In a recent article, published on Inc.com, a small toy store owner lamented the fact that she could not compete with the big box retailers when it came to price. When shoppers would leave her store, claiming that the same items could be bought elsewhere at significantly lower prices, her defeatist mentality would get the best of her. It seemed like she wasn’t willing to fight for shoppers’ business. She just let them furrow their brows at her prices and go....

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has more than 6,000 reviews on Amazon.com, and the movie Mean Girls has nearly 5,000. In addition to proving the popularity of J.K. Rowling or Lindsay Lohan, it just goes to show how much consumers like sharing their opinions on the things that they buy.   And thank goodness for consumer reviews because how could consumers possibly shop without them? These days, it seems almost impossible to purchase something without first consulting with...

As any e-tailer knows, getting all your eggs into one basket is an ongoing task. And it’s one that requires a mighty big basket. From social media initiatives to website overhauls, there’s always something that has to be added to the ever-growing to-do list.   Finding new sales outlets isn’t necessarily something new on the list, but it does require a bulk of an e-tailer’s time. For starters, there are a whole host of third-party marketplaces worth considering. Amazon and eBay...

For most folks, it’s far more preferable to buy from a mom-and-pop shop as opposed to a big-box corporation. It offers up a sense of community and a feeling that you’re purchasing a real quality product, not some mass-produced item made overseas.   Mom-and-pop shops, as we all know, however, don’t have it easy. Oftentimes, their quality goods cost a little bit more than the mass-produced stuff flooding the market. Consumers then flock to Target or Wal-Mart instead for their low,...

From Florida oranges to Japanese beetle traps, Amazon nearly has it all. With at least 160,000,000 products, the online retailer literally has everything plus the kitchen sink. Beyond the vast array of stuff to buy, Amazon also offers free shipping, product reviews, shopper forums, daily deals, web services, sponsored links and job boards. The list goes on. What this all adds up to is the biggest and fastest-growing online retailer out there. Put it head to head with the world’s biggest brick-and-mortar...

Anyone who’s tried their hand at teaching has quickly learned that there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel. No matter the age group or grade level, there’s a veteran teacher somewhere nearby who has perfected the best approach to keeping their students calm, collected and engaged. So when a new teacher is in doubt, it’s probably best to just beg, borrow and steal from education's long-time, sure-fire methods. So is definitely the case when B2B organizations go to market. Instead of...

Questioning whether Facebook is worth the time and cost for your small business is a valid concern. It wasn’t that long ago, after all, when Facebook was nothing more than a distraction for most employees. So when searching for the answer to that question, we realized we couldn’t hear it from anyone other than a news giant like Forbes. And as it so happens, just yesterday, Forbes published the article titled, “The Facebook Lesson About Value Of Users.” In it, Forbes...