New York SBDC Research Network

Article by Lucy Koch From eMarketer After the children are tucked in, most parents probably intend for that time to be quiet and interruption-free. But relaxing after the kids are asleep typically involves media consumption—which can also be an opportune window for marketers to reach those parents. The No.1 post-bedtime activity for both mothers and fathers is watching TV or movies, according to an August 2018 survey by Brigham Young University and Deseret News. Mothers are more likely than fathers to use this time for interaction with people outside of the household. And more respondents in both groups said those interactions took place on social media, rather than on phone calls or texts. Parents aren’t on their devices before bed just for entertainment purposes, they’re also shopping. In the OpenX/Harris Poll survey, 46% of parent respondents said they use their phones in bed at night to research purchases more than once a week, and 20% said they transact in-bed purchases by...

By Jann Chambers From UK Web Host Review With so many different opportunities to choose from it is easy to suffer from “shiny object syndrome” and fleet from one idea to the next. I’m sure you have a ton of amazing business ideas. However, it is important to stick to one area and be consistent before expanding into other areas... The main thing about your blog is being consistent in creating content. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to get organized (wink-wink) you can easily schedule both your blog posts and social media posts to advertise your articles. So if you’re like me and like to get everything done in one go – you can... An eCommerce business is basically the same as starting any shop/ store, the only key difference is that people don’t normally visit your warehouse in person. When you ship the products you’ll need to ensure that this is handled professionally and the chosen company are competent and cost-effective. Additionally, the postage and packaging, ta...

From the Social Security Administration : April is National Social Security Month. Handle your small business needs through the Social Security Administration’s online suite of Business Services. See what you can do online! The Business Services Online Suite of Services allows organizations, businesses, individuals, employers, attorneys, non-attorneys representing Social Security claimants, and third-parties to exchange information with Social Security securely over the internet. You must register and create your own password to access Business Services Online. The Complete Phone Registration option is provided to individuals who began their Business Services Online registration by phone and need to create a password. List of Services include: Request a replacement Social Security card Apply for Social Security benefits Get your Social Security Statement Appeal a decision Find out if you qualify for benefits Estimate your future benefits Get a letter saying you don...

From eMarketer : A string of recent data suggests that online retail is going to eat into brick-and-mortar sales faster than ever this holiday season. The latest evidence: An October survey of nearly 7,350 consumers conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics for the National Retail Federation further found that, for the first time in the survey’s history, online topped all brick-and-mortar destinations as the channel where most consumers said they plan to buy holiday items. In percentage terms, nearly 59% of consumers said they plan to do their holiday shopping online this year, up from 56.5% last year. Also from eMarketer : Adobe predicted that online holiday season sales will rise 13.8% this year to top $100 billion for the first time. According to the report, online sales will grow to $107.4 billion from $94.4 billion in 2016. That's a projected growth rate of 13.8%—a bit slower than in 2016, when the gain was 14.4%, and well off 2015's 17.7% pace.

From eMarketing : More than half of retailers in North America offer buy online, pick up in-store (BOPUS) service. But BOPUS is widely seen as a significant challenge, according to a new survey of retailers. According to an August 2017 survey by JDA, a supply chain software company, roughly three-quarters of US store managers said they have faced difficulties in implementing BOPUS. The ability to accurately track inventory is a major concern, it found. Perhaps not surprisingly, then, only about one-third of the US retailers surveyed said that they offer discounts for consumers who buy online and pick up in-store. The benefits of BOPUS for retailers are well-known. In-store pickup means that customers are, by definition, in the store and more likely to make additional purchases.

From MarketingProfs : Consumers say they are most likely to trust online influencers who come across as credible and who appear to have actually used the products/services incorporated into their posts, according to research from IZEA. The report was based on data from a survey conducted in 2016 of 1,000 consumers age 18-70 in the United States who use social media. Some 67% of respondents say the credibility/believability of an influencer is highly important in making sponsored posts effective; and 64% say it is very important that the influencer seems to have actually tried the product/services incorporated into posts. Less than half of consumers say an influencer's popularity/follower count makes sponsored posts more effective.

From eMarketer : Nearly half of US millennial grocery shoppers polled earlier this year said they have shopped for some groceries in an online-only store, a dramatic change from just two years ago. And they're not alone. The finding mirrors a trend of consumers across all age groups increasingly getting their groceries among internet pure plays, although at a more modest level. A February 2017 survey by food industry research firm Food Marketing Institute (FMI) found that 43% of millennial respondents shopped for groceries at online-only retailers at least occasionally, a rate almost 80% higher than in 2015. Consumers ages 39 to 52 shopped for groceries at online-only retailers at about half the rate of millennials

From eMarketer : When it comes to shopping online, consumers have a variety of different payment methods they can choose from. Most prefer PayPal—or something equivalent to it, like Stripe, Google Wallet or Amazon Payments. October 2016 research from postal industry service provider International Post Corporation surveyed cross-border digital buyers across 26 countries. More than four in 10 respondents—who purchased goods online in the past three months and made a cross-border purchase online in the past year—said they prefer to pay for their online purchases via PayPal, or an equivalent service.

Some are barely more than a minute. Some take an hour or more. While some are highly technical, others are very user-friendly. There are talking heads; they are graphic intensive. We're talking about learning about bookkeeping online. Even if one delegates the day-to-day task to someone else, every entrepreneur needs to understand the basics about the financials of the business. Enter YouTube, which has about 66,000 videos that help businessperson with bookkeeping and accounting. Peruse at your leisure to see which ones resonate the most with you. I DO need to mention Introduction to Accounting from SBA.

From LinkedIn "I'll be online later," you say, grabbing your laptop as you head out the door. "Please don't," say a growing number of CEOs who are radically rethinking the modern workday. Prompted by Millennials who value work-life balance, an increasingly global workforce spanning time zones, and devices that allow us to connect anywhere, anytime, these CEOs recognize the value of redesigning business to accommodate life, and not the other way around... In a world that is always on, when does work stop? In one corner is the argument for flexible hours, the darling of the tech set. When executed well, this approach allows staff to work when they work best while navigating life events that don’t naturally fall before 9 a.m. or 6 p.m. However, probe a bit further and many employees admit that flexible hours often mean "always working," with little or no ability to shut off. In the other corner is the 9-to-5 (or 6...or 7...) model, which can...

Some 40% of US consumers say they currently pay for news, fashion, sports, or business digital content, even though 70% say they access those categories of content online regularly, according to a recent report from CloudSense. This reluctance to pay for digital media is true even for the "digital native" generation: 45% of the 16-24-year-olds surveyed say they spend money on any sort of digital content from publishers. More from MarketingProfs .

More than one-third of consumers (37%) say they most often abandon an online shopping cart because they decide at the last minute that the purchase is too expensive, according to a recent report from Offers.com. The second most common reason for not completing an online purchase is finding a better price on another website. Just 20% say they almost always purchase the items they put in their online shopping carts. Read more from MarketingProfs

SBA's YouTube channel has a variety of playlists and how-to webinars. Here are a few recent webinars that you may have missed, but can watch any time on demand: Making and Receiving Online Payments - Online and Mobile Making Your Small Business Workplace LGBT-Inclusive Social Media Marketing Made Simple

From the Sales Tax Institute . You collect the tax for the state where the property is delivered to your customer. If the item is shipped to the customer, then tax applies for the delivery state. You should collect the tax only if you are registered to collect tax in that state. If the customer picks up the item at your location, tax should be collected for your state. If you are selling goods over the Internet and your company has a presence in the state of delivery, your company has established nexus and will be required to register to collect sales tax on all taxable items regardless of method of order placement. Whether the order is placed over the Internet or through traditional means, if a company has nexus with the state in which the product is being shipped, sales tax should be billed and collected. For example, if a New York company ships to New York, there is nexus, and tax is collected. If the New York company ships out of New York, whether they collect sales tax or not...

Yelp and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) have teamed up to launch the Success With Online Reviews initiative, which kicked off ... at the New York Stock Exchange. “Sharing what you dig and what you don’t is nothing new, but today this consumer word-of-mouth happens at lightning speed online, in the form of reviews,” says Darnell Holloway, Yelp’s Senior Manager of Local Business Outreach. “What’s more is that in a recent national survey, 85% of consumers said that they read online reviews about local businesses. ” That would be the Local Consumer Review Survey 2013 from BrightLocal. More from WebProNews .

From CBS News MoneyWatch : When you own a small business or manage the social media program for your company, controlling the narrative is a constant concern. And no matter how much time you spend developing goodwill through your Twitter and Facebook presence, there will always be unhappy customers who flame, troll, and otherwise complain online. How do you reply to them? Should you respond at all? It's a tricky balancing act -- knowing how much you should engage without fanning the flames and making things worse. Recently, PC World's Christopher Null explained how you can clean up your business's online reputation, and he gave a lot of credible advice for dealing with negative feedback in a variety of common scenarios.

ADP Small Business Services division offered tips and reminders to small business owners , their accountants and other advisors to get a head start on year-end tax preparation to help avoid delays, streamline the tax filing process and improve outcomes. The New York State Tax Department offers online demos about enhanced Sales Tax Web File . The four demos cover a variety of filing scenarios and you may view them at your convenience.

You've gotten your customer on your site, and even to the checkout page, but (as you well know) your efforts don't end at the "Add To Basket" button. If you want to encourage your website visitors to complete their purchases, you need to double-check your checkout process. Any e-commerce site owner knows the frustration resulting from the abandonment of a full shopping basket; all online shops suffer from a certain amount of checkout abandonment. But the most likely causes of a high rate of abandonment are few, and they're relatively simple to rectify. Read more at MarketingProfs.com .

Credit cards are a common online payment option for small businesses, but what about other services like PayPal, Bill Me Later and Google Wallet? These now ubiquitous tools make it easier than ever for anyone – not just e-tailers – to buy and sell goods online and via mobile devices. However, as with all business tools, they have their pros and cons. Here’s what you need to know.

From HERE : Are you doing business on the Internet? Selling on eBay? Promoting or advertising someone else’s products on your website or blog? Online money-making opportunities are plentiful – from selling your old books via online auction to promoting products and services for online merchants, or becoming an online merchant yourself. But at what point does this mean you are in business yourself and, since you are making money online, what are your tax and regulatory obligations?