How Taco Ball is going digital first--and others would be wise to follow
April 13, 2024
Fast food is stuffing itself with software. Yum Brands, which owns Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, is embracing a few strategies we’ve chatted about, including software bundles and membership programs. It’s even investing in AI. Its budget: $21m last year. That’s a lot of lettuce.
Does the market merit it? Well, 45% of Yum’s sales are digital. Likewise, we’re hearing website sales make up about half of our merchants' sales. Note: We’re not half of every ...
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Nur Boutique, an indie store in California, signed up for a free account last week. The store used the Brand Syncing Service to send Sync requests to top brands.
Less than a week later, Nur Boutique is now synced with 4 brands: Bugatti Italy, Pampa Bay, Rosenthal, and Versace by Rosenthal.
By Syncing, the store has 3,326 products listed on its Online Store.
When customers visit the site, they also see a news page with posts shared by the store's synced brands.
How restaurants, hotels, and tableware brands are using loyalty programs--and what indie stores can learn from this.
October 11, 2023
Perk-y
I recently read about a new loyalty program and wondered what we could learn from it. The founder of Eater and Resy, Ben Leventhal, has started Blackbird, a loyalty program service designed for indie restaurants, reports The New York Times (Read the article). Using the Blackbird app, a diner receives a perk for eating at a restaurant. The retailer sets tiers for which the user qualifies for the perk. For example, a restaurant, Nat’s on Bank in New York City, gives tier 1 customers ...
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H Mercantile, an indie store in Louisiana, signed up last week for a free account.
The store owner heard about the service from their Ivystone sales rep and signed up online.
In just a few minutes, the store used the Brand Syncing Service to Sync with Casafina. It instantly had data for 955 products to create an online store and gift registry filled for free.
The owner saved $1,000+ in labor on adding products to a website.
How a company's sales and growth can be affected by the message it conveys to customers.
July 18, 2023
Allbirds stock is down 95% since its November 2021 initial public offering. People may say the company launched the wrong products (did you buy one of their puffer jackets?) or tried to grow too quickly. I believe there is a larger reason: you can’t scale a company by leading with an environmental message—which is Allbirds’s pitch. Consumers rank saving the planet as one of their least pressing concerns when making a purchase. The leading factors consumers look for when ...
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How we can celebrate indie stores and promote sales by hosting a Save Local event.
February 23, 2023
When one thinks of shopping locally, some consider it an act of charity. One may pay more and get less selection. That’s not a recipe for success. In contrast, the world’s most successful retailers, Walmart and Amazon, operate on just the opposite principles: low prices and massive selection. When I’m in Walmart's Panama City Beach location, it’s so massive I feel like I’m in the Giants' stadium. Amazon sells 12m items on its website (350m if you count the third-...
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While drinking Athletic, a non-alcoholic (fake!) beer, I noticed that its box proclaims that it gives back 2% to local trails. I love walking trails, and I thought: the next time I venture to have a sober night, I’ll pick up another box of Athletic. (Thanks, Athletic, for giving out $2.5m in trail grants.) Warby Parker gives a pair of eyeglasses for each pair bought (they've given 10m pairs!), while Bombas does this for socks. Bookshop.org gives a percent back to small ...
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When we talk about prices, there are two prices that are important:
The price that we charge clients.
The price our clients charge their customers.
We normally talk about the former, aka how our prices compare with other competitors, like Shopify or wholesale services like Faire.
Of increasing importance to us is what our retailers charge their customers. Walmart recently announced that it was taking brands to account and pressuring them to keep ...
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This is our 'Save Local' seal. Save Local has a double meaning: one can save money by shopping locally and they can support local businesses.
Shopping online may result in shipping charges. When shopping local, one can skip the shipping charges--and receive the item instantly.
A hallmark of indie stores is that they are often in walkable areas. For this reason, the sticker has a shoe and a bicycle. When one shops at big box stores, one often doesn't walk. They drive. Similarly,...
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While walking on 9th St. in Manhattan, I noticed an American Express sidewalk decal. This decal inspired me to create a Bridge sidewalk decal for indie stores.
I think that stating 'shop local' or 'shop small' misses many of the key desires by shoppers. I think that customers want low prices, lots of selection, and fast delivery. Those are the reasons they shop at Amazon and at other big box stores. Ask yourself: would you shop at a store that has less selection? Higher prices? Slower ...
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