, or up to 9 players if combined with another deck. This game holds the title as the most-backed project in Kickstarter history and all its cards were illustrated by The Oatmeal. For your $20 you get 56 cards, the box, and the instructions.
Another family-friendly title, this time recommended for people aged 16+ though, is Hasbro’s Speak Out Game. It’s a hilarious fun game to play with your friends or your family. What you’re supposed to do is read a sentence out loud and another person has to guess what you’re saying. There’s a twist though. You will be wearing a special mouthpiece while reading the sentences, which makes speech super hard and very funny. For $30, you get 5 mouthpieces, 200 double-sided cards, timer, and instructions.
The last one we’re going to list here is Telestrations After Dark the board game. It usually goes for $30, and it’s another Adults Only type of game, great for parties and get together with friends. It’s a game about drawing stuff, although you don’t need talent, all you need is a sense of humor. Based on the original game Telestrations, you will draw what you see and then guess what you saw for hilarious, weird and just plain wrong outcomes.
In conclusion, where can you buy Cards Against Humanity?
You can find it at various online marketplaces or even retail stores, although we recommend using Amazon.com since it’s safe, cheap and fast. Do buy this game if you want to have fun with your friends, but do not buy it if you are easily offended.
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Fixing primary care’s broken business model
Primary care visits are never quick; we don’t give much advice over the phone or online; and we prioritize the government’s and insurance companies’ public health agenda over our own patients’ concerns.
Imagine health care as a retail customer experience for a few minutes:
Imagine you’re going to Walmart to buy a bag of dog food, a new coffee maker or to equip a small kitchen in your newly built mother-in-law apartment.
1. You’ve bought dog food there before, so you know exactly where it is. You just want to quickly grab a bag and get out of there.
2. You have a rough idea of where the coffee makers are; you know some brands you trust, but you might have one or two questions before you select one, and if they don’t have one you like, you might get it somewhere else. Or, you might even check their website to see which models they carry.
3. For the new kitchen, you have a list, but know you probably haven’t thought of everything, so you plan to walk down the aisles in the kitchen and home departments. You plan to spend a fair amount of money, so you might be on the lookout for special sales or promotions. But, you definitely don’t want someone else to choose all the items for you.
Can Walmart meet your needs in all these situations? Probably yes.
Now, think about how your doctor’s office works
1. Can you quickly get in and out if you have a simple problem like conjunctivitis?
2. Are they able to give you information on what your options are for a recurring shoulder dislocation; could they refer you to a shoulder specialist without first waiting weeks to see your primary care doctor?
3. You have lots of issues and try to get an appointment to deal with them all at once; you think of it as a physical, but last time you had a physical, your doctor brought up all kinds of things you don’t particularly see as priorities for yourself.
Here are the existing realities of primary care
We can’t afford to just see you for something quick. Our quality indicators, which more and more will determine how we get paid, will go down if we don’t screen you at every visit and offer interventions for depression, smoking, alcohol misuse, hypertension, weight management, immunization needs and much more.
We won’t refer you without seeing you, and we often hesitate giving you medical advice over the phone. Our providers are not scheduled for anything else besides seeing patients, because the rules of how we are paid still emphasize face-to-face visits over “population management.” So our providers are busy all day long seeing patients for visits that could have been simple but are loaded up with mandatory screenings and interventions and our medical assistants, besides being busy with all our screening questionnaires, are discouraged from giving medical advice they aren’t formally trained to provide.
Is there a doctor shortage?
We are said to have a doctor shortage. We have an aging population with more and more chronic diseases, like diabetes and heart disease. The need for skilled and experienced medical providers is continually increasing.
We have no public health system to speak of in this country, so the government, through Medicare and Medicaid, has mandated that health care providers do the things the public health system does in other countries.
This is, plain and simple, what is clogging up the works in health care today: Too much non-doctor work is crammed into each patient visit, and we can’t charge for giving advice or directing care except in a face-to-face visit.
You don’t need to go to medical school to give immunizations, tell people smoking is bad for you, explain that “low fat” foods cause obesity, or promote regular exercise. You don’t even need to be a doctor, PA or NP to screen for high blood pressure – only to treat it. (Some pundits, in utter desperation, have suggested we send pharmacists to school to learn how to treat hypertension, but there are of course plenty of licensed medical providers who are able and willing to do that if we get freed up from the less-skilled tasks I just listed above.)
Patients and doctors have no control
Now, why are we doing all those things we do if they are so inefficient? Quite simply, whoever pays us has the power to define our work. We call that “health insurance,” but that is not exactly what we are dealing with. Insurance, for home, auto or employer liability, has nothing to do with predictable events or minor issues. Your car insurance doesn’t pay for oil changes or tire wear, not even for a minor paint scratch. But somehow that is what we expect health insurance to cover for our bodies. In terms of auto insurance, most people probably figure an insurance job carries an inflated price tag and lots of paperwork. The same is true for health care, which should not be a surprise to anyone.
For example, years ago the overhead cost of insurance billing for each primary care doctor was reported to be $80,000. That, put very plainly, is money that patients and employers are ultimately paying through premiums and deductibles.
And all the mandated screenings are there because Medicare, in particular, has the right to micromanage doctors’ work because they are paying for health care visits, which could be quicker and less costly if patients had control over their health care spending.
How could we do better?
We do three things in primary care, each with its own workflow and, really, each with its own economics.
1. We could do our part of public health more effectively. Allow us to promote immunizations and other primary preventions outside our already crammed fifteen-minute visits. Pay us a per patient per year stipend to reach out to target populations through mail, phone, web or, when appropriate, in person about general health issues. Stop imagining we can do all of it and still treat diseases, acute and chronic, in our measly fifteen minutes. Right now, that is just clicking boxes with little actual substance. Use some of the government money that should have been spent on a working public health system if you want us to step in and do the government’s work.
2. Make it economically feasible for medical providers to oversee patient care by acknowledging that reading incoming reports, answering phone or web inquiries and coordinating care with specialists and hospitals are essential parts of being a medical home for patients. Such activities should not be unpaid services eked out at the expense of lunch, bathroom breaks or dinner with our families.
3. Allow us to define each office visit together with our patients. It is insulting to everyone involved to have to interrogate someone with a splitting headache, twisted ankle or bleeding laceration about their diet and alcohol habits. I could see many more patients if I could delegate those things to outreach staff or simply not do it every visit. Right now we are made to act as if we will never see that patient again. I was trained to provide care over time, in a relationship based practice. That is proven to be an effective and fiscally sound way to deliver health care.
The third task is the only one that makes sense to pay us for on a per-visit basis, whereas the first two deserve their own payment method. Personally, I wonder if the first few hundred dollars worth of primary care visits are worth churning through the expensive bureaucratic insurance machinery, or if it wouldn’t make more sense to just allow each patient a set amount of spending at their discretion.
I am not writing about privately financed, direct primary care or concierge medicine. Those obviously exist, and may work well for many people, but the health care payment options for most Americans are what desperately need fixing.
Only if we acknowledge that public health, population health, and face-to-face visits are three separate aspects of health care can we move forward in reforming primary care. And only if we recognize and reimburse physicians’ non-face-to-face work fairly will we see the improved customer service and doctor-patient communications we are now only paying lip service to.
Where would Google be if we had to make an appointment to sit down with a search consultant and pose our questions, fifteen minutes at a time? It may be an outlandish analogy, but health care needs some shaking up.
“A Country Doctor” is a family physician who blogs at A Country Doctor Writes:.
Image credit: Shutterstock.com
Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how.
[Read More ...] https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2018/06/fixing-primary-cares-broken-business-model.html
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Text
Fixing primary care’s broken business model
Primary care visits are never quick; we don’t give much advice over the phone or online; and we prioritize the government’s and insurance companies’ public health agenda over our own patients’ concerns.
Imagine health care as a retail customer experience for a few minutes:
Imagine you’re going to Walmart to buy a bag of dog food, a new coffee maker or to equip a small kitchen in your newly built mother-in-law apartment.
1. You’ve bought dog food there before, so you know exactly where it is. You just want to quickly grab a bag and get out of there.
2. You have a rough idea of where the coffee makers are; you know some brands you trust, but you might have one or two questions before you select one, and if they don’t have one you like, you might get it somewhere else. Or, you might even check their website to see which models they carry.
3. For the new kitchen, you have a list, but know you probably haven’t thought of everything, so you plan to walk down the aisles in the kitchen and home departments. You plan to spend a fair amount of money, so you might be on the lookout for special sales or promotions. But, you definitely don’t want someone else to choose all the items for you.
Can Walmart meet your needs in all these situations? Probably yes.
Now, think about how your doctor’s office works
1. Can you quickly get in and out if you have a simple problem like conjunctivitis?
2. Are they able to give you information on what your options are for a recurring shoulder dislocation; could they refer you to a shoulder specialist without first waiting weeks to see your primary care doctor?
3. You have lots of issues and try to get an appointment to deal with them all at once; you think of it as a physical, but last time you had a physical, your doctor brought up all kinds of things you don’t particularly see as priorities for yourself.
Here are the existing realities of primary care
We can’t afford to just see you for something quick. Our quality indicators, which more and more will determine how we get paid, will go down if we don’t screen you at every visit and offer interventions for depression, smoking, alcohol misuse, hypertension, weight management, immunization needs and much more.
We won’t refer you without seeing you, and we often hesitate giving you medical advice over the phone. Our providers are not scheduled for anything else besides seeing patients, because the rules of how we are paid still emphasize face-to-face visits over “population management.” So our providers are busy all day long seeing patients for visits that could have been simple but are loaded up with mandatory screenings and interventions and our medical assistants, besides being busy with all our screening questionnaires, are discouraged from giving medical advice they aren’t formally trained to provide.
Is there a doctor shortage?
We are said to have a doctor shortage. We have an aging population with more and more chronic diseases, like diabetes and heart disease. The need for skilled and experienced medical providers is continually increasing.
We have no public health system to speak of in this country, so the government, through Medicare and Medicaid, has mandated that health care providers do the things the public health system does in other countries.
This is, plain and simple, what is clogging up the works in health care today: Too much non-doctor work is crammed into each patient visit, and we can’t charge for giving advice or directing care except in a face-to-face visit.
You don’t need to go to medical school to give immunizations, tell people smoking is bad for you, explain that “low fat” foods cause obesity, or promote regular exercise. You don’t even need to be a doctor, PA or NP to screen for high blood pressure – only to treat it. (Some pundits, in utter desperation, have suggested we send pharmacists to school to learn how to treat hypertension, but there are of course plenty of licensed medical providers who are able and willing to do that if we get freed up from the less-skilled tasks I just listed above.)
Patients and doctors have no control
Now, why are we doing all those things we do if they are so inefficient? Quite simply, whoever pays us has the power to define our work. We call that “health insurance,” but that is not exactly what we are dealing with. Insurance, for home, auto or employer liability, has nothing to do with predictable events or minor issues. Your car insurance doesn’t pay for oil changes or tire wear, not even for a minor paint scratch. But somehow that is what we expect health insurance to cover for our bodies. In terms of auto insurance, most people probably figure an insurance job carries an inflated price tag and lots of paperwork. The same is true for health care, which should not be a surprise to anyone.
For example, years ago the overhead cost of insurance billing for each primary care doctor was reported to be $80,000. That, put very plainly, is money that patients and employers are ultimately paying through premiums and deductibles.
And all the mandated screenings are there because Medicare, in particular, has the right to micromanage doctors’ work because they are paying for health care visits, which could be quicker and less costly if patients had control over their health care spending.
How could we do better?
We do three things in primary care, each with its own workflow and, really, each with its own economics.
1. We could do our part of public health more effectively. Allow us to promote immunizations and other primary preventions outside our already crammed fifteen-minute visits. Pay us a per patient per year stipend to reach out to target populations through mail, phone, web or, when appropriate, in person about general health issues. Stop imagining we can do all of it and still treat diseases, acute and chronic, in our measly fifteen minutes. Right now, that is just clicking boxes with little actual substance. Use some of the government money that should have been spent on a working public health system if you want us to step in and do the government’s work.
2. Make it economically feasible for medical providers to oversee patient care by acknowledging that reading incoming reports, answering phone or web inquiries and coordinating care with specialists and hospitals are essential parts of being a medical home for patients. Such activities should not be unpaid services eked out at the expense of lunch, bathroom breaks or dinner with our families.
3. Allow us to define each office visit together with our patients. It is insulting to everyone involved to have to interrogate someone with a splitting headache, twisted ankle or bleeding laceration about their diet and alcohol habits. I could see many more patients if I could delegate those things to outreach staff or simply not do it every visit. Right now we are made to act as if we will never see that patient again. I was trained to provide care over time, in a relationship based practice. That is proven to be an effective and fiscally sound way to deliver health care.
The third task is the only one that makes sense to pay us for on a per-visit basis, whereas the first two deserve their own payment method. Personally, I wonder if the first few hundred dollars worth of primary care visits are worth churning through the expensive bureaucratic insurance machinery, or if it wouldn’t make more sense to just allow each patient a set amount of spending at their discretion.
I am not writing about privately financed, direct primary care or concierge medicine. Those obviously exist, and may work well for many people, but the health care payment options for most Americans are what desperately need fixing.
Only if we acknowledge that public health, population health, and face-to-face visits are three separate aspects of health care can we move forward in reforming primary care. And only if we recognize and reimburse physicians’ non-face-to-face work fairly will we see the improved customer service and doctor-patient communications we are now only paying lip service to.
Where would Google be if we had to make an appointment to sit down with a search consultant and pose our questions, fifteen minutes at a time? It may be an outlandish analogy, but health care needs some shaking up.
“A Country Doctor” is a family physician who blogs at A Country Doctor Writes:.
Image credit: Shutterstock.com
Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how.
from KevinMD.com https://ift.tt/2K3tdpt
0 notes