Boost in Retail Sales Urges SMBs to Reevaluate Inefficient Technology
With recent data suggesting a rebound in retail sales, despite inflation, small- to medium-sized businesses are capitalizing on the abundance of technology specifically designed to simplify and automate business processes that would otherwise require additional time and labor resources. Mikel Lindsaar, founder and CEO of StoreConnect, advocates for the adoption of eCommerce 3.0 to solidify SMBs’ brand relevance and their competitive edge as Davids ready to take on the Goliaths of online retail.
You don’t have to be an economist to realize that when times are tough, the economy is struggling. So, when retail sales rose in April 2023 for the first time in two months, business journalists nationwide were eager to report the good news. In April, retail sales rose 0.4% (not adjusted for inflation) compared to March, which saw a decline of 0.7%. The April 2023 figure was below the Dow Jones estimate of 0.8%, but overall, it was up 1.6% from a year ago.(1) The increase has been heralded as an indication that inflation may be slowing down. Two years into the pandemic, consumers in the U.S. spent $1.7 trillion online, $609 billion more than the previous two years. Of that $1.7 trillion, $32 billion was attributed to higher prices due to inflation, meaning consumers spent $32 billion more for the same products and services they purchased during the pandemic.(2) Mikel Lindsaar, CEO and Founder of StoreConnect, encourages small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to take note, “eCommerce has been on a swift upward trajectory since the pandemic acted as a catalyst that changed consumer behavior in an instant. For SMBs, there is no time like the present to invest in more efficient technology.”
“eCommerce has been on a swift upward trajectory since the pandemic acted as a catalyst that changed consumer behavior in an instant. For SMBs, there is no time like the present to invest in more efficient technology”
The economic value of a digital transformation is anticipated to reach $100 trillion by 2025.(3) There is a wide assortment of digital products available that promise to streamline business operations through automated data processing to increase efficiency. However, trying to get those individual programs to talk to each other can undermine the goal of increased productivity by requiring additional human resources to help the technology work as intended.
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“The problem SMBs face is not getting their eCommerce system up and running; the challenge is the amount of additional work necessary to keep disjointed technology tools to work together, which negatively affects the ability to scale as a business grows,” Lindsaar observes. “And the problem with most e-commerce platforms is that they predominantly sit independent of other business systems, limiting the ability to be able to market and service customers unless a costly and lengthy integration project is put in place.”
But new 3.0 technology exists that is changing that. One such innovation is StoreConnect, the only fully integrated eCommerce, point-of-sale, content management system, and CRM platform powered by the #1 CRM in the world. Instead of having multiple systems attempting to achieve some level of synchronicity, StoreConnect offers eCommerce 3.0 solutions that empower SMBs to manage their websites, support systems, marketing platforms, POS, and customer data — all on one platform. This allows retailers to customize their system to their unique business needs, including their own analytics and customer-knowledge system, without compromising their customers’ data and without engaging a third party.
StoreConnect SMB clients have seen as much as a 35% uplift in revenues without needing to add to the number of staff on hand to manage the increase in sales—revenues that are going back into the businesses for larger marketing campaigns to expand further.
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StoreConnect SMB clients have seen as much as a 35% uplift in revenues without needing to add to the number of staff on hand to manage the increase in sales—revenues that are going back into the businesses for larger marketing campaigns to expand further.
While the enterprise sector has been experiencing contraction and layoffs, SMBs are growing at an unprecedented rate, Lindsaar says. It’s innovative technology that is helping SMBs grow and create more jobs that is winning the race.
“There’s no one in the market right now that can do what the StoreConnect product can do at this price point,” said StoreConnect customer Devlin Donaldson, CEO VisionTrust.
eCommerce 3.0 goes beyond functionality to provide a single source of truth for SMBs to amplify their brand’s voice in a crowded marketplace. StoreConnect is Time. Well Spent.
