New York SBDC Research Network

 Today is the first day of the ASBDC annual conference, held virtually this year due to COVID-19 but still with a lot of great sponsors and content.  America's SBDC is the association that represents America's nationwide network of Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs). This will be my first virtual conference but I imagine it will be the state of affairs for the foreseeable future. In this case, it means more people are able to "attend" which is a good thing. It will be interesting to see how this event turns out.  The trade show aspect of a conference is tricky since it is awkward enough (to me) in person. Creating a virtual 'booth' is more challenging when trying to hold an attendee's attention. There are videos and chats and some useful materials but I think for brands that really want to wow, they will have to break out of the chat or zoom box and add something more. Maybe they can borrow something from the TikTok generation to liven up and add a

It may not come as a surprise that e-commerce is up in 2020.  Pandemic-related safety precautions and stay-at-home orders  ha ve  forced a lot of business online  over the last few months . The newest numbers from the Ce nsus Bureau give a picture of just how extensive that shift  has been  in the U nited States .  Take a look  at this chart from the  Census’  most recent  quarterly  report   on e-commerce in the retail sector : Image Description: A chart titled   ‘ Estimated Quarterly U.S. Retail E-commerce Sales as a Percent of Total Quarterly Retail Sales:  1 st  Quarter 2011 to 2 nd  Quarter 2020 ’ . The chart shows a steady rise i n  the  share of e-commerce sales  from under five percent in 2011 to  just under twelve percent in the first quarter of 2020, followed by a rapid spike to  over fifteen percent in the second quarter of 2020.     Look at that spike in  the second quarter of 2020!   E-commerce’s share of total retail sales steadily grew from under five percent in 2011 to