New York SBDC Research Network

By Lucy Koch From eMarketer A couple weeks ago, headline after headline heralded the moment when US e-commerce (“clicks”) finally surpassed in-store sales (“bricks”), per slightly misconstrued data from the US Census Bureau. This seemed to confirm what many perceive as reality: Brick-and-mortar stores struggle as e-commerce continues to grow at double-digit rates every year. But the headlines didn’t tell the full story, and many people got the wrong impression as a result. What the stories should have clarified was that online sales across all categories accounted for 11.813% of retail spending in February, while sales from general merchandise retailers via their brick-and-mortar stores accounted for 11.807%. (And while “general merchandise” sounds like it could account for everything, it actually represents a more specific segment of retail that excludes auto, food, beverage, apparel, and accessory sales.) We forecast that retail e-commerce will account for 10.9% of total U

By Carly Klein From Bplans For a lot of non-technical founders—that is, entrepreneurs with a business idea but without technical expertise—sourcing software development talent is critical. In many areas, however, the high demand for tech talent appears to be larger than the supply of qualified tech and software developers for hire. As a result, a lot of founders are turning to international outsourcing. While this may be an innovative solution to your immediate need for tech talent needs, the question of how to protect your intellectual property when outsourcing software development has probably crossed your mind. The last thing you want is to have simply handed your idea and your intellectual property over to a potential competitor. It’s a valid concern. The best thing you can do is create an IP protection strategy and document it in a business plan, so you’ve integrated it into your larger business strategy.

Written by Yext for eMarketing Whether you own a local business or handle digital marketing for a brand which operates physical locations, the quality of your local business listings can either improve — or erode — your customer experience. Local listings contain the public facts about each of your business locations, including store hours, contact information, holiday schedules, menu items, and people profiles, which are necessary for both search engines and consumers to make informed decisions about you. Seventy-three-percent of high-intent consumers don't visit a brand’s website before making a decision, according to Yext research from April 2017. So even if the information on your website is accurate and up-to-date, any inconsistency across third-party services could prevent consumers from finding the information they’re looking for. It might seem like the amount of facts about your business continually increases. It should! Specificity is critical when it comes to pro

Article by Blake Droesch From eMarketer More than 500,000 active influencers are operating just on Instagram, according to a study by InfluencerDB. That’s 39% of all Instagram accounts with more than 15,000 followers. And among this group of active Instagram influencers, 81% have followings between 15,000 and 100,000 users. With so many options, marketers can find influencers who closely match their brand’s ethos. But it also means the influencer field is at risk of becoming oversaturated, which presents several challenges to marketers. “While the increase has definitely led to more available influencers to work with, brands need to be careful,” said Jessica Dooley, US social practice lead at Mindshare. “The emergence of influencer marketing into a scalable channel has increased a brand’s liability to fraud and potential controversy. Now more than ever, it is paramount that any influencer activation is rooted in a more rigorous evaluation process.”

From All Area Codes The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) publishes both daily and monthly data on the number of complaints consumers submit about telemarketers allegedly violating Do Not Call rules. In each of the past three years, complaints increase during the March and April tax season. During the peak of the third week in April, the average daily complaints are 10% higher than the last week of March and more than 5 times the January daily average. Because April 15th sometimes falls on a weekend, tax day isn't always on the 15th. It was on the 18th in 2016 and 2017. In 2018, it was on the 17th. In 2019, April 15th falls on a Monday so it will be the tax deadline for most consumers. For this tax season, consumers should be alert when answering calls related to their tax returns because they are likely scams. The IRS has stated repeatedly that they will not call consumers to demand immediate payment for taxes. Further, they will not call without first sending a bill in th

by Ben Luthi From NAV If you’ve ever applied for a business credit card, you probably noticed that the application asked for a Social Security number, even if you have an employer identification number. This is primarily because most business credit cards require a personal guarantee. In other words, if your business can’t repay the debt you incur on the card, you’ll be responsible as the guarantor to pay it with your personal assets. As such, even small business credit cards for bad and fair credit require a credit check, because the card issuer needs to know how likely you are to repay the debt if your business can’t. In general, there’s only one type of business credit card that you can get without a personal credit check, and that’s a corporate credit card.

By yext From eMarketing Image by John Hain from Pixabay A significant number of retailers in North America are now working with influencers as part of their marketing strategy. According to polling by Retail TouchPoints for referral marketing platform Extole, 31% of retailers said they have worked with brand advocates to become influencers, 30% used microinfluencers and 28% used paid celebrity influencers. “Influencer marketing is important for businesses around the world, particularly those in retail, fashion, beauty and entertainment,” said eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson, author of our recent report, "Global Influencer Marketing 2019." “Many consumers, particularly young people, get product recommendations from the influencers they follow. Retailers that collaborate with an influencer can bring new shoppers into stores and create buzz around their offerings.” But influencer marketing can be more complex for retailers that sell a wide variety of

By Anna Wells From ThomasNet According to NBC News, a Japanese startup called Vaak is using artificial intelligence software to help retailers ferret out shoplifters before they leave the store … and perhaps even before they grab the goods. The “Vaakeye” technology is designed to work with a standard surveillance system to help identify behaviors that may constitute “suspicious activity.” Vaak CEO Ryo Tanaka told NBC that this could include facial expressions, gestures, and movements — even clothing choices. If someone sets off an internal alert, the idea is for the store to dispatch personnel for a quick check-in. And while Vaak says its tech reduced shoplifting incidents by 77% in tests, the idea of using technology to solve the problem is not without controversy. Sven Dietrich, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told NBC that these kinds of deep learning algorithms are only as good as the data used to train them and “might be extracting a certain bias.”

From the US Census Bureau A repository of information describing database attributes. The dictionary contains an identification section to describe record codes, geographic area codes, area characteristics, and special area codes, plus endnotes and a table (matrix) section. Disclosure In accordance with federal law governing census reports (Title 13 of the United States Code), no data are published that would disclose the operations of an individual establishment or business. In cases where the data must be withheld, the following symbol appears in place of the data: D : Withheld to avoid disclosing data for individual companies; data are included in higher level totals Employment Ranges Used when the sales and other data must be withheld due to disclosure, but a range for the employment data can be shown. The following symbols are valid: a : 0 to 19 employees b : 20 to 99 employees c : 100 to 249 employees e : 250 to 499 employees f : 500 to 999 employees g : 1,000

By Lucy Koch From eMarketer Most US consumers expect to get a tax refund this year, and they plan to stick their windfall in the piggy bank. A February 2019 survey from the National Retail Federation (NRF) showed that nearly two in three US adults said that they expected a tax refund this year, and half of those respondents said they planned to save it. That was in line with trends the NRF has seen since 2012, when plans to save became more common than paying down debt. Consumers’ reasons for saving varied—40.4% of respondents to the Valassis survey said that they planned to put their refund toward an emergency fund, while others were saving for bigger-ticket purchases like home improvements or furnishings (19.1%), vacations or experiences (15.2%) or a car purchase or auto-related expense (8.7%).

From Avalara Understanding where your company has nexus is an integral part of your sales tax compliance strategy because nexus dictates where your business is required to collect and remit tax. There are a lot of business activities that can cause your business to have nexus, but one is getting a lot of attention from states right now because it was at the forefront of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) case South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. Sales tax nexus is the connection between a seller and a state that requires the seller to collect and remit tax on sales made in that state. Historically, nexus was based on physical presence. After the Wayfair decision, nexus can now also be established based on economic activity. If you have sales tax nexus in California and Texas, for example, you must collect and remit sales tax in California and Texas. Unfortunately, you can’t just figure out where you have nexus today and forget about it — you must closely monitor nexus on an

Article by Lucy Koch From eMarketer Earlier this month, Philadelphia passed a bill rendering cashless stores like Amazon Go and Sweetgreen illegal and banning future establishments from completely abandoning cash. By July 2019, most retailers in the city will be required to offer consumers a cash payment option... “The number of completely cashless businesses are few and far between, and research has shown that cash is still a preferred payment method for many shoppers in the US,” said eMarketer forecasting analyst Cindy Liu. An October 2018 survey from Pew Research Center showed that 70% of US adults used cash last year for at least some of their purchases during a typical week. Separately, 60% of US internet users polled by Cardtronics said that cash was the most available payment method for everyone, and another 90% viewed cash as essential to those without checking or savings accounts.

By MARK SULLIVAN From Fast Company Facebook’s Instagram photo-sharing app has become a hotspot for brands, and a hotspot for consumers who want a sort of digital window shopping experience. Today, Instagram sweetened the deal by adding a checkout feature to the app so users can buy stuff they see in their feed without ever having to leave Instagram... Instagram says its users have been sending strong signals that they want to be able to shop inside the app. The company says 80% of its users actively follow a brand or brands on Instagram. And 130 million users are interacting with shopping posts on Instagram every month, Instagram product management lead Ashley Yuki told me. “We started building this last year, but before we even did anything people were trying to shop for products on Instagram,” she said. The on-Instagram checkout feature is currently a closed beta, so only a small group of 20 brands will get it at first. They include Adidas, Burberry, H&M, Micheal Kors, Nik

By Lyndsey Matthews From AFAR The rules are about to change. Starting on January 1, 2021, all U.S. citizens who want to travel to the 26 members of Europe’s Schengen Zone will need to register with the European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS) or risk being turned away at the border. The new travel authorization applies to those entering any member country of Europe’s Schengen Zone. Currently, that includes 22 countries that are also members of the EU, four non-EU countries, plus three European micro-states. That means that you’ll need to register starting in 2021 to enter Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. The micro-states of San Marino, Vatican City, and Monaco will also require the registering. Through an online system on etiasvisa.com , a tr

By Andrew W. Hait, a survey statistician/economist at the Census Bureau. From the Census Bureau If you think a business is a brick-and-mortar place of work with employees and managers who have benefits and paid time off, think again. The latest data show that more than three-fourths of U.S. businesses may be run out of someone’s home and have zero employees. The rise in the number of self-employed has altered what people believe a business is. Last October, the U.S. Census Bureau released a new report that combines the data published on employer businesses with data on businesses without paid employees, or “Nonemployers.” This report challenges the common wisdom of just what is a business, how important are each of these two types of businesses, and how this definition and importance has changed. How Businesses Have Changed Traditionally, businesses are brick-and-mortar enterprises that have paid employees. They have staff who manage these employees and often provide benef