Social media can be a great way to market your Shopify store – but only if you know how to use it.

You can reach new customers, build relationships, and grow your brand – but only if you go in with a plan.

That’s why a good social media strategy starts with understanding what social media can and can’t do for your brand. You can create awareness and drive traffic, but you can’t magically turn every visitor into a buyer. If you’re looking to grow a brand quickly, there might be better ways.

Even with these limitations, social media can still be a wonderful marketing tool for Shopify stores. The trick is making sure your actions on social media are strategic, and that you’re not just posting for its own sake.

To create this guide, we reached out to over a dozen eCommerce experts to ask them how they use social media to grow their stores. We then took the best answers and condensed them into 5 specific strategies you can use to market your store on social media.

What Social Media Can & Can’t Do For Your Shopify Store

Social media is powerful, but it’s no silver bullet. It works best when it’s part of a larger marketing ecosystem.

In fact, when asked what marketing methods work best for eCommerce, every single expert we talked to mentioned search engine optimization (SEO). They stressed repeatedly how important it is to rank high on search engines like Google, how much traffic that can bring, and how high the return on investment can be.

A close second was email marketing. Almost every expert we reached out to said that email marketing was incredibly valuable, and their anecdotes are consistent with the data. According to email marketing firm, Litmus, email marketing makes an average of $36 per every dollar spent.

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising was also commonly mentioned. With many experts citing its ability to quickly drive sales and increase visibility, albeit at a comparatively high cost.

All of these types of marketing have one thing in common – they either reach people who have a high chance of purchasing (SEO, PPC) or who already know your brand (email). That means the path from outreach to purchase is shorter.

Vukasin Ilic, Co-founder and Marketing Consultant at software firm, Linkter, aptly summarized the difference. He stated that “while majority of eCommerce store owners focus on social media like Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok, I [have] found that it’s a lot harder to acquire customers on discovery platforms, because most people are not in a buying state. They want to be entertained, rather than sold to.”

For most use cases of social media, it’s likely that most people you reach will not be in a “buying state.” But you may be able to get them into one – and that’s what the majority of the strategies to follow will cover.

5 Strategies To Market Your Shopify Store On Social Media

Now that you understand how social media fits into a larger marketing plan, we’ll talk about five specific strategies you can use. These are courtesy of the many Shopify experts who kindly contributed their knowledge to this article.

1. Go where your audience is and adapt to the platform.

There is no single “right” platform when it comes to social media. “It largely depends on your target audience and what you’re selling,” says Nate Banks, Founder of Crazy Compression. “For stores like us who sell products that rely on visuals and showcasing unique designs, Instagram [has been] the best choice.”

Justin Christopher, Manager of Ecommerce and Marketing at Klatch Coffee echoes this sentiment. He says, “the most effective use of social media could vary wildly based on the product offered and customer demographics. Social media managers should go where their audience is engaged on social – for example, TikTok for young women’s cosmetics.”

Based on these quotes, it’s clear that marketers need to choose platforms where their audience already spends time. This is far more effective than trying to pull their target audience onto platforms that they do not currently use.

“You will have to tailor the content for the platform,” says Anthony Barone, Co-founder and Managing Director of StudioHawk UK. “These are long-term channels to focus and build on organically while giving a boost with paid [advertising] at times (if your budgets are smaller and you’re just starting out).”

Put another way, every social media platform prioritizes different types of content. You will want to spend the bulk of your effort on platforms where a) your audience already spends time and b) you are able to make content that people genuinely want to see.

14 Major Social Media Sites

You can’t focus on all social media sites at once. It’s a good idea to pick the ones where you are most likely to succeed. Below, you will find a list of common social media sites that are prominent as of the time of writing:

1. Instagram: Extremely popular, especially with younger buyers. Excellent for branding and advertising.
2. TikTok: Good for quick tutorials, comedy, and unguarded behind-the-scenes moments. The platform recently rolled out TikTok Shop and have generally been investing in their eCommerce capabilities.
3. Facebook: The largest social media network in the world. Great for advertising, reaching a large audience, and collecting reviews.
4. X (formerly Twitter): A popular social media network based on short messages. It’s very fast-paced. It’s good for networking, reaching out to the press, and customer service.
5. LinkedIn: A great network for finding B2B leads and potential employees. Otherwise, very formal and may only be a fit for very specific types of stores.
6. YouTube: Great for videos, which may include tutorials, demonstrations, and other educational or entertaining content.
7. Pinterest: Ideal for sharing products, especially more artsy or crafty products.
8. Reddit: Great for product or content research, as well as finding extremely specific niche interest groups.
9. Snapchat: Ideal for promoting time-sensitive events.
10. Tumblr: Very difficult to market on, but good for reaching a younger audience.
11. Nextdoor: Highly localized social media, good for serving local businesses.
12. WhatsApp:An extremely popular messaging app – good for reaching out directly to customers.
13. Messenger: Similar to WhatsApp, good for reaching out to directly to customers. Plays well with chatbots.
14. Quora: Great for asking and answering questions in fields where expertise is valued.

2. Use paid ads to grow your brand quickly.

So far, you may be left with the impression that social media is a long game. This is largely true, but it should be noted that many social media platforms – including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and others – allow pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. This allows you to select a specific audience and run ads that only they can see.

PPC advertising comes with a learning curve, but it can be wildly effective if you use it correctly. “Facebook has been great for our niche ‘garden plants.’ With high conversions and ROAS it’s a close second to Google Ads,” says Tammy Sons, Founder & CEO of TN Nursery.

Sons goes onto make the case for using PPC advertising to bootstrap a business, saying that “organic takes time; work on it while paying for services. Once your organic audience builds, the spend will be less for PPC and ad media costs.”

Technical SEO consultant, Micah Albert also made a similar statement to this effect, saying “I would suggest using a combination of social ads with organic social to promote products and ensure campaigns are ran on Instagram and TikTok.”

3. Focus on building a community.

Another big benefit of social media is in the name – social. You have a chance to truly connect with your target audience.

Through social media use, you can build real relationships and nurture prospects to eventually turn into clients. You can connect with current buyers and convince to shop again.

Mark Ainsworth, Digital PR and Marketing Director at Maxweb Solutions advocates for using social media to build a community. “Social media is a powerful tool, but it’s not just all about posting your products and hoping for the best. The biggest success we’ve had is through building a community around your brand.”

Anthony Barone concurs, saying that “building a brand and community on these channels through carefully tailored content can help build a customer base.” He goes on to state that “as these channels grow, they can help funnel more people through to your Shopify store.”

Building a community is a multi-step process that differs based on your target audience. But two things are certain – directly conversing online will help start the process and once a community is built, it is very likely to make the cash register ring.

4. Lean into visuals.

Most social media is fundamentally driven by visuals, be they photos or videos. This is especially true in eCommerce, since every purchase is an act of trust. The customer, after all, can’t walk into your Shopify store and inspect the products.

Cofounder of Fortunata, David Mason, had some good advice for Shopify store owners which you can find below in its entirety:

If you have a limited budget, you want to do as much as you can with every pound or dollar of your spend. You’re probably going to need video content to sell products and it’s nice to share content of people using your brand who aren’t you. This can all help the social content plan.

Kill two birds with one stone.

Make video content to add context to your product pages – how to use it, how big it is etc., but also share that content socially, so people of the same demographic can resonate with your brand.

It’s social proof, it can encourage FOMO, and it works.

There’s something more honest and raw about non influencers making [user-generated content] for smaller brands. It’s cheap, it’s useful for your business and you can start immediately.

The old adage is true – seeing is believing.

5. Learn to use Instagram and TikTok.

Up to this point, we have shied away from giving specific advice on which platforms to use, since understanding strategy is far more important. Plus, every audience is different.

But in general, if you are running a Shopify store, the two most important platforms for you are likely to be Instagram and TikTok.

To quote Nate Banks again, “there are a ton of influencers who’ve made Instagram their main platform of choice and where they grew most of their following, allowing us to tap into those audiences easily.”

Ben Duffy, Client Development Manager at Quirky Digital, states that “for Shopify sellers, TikTok and TikTok Shop are increasingly effective, especially with their focus on short, dynamic content that can go viral.”

He further states that “creating engaging, authentic videos that showcase products can lead to instant sales, especially with TikTok Shop allowing users to buy directly within the app. Collaborating with TikTok influencers or running targeted ads can help build brand awareness quickly. Linking your Shopify store directly to your TikTok Shop can create an easy customer journey, turning engagement into conversions.”

It should be noted that Instagram and TikTok were frequently mentioned in our correspondence with experts, aside from the quotes above.

Final Thoughts

Social media is a powerful tool, provided you use it with a clear plan. You can’t simply post and hope for sales. You need to understand your audience, pick the right platforms, and tailor your content for each one. This is how you turn engagement into traffic, and in due course of time, sales.

Many people listlessly scroll through apps for entertainment. They might not be in a buying mood. But if you use visuals effectively, work to build a brand, and consider some ads, you may be able to get the “scroll stopping” effect every brand hopes to achieve. And that can put you on the path to sales.

Remember – social media works best as part of a larger social media strategy. It works best when you combine it with SEO, email, and other methods to reach buyers when they’re ready to act.

Is the economy in a recession right now? It depends on who you ask and has proven to be a surprisingly contentious question.

But no matter what, you can prepare for the maybe-happening, maybe-not-happening recession by focusing on recession-proof products. Weirdly, some items just seem to sell more when the economy is bad. It’s a good idea to keep some of them stocked in your eCommerce store.

This might sound too good to be true, but it’s not.  Some products just happen to sell well, or even better, when the economy is bad. And we can prove that statement with real data from the recessions of 2001, 2008, and 2020.

We all know the economy swings up and down wildly. No one knows why the market does what it does. What we do know is that recessions will happen from time to time. It’s inevitable.

Trying to guess when a recession is going to happen is a fool’s errand. A much better idea? Always have room in your inventory for products that sell well in a recession. That way, when one comes, you’re ready!

So with that in mind, we’re going to talk about 16 recession-proof products that will keep money rolling in even when the economy isn’t doing so hot.

What makes a product recession-proof according to economists?

Scroll down a bit more if you are in a hurry to get to the list.

Otherwise, pay attention, because when you understand why certain products do better when the economy sours, you’ll be able to improvise. And that’s much more useful than following a list!

Think about the kind of companies that perform well in recessions. Utility companies do well. Tobacco, alcohol, fast food, and soft drinks do well. Consumer staple companies like Kimberly-Clark, Colgate-Palmolive, Procter & Gamble, and Johnson & Johnson do well.

In short, necessities and vices don’t suffer when recessions come. This may sound like bad news since many consumer products sold online are luxuries purchased with discretionary income. But it’s not: and there’s a simple principle at work behind the changes in consumer behavior during a recession.

Cheaper products perform better in a recession.

I know. I know. But it’s worth saying because it helps us understand some important second-order effects.

Think about it: if you sell something inexpensive, such as Hershey’s Kiss chocolates, you might benefit from the economic downturn. A Big Mac is a lot cheaper than dinner night at a fancy sit-down restaurant. Camping is cheaper than a lavish vacation. Repairing a car is cheaper than buying a new one.

In a Harvard Business Review article from 2023, M. Berk Talay, professor at University of Massachusetts Lowell, made the following statement. “A recession might be the ideal time to launch your product no matter what it is.”

Keep that in mind if you feel overwhelmed by the risks of running a business with the DOW is down.

What makes a product recession-proof according to business owners?

Of course, what we described above is a bit academic. It may also help to consider the anecdotes of founders who have been previously impacted by recessions as well.

“Essentially, recession-proof products can be any item that people need to survive in its most literal sense,” says Nate Banks, Founder of Crazy Compression, which sells compression socks. “No, this does not include streaming services or food delivery apps. Recession-proof products are consumer staples like food, hygiene, household, and personal care products. Pet necessities like pet food and cat litter are also considered recession-proof. These are things that people quite literally can’t live without. They are not luxury or entertainment items that people can easily forego during economic downturns.”

Brandon Hartman, Founder of Beyblades enthusiast website, BeyWarehouse, has a different take. “I classify recession-proof products into two broad categories. The first one is more obvious; it’s composed of non-negotiables that will always find a market no matter the state of the economy.” The examples he goes on to cite are strikingly similar to Banks’ prior statement.

Hartman goes on to state that “the second category is composed of highly-niched products whose success depends on dedicated fanbases and curated communities. These consumers tend to continue patronizing these products regardless of the state of the economy.”

These founders’ statements seem to also suggest again that recessions open up new opportunities. You just have to know where to look.

16 Recession-Proof Products You Can Sell Online

We’d now like to share some ideas for recession-proof products that you might consider investing in during, or before, a recession. Here are sixteen ideas to get your wheels turning.

1. Consumer staples

There are some items that you need no matter what the stock market is doing. Your customers will always need detergent, toothpaste, napkins, tissues, bottled water, and canned goods no matter what.

That’s why these items are called consumer staples and they come in six categories: beverages, food and staples retailing, food products, household products, personal products, and tobacco.

Because consumers’ need for these products doesn’t fluctuate, businesses that sell them will continue to see stable revenue, and perhaps even some steady growth.

2. Camping gear

Lavish vacations to distant lands are not as attractive during recessions. Yet the need to “get away from it all” doesn’t go away when the economy is bad. If anything, that escapist urge grows!

The data backs me up here too. In an article written by US News in 2009, Coleman posted higher sales of tents, coolers, stoves, sleeping bags, and fishing gear. The same article notes that fishing and camping permits went up by 10% between 2008 and 2009 and that canning jars and Rawlings sporting goods posted 12% higher revenue in 2009 than 2007.

In the 2020 recession, we saw something similar happening as well. People Googled “camping” more in 2020 than at any point in the last five years. Makes sense, too, with all the travel restrictions put in place for the COVID-19 pandemic!

3. Automotive parts

No matter what the S&P 500 says, people still need to go to work, the store, and the doctor. And for many people in the US, that requires a working vehicle. When times are good, people are more likely to buy new cars. But what about when times are bad?

People keep their used cars for longer. When your 401(k) gets clobbered and your pay gets cut, the idea of buying a brand new Lexus is off the table. But repairing your 2006 Honda Civic becomes much more attractive!

During recessions, people are a lot less likely to treat their beloved cars and trucks as disposable, which is good news for mechanics and part manufacturers.

And sure, it may not be realistic for you to sell alternators, batteries, and transmissions. But you can always sell the little air freshening trees that hang on rearview mirrors, or in-car trash bags to hold crushed soda cans and discarded snack bags.

4. Coffee and tea

I probably consumed a quart of coffee writing this post and another while editing the video up at the top. I am, after all, one of the 64% of American adults who currently consume coffee every day.

People love caffeine, and that’s why, much like tobacco and alcohol, caffeinated beverages do not suffer as much from the economic pressures of a recession!

Fortunately, with coffee and tea, there is a lot of room to differentiate your product from others. Just take a look at Amazon or Etsy and appreciate for a moment all the different coffee and tea flavors that creative people have been able to come up with over the years!

5. Tupperware

People don’t eat out as much during recessions. They prefer to make food at home instead. But you still need a way to store leftovers! That’s where tupperware comes in.

Tupperware was one of the big winners during the global financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. And of course, during the pandemic recession when eating out was considered to be dangerous for your health, tupperware sold like hotcakes.

6. Candy

When the economy tanks, it’s really stressful. Job prospects are grim and hours are long. Many workers in high-stress situations find themselves reaching for the candy bowl, filled to the brim with sugary sweets and cheap chocolates.

It’s for this reason that candy is a juggernaut of recession survival. Cadbury’s profits went up by 30% in 2008 and Nestle’s went up by 11% at the same time. This is not just some freak incident either. Chocolate sales grew by 12% in 2020 as well as people turned to comfort foods.

7. Cosmetics

The desire to look good doesn’t go away when the economy takes a dive. However, instead of extreme makeovers, expensive haircuts, and new wardrobes, women look to cheaper options. For that reason, cosmetics companies have a surprisingly easy time surviving recessions. Even nail salons did pretty well in 2009 (though not 2020 for obvious reasons).

It may seem paradoxical that people still buy luxury goods such as cosmetics in a crisis, but the tendency has been studied over the course of several recessions. There’s even a name for it: lipstick effect. “Instead of buying expensive fur coats, people will buy expensive lipstick.”

8. Pet care products

People love their pets! And when the S&P 500 decides to aim for the zero mark, people spend more time at home with them. So naturally, to relieve some of their stress, people want to pamper their pets!

The demand for pet products continued to grow through both the 2001 and 2008-2009 recessions according to MarketWatch. Then according to another article by Supermarket News, the pet industry broke $100 billion in 2020, posting a 6.7% increase over 2019.

So what can you sell? Shopify recommends you sell pet bowls, toys, and beds, pet treats, grooming supplies, and even adorable pet apparel!

9. Movies, TV, and video games

A night on the town is expensive. A night indoors is not! People still need entertainment when the economy is bad, perhaps even more so than when the economy is good.  During recessions, cheap entertainment – movies, TV, video games, and other similar products – see a jump in demand.

This was the case during the 2001 and 2008-2009 recessions. It was especially the case during the 2020 recession since stay-at-home orders naturally pushed people to movies, TV, and video games.

10. Clothing

People still wear clothes during recessions. Shirts will be undone by stray fabrics and all shoes eventually have their soles ground down to dust if used enough. If you sell clothing during an economic downturn, you are likely to be insulated from the worst impacts.

On the cheap end, clothes function like a consumer staple. People need them, so they’ll buy them. On the more expensive end, nicer clothes are one of the more affordable luxuries. As such, nice clothes benefit from the lipstick effect, just like candy and cosmetics.

11. Baby products

When you’re a parent, you have to take care of your child no matter what. For that reason, baby products – clothing, diapers, formula, and so on – continue to outperform the market as a whole. This is also true for daycare/childcare services, whose work increases when the economy turns sour and parents return to the workplace. (With the exception of the pandemic-driven 2020 recession, of course!)

If I could sum up the economic outlook of kid products in one statistic, it would be this: spending on children’s nonfiction books grew 66% in 2020.

12. Food and drink

Food and drink continue to be essentials during economic downturns. You may think that consumers turn to rice, potatoes, and tap water when money is tight, but this isn’t always this case! Many times, luxury food and drink products perform well for a few reasons:

• People need comfort (like with candy).
• Luxury goods still have some demand (like cosmetics).
• Fancy food and drink products are still cheaper than dining out.

That’s surprisingly good news for business owners who specialize in trendy products like organic flaxseed, hemp, and chia kombucha.

13. Kitchenware

You know how people don’t eat out as much during recessions. Well, even cooking from home isn’t a free activity. You have to buy the food, of course, but you will need supplies too. That’s why kitchenware tends to perform pretty well during recessions.

In particular, mason jars, silicone molds and spatulas, spiralizers, skillets, flatware, and oven mitts all sell well online and do well in recessions.

14. Sports and fitness products

Gym memberships are expensive. That’s why it’s hard to justify maintaining one during a recession like 2001 or 2008-2009, let alone a pandemic-driven one like 2020.

But people still want to stay fit, so they end up keeping their routines going at home. When recessions strike, that opens up lots of market opportunities in the fitness sector. You can sell resistance bands, exercise balls, yoga mats, sports apparel, and more online. That way people can maintain their active lifestyle while still pinching pennies!

15. Home renovation and repair supplies

During the 2008 financial meltdown, a lot of people did not want to buy houses for obvious reasons. But people still wanted to improve their surroundings, which led many people to remodel their homes even during 2008 according to industry experts.

And, of course, during the 2020 recession, many people started renovating their homes since they were stuck there all the time!

Now bear in mind that not every renovation involves adding a new roof, breaking down walls, or adding granite countertops to the kitchen. A lot of home renovation is cheap and involves products that can be easily sold online.

To name a few: artwork, pillows, lamps, small furniture, bedding, curtains, and general home decor. This is a fairly easy sector to break into, and you can even dropship some of these items.

16. Highly niche products

It’s enormously difficult to get a hardcore fan of something to leave their money in their wallet, even if their wallet is a bit lighter than usual.

Brandon Hartman, Founder of BeyWarehouse, says that “our main offering [of Beyblade toys] is one such example. During the pandemic, we experienced slight but nonetheless unexpected growth in sales even as the economy ground to a halt and eCommerce reeled from the supply chain crisis.”

This is consistent with his overall belief that highly-niched products tend to do well even during recessions because of their large fanbases and communities.

Final Thoughts

Even if the economy is terrible, you can still launch products and succeed. If the economy tanks tomorrow and you’re selling a lot of different items, you might even find some doing better than you’d expect.

It’s important to understand the dynamic behind all this. Necessities are still necessities even if the unemployment rate is high. “Little luxuries” will still be in demand when “big luxuries” are not affordable. And hardcore fans will keep buying niche products, even when they have less cash to spare.

We hope this list inspires you to make your business a little more resilient against recessions!

 

If you followed the news in the post-pandemic season, you probably noticed that a lot of goods were in short supply. Everything from semiconductors to sausage, rental cars to lumber had been hard to come by. You could blame the pandemic for many of these shortages, sure, but the underlying issues were more complex. And one of those issues? Inventory management practices.

The 2010s were defined by lean supply chains. Everything was shipped just-in-time with little buffer for disruptions. This was really good for efficiency and profits, but really bad for handling unexpected events.

So with that in mind, we’re going to talk about what inventory management is and how you can do it well. By following these tips, you can reduce your risk of running out of stock when you need it. That means more money in your pocket, more happy customers, and a generally less stressful life as a business owner.

What is inventory management and why does it matter?

When you boil it down to the basics, inventory management is the process of tracking where products are, where they’re going, and when to order more. That’s really it!

Simple as the concept may seem, though, the practice is hard. You have to monitor a lot of moving parts while simultaneously predicting the future a la demand estimation. It looks easy until you have to do it.

But it’s worth building your skill set, because mastering inventory management best practices has many benefits for your business. We can think of four right here:

1. You’ll be less likely to run out of stock. That means your customers can keep shopping anytime they please.
2. You’ll be less likely to have too much stock. Holding onto excess inventory costs money in storage, not to mention the sunk cost of ordering too much in the first place. Good inventory management will keep you from over-ordering in the first place.
3. You’ll have higher profits. Good inventory management helps you know what to sell, which increases revenue, while also helping you keep costs in check.
4. You’ll benefit from better cash flow. If you get a sense of how much to spend and when to spend it, you won’t find yourself overcommitting large sums of money to buying more products when the timing is not good.

In short, inventory management helps you find a balance between two extremes. You don’t want to run out of items and you don’t want to hoard them, and this is the process by which you find the happy medium.

What are common inventory challenges that sellers run into?

To answer this question, I reached out to John Heberling, Senior Partnerships Manager at Kickfurther, an inventory financing firm. In response, he first mentioned the risk of ordering too much at once, stating that “direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands often struggle to balance stock when entering retail. A big purchase order sounds exciting, but without the capital to produce inventory for both retail and DTC channels, businesses risk losing revenue and growth opportunities.”

Heberling followed up by saying that “ordering too much of the wrong SKU leads to dead stock, tying up cash and adding storage costs.” To state another way, you simply don’t want to buy items – or variants of items – that won’t sell.

Other common and devastating issues mentioned by Heberling include “waiting too long to place an inventory order. [This] can destroy your bottom line—forcing you to pay for costly air freight or, even worse, leading to stockouts that cause missed sales.” He stresses that it’s particularly important to place timely orders in advance of busy seasons like the holidays.

8 main types of inventory

The whole idea of inventory management is to keep track of where products and other materials are so that you have visibility into the day-to-day operations of your business. Yet not all inventory is the same, and in order to have meaningful conversations about it, you must categorize inventory into different types.

1. Raw materials. These are the materials that you use to create your products. Even if you are not the manufacturer of your products, it’s important to pay attention to the availability of raw materials.
2. Unfinished products. These are the products that you or your manufacturer are currently working on making, but that are not ready to sell.
3. Finished products. These are products that are ready to sell right now. They are often stored in a warehouse or fulfillment center such as our own.
4. In-transit goods. These are goods that are being transported somewhere else, such as finished goods en route to the warehouse or to the customer.
5. Cycle inventory. This is inventory which is bought from a manufacturer or other supplier and shipped directly to your customer. (This is the only kind of inventory present in dropshipping businesses.)
6. Buffer inventory. Also known as safety stock, this is the inventory that you keep around in case something bad happens that prevents you from getting the inventory you need.
7. Packing inventory. This is the inventory you keep for your packing supplies, such as finished packaging or even bubble wrap and mailers.
8. MRO inventory. This is inventory needed for maintenance, repair, and operations. This supports the production process, and is not what goes out to your customers.

9 tips for inventory management

1. Find good inventory management software

You can manage inventory by hand or in a spreadsheet, and that’s fine for a little while. It doesn’t scale well, though.

If you want to keep track of inventory while minimizing upkeep, look into inventory management software. Some good options include Orderhive, Zoho, and even Quickbooks.

2. Categorize your inventory by priority

Not all inventory is the same. It helps to categorize your inventory so that you can understand which inventory is moving and which inventory is making you money.

Experts typically suggest segregating your inventory into A, B and C groups. Items in the A group are higher-ticket items that you need fewer of. Items in the C category are lower-cost items that turn over quickly. The B group is what’s in between: items that are moderately priced and move out the door more slowly than C items but more quickly than A items. – 10 Essential Tips for Effective Inventory Management, Business News Daily

By prioritizing inventory using an A, B, C system, you’ll come to find that most of your profits will come from a relatively small amount of your stock. This is the Pareto principle (or 80/20 rule) at work. If you need to narrow down your focus in order to effectively manage your inventory, consider focusing on just the 20% of your inventory that brings the most money.

3. Keep track of all relevant data

Inventory management requires keeping track of a lot of different types of data. That includes SKUs, bar codes, countries of origin, product values, lot numbers, HS codes, and a lot more. Using your inventory software of choice, make sure that you are rigorous about tracking all the relevant data for each kind of item you carry.

It may also be a good idea to track information like the cost of the item, its seasonal sales patterns, and whether or not there are hard-to-come-by supplies that go into its manufacturing. Having data organized like this will help you find answers to unpredictable questions that may arise as your day-to-day business operations take place.

4. Monitor sales

Ultimately, every company wants and needs to make money. The best way to keep doing this is to observe which items are bringing in the most revenue.

But what do you look for when you monitor sales? A few things come to mind:

• How much is each type of item making?
• Are there seasonal patterns to sales?
• Do the sales for one item increase the sales for other items?
• Do you tend to sell more on specific days of the week or times of the day?

5. Get a feel for sales cycles

After enough sales monitoring, you will start to see how sales cycles work. You can then use this information to sell to customers when they are most likely to be buying. You can also use this information to make sure you have new stock ready to go for whenever the next round of sales is going to come in.

6. Be proactive about quality control

Customers expect your products to be good ones. If someone’s first experience with your brand involves a dud product, then they probably aren’t going to come back. If a regular customer has a bad experience, they might be a little too lenient, but only if it doesn’t happen again.

For every new batch of inventory you receive, it’s worth your time to test the merchandise. This is doubly true if something has changed recently that may affect the quality of the product. Better safe than sorry!

7. Make sure you have a good returns process

Returns are a part of life in retail. This is especially true in eCommerce where return rates can be 30% or higher. You need to make sure you have a good returns process.

Part of that returns process will involve figuring out what to do with the inventory when it is received once more. Some returns can be put back into inventory and resold, others need to be thrown away, and still others may need repair or refurbishment. No matter what the case is, make sure you have well-defined processes for inventory management when the returns inevitably come in.

8. Order your own restocks (at least at first)

Once you have a feel for your inventory cycles, you will also have a feel for when to restock. At first, order restocks on your own. Even the best software or account managers cannot always see all the variables that are necessary to know when to order more inventory. Once you determine the pattern in your decision to restock, then it’s time to delegate to someone else!

9. Conduct regular audits

No matter how good you are at tracking inventory, you will occasionally make mistakes. Sometimes, an item isn’t scanned on the way out. Other times, it’s stolen from your store or your warehouse. These things happen.

Every once in a while, be it annually or weekly, it’s worthwhile to audit your inventory and find out how much you truly have. Nothing is quite as uncomfortable as thinking you have 100 items in stock when you actually have none!

Final Thoughts

Good inventory management practices can help you keep your customers happy and your profits healthy. The basic process of keeping inventory is simple, but when done with an understanding of good inventory management principles, it can give you a real leg up on the competition!

Subscription boxes seem unstoppable now. But as recently as 2010, the business model barely existed. Rather, it was around 2011 when subscription boxes started to take off, with brands like BirchBox, Dollar Shave Club, and NatureBox becoming household names.

From 2011 to 2016, the subscription box industry grew nearly 100% per year according to McKinsey. According to Market Research Future, the US subscription box industry was valued at $13.5 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow to $44.5 billion by 2032, which is more than triple!

Because subscription box businesses are so hot right now, a lot of people want to cash in. You might be one of them since you’re reading this article! So let’s talk about how you can start a subscription box business in 10 easy steps.

1. Understand the basics of subscription boxes.

As with any business, you need to thoroughly understand the market before you jump in. To help you do that, we’re going to go over the basics of the subscription box business model. This will help you determine whether it’s right for you.

What’s a Subscription Box?

Easyship said it best: “subscription boxes are recurring and physical deliveries of given products which are packaged with the aim of offering consumers additional value and a unique experience, added to the actual product contained within each box.”

Basically, subscription box buyers receive boxes full of unique and interesting products on a regular basis. Subscribers pay for a recurring subscription and receive boxes on a regular basis, usually every month. The boxes are full of physical items, many of which are surprises carefully curated to please the subscriber. Many subscription boxes show customers how much they saved on the retail value of the items contained within.

Last but not least, subscription boxes are almost always gorgeous. The packaging and the contents are often beautiful and made specifically for people to record unboxing videos.

Benefits of the Subscription Box Business Model

From a business perspective, there are a lot of benefits to the subscription box business model. But we wanted a first-hand perspective here, and for that, Ben Ajenoui, Marketing & Managing Director at the eCommerce platform, Opencart, was happy to oblige.

“Our move into subscription box services was driven by the growing demand for recurring revenue models in the retail space,” says Ajenoui. “Many of our users were asking for more streamlined ways to offer subscription-based products, and we saw an opportunity to support them.”

It’s no surprise that Opencart transitioned into the subscription box space when you consider the value of recurring revenue. The following five facts, taken together, make a really strong case for starting a subscription box business:

1. Since boxes are sold on a subscription basis, revenue is much more predictable than with most kinds of eCommerce.
2. Because subscriptions are recurring transactions, the average customer has a much higher lifetime value than other businesses.
3. It’s harder to win a subscriber than it is to win a buyer, but once you do, the odds of retention are much higher.
4. Subscription boxes are all about the unique experience, which gives companies great opportunities for branding.
5. Because subscription boxes are sent out around the same time of the month in large batches, this simplifies shipping and fulfillment.

Disadvantages of the Subscription Box Business Model

Of course, the subscription box model isn’t perfect. We can think of five negative considerations that you need to weigh in as well.

1. According to Pitchbook, the amount of venture capital going into subscription box startups has gone down in the last few years. This could be a sign that the subscription box boom is over. Alternatively, it could be a consequence of massively overhyped companies like Blue Apron going downhill, but not an indicator that the industry at large is failing. Make of it what you will.
2. To prepare subscription boxes to send, you need a lot of upfront capital to begin with.
3. Subscription boxes live and die on their ability to seem luxurious and unique. That means you need a strong understanding of the fundamentals of marketing and branding to succeed.
4. Because subscription boxes have become so popular, there is a lot of competition.
5. Much of the magic of subscription boxes stems from the novelty of the items in them. That means when the novelty wears off, so does the perceived value of the subscription box.

There are also some operational challenges to consider as well. Among them, Ajenoui lists “recurring billing, [setting up] flexible product options, and [implementing] advanced customer management tools.” Before getting into the subscription box business, it’s worth considering if your team has the operational chops to set all of this up.

2. Identify a real market need.

In order to build a successful business of any type, you need to identify real needs in the market and come up with a wait to meet them. Otherwise, people have no reason to want to buy from you at all!

This is especially true in the subscription box business model. The reason for this is because getting someone to sign up for a subscription is harder than getting them to sign up for a single purchase. That means your subscription box needs to be so compelling that it overcomes customers’ objections so that they do not hesitate to subscribe.

“Convenience, personalization, and the excitement of regular deliveries” rank high in terms of customer values, according to Ajenoui. As you work on the particulars of your subscription box model, it’s worth considering how these values intersect with the kind of products you sell.

3. Research your competition and find a unique niche.

Because the subscription box business is fairly crowded, you need to find a niche that stands out among similar subscriptions. Your customers have lots of different options, so you need to provide something popular in a way that no one else is. This is where market research is essential!

If you want to stand out among your competition, don’t try to create a new product entirely. It’s much easier to deliver better quality products than your competition than to completely forge your own path. One way that you can do this? Find good suppliers and form great relationships with them.

4. Figure out what to put in the subscription box.

At this point, you will want to figure out what your subscription box itself will be like. Subbly suggests considering the following factors:

• Pricing
• Number of items
• Type of products and their packaging
• Size of the box
• Design and aesthetic
• Engagement experience
• Written content and packing information

Naturally, this will be different for every industry and for each type of box. What you want to do here is figure out how to take several different items and figure out how you can tie them together and create a unique experience for the box opener.

5. Master the unboxing experience.

Much of the magic of subscription boxes comes from the feeling your subscribers will have when they are opening the box. There is a reason why many people take videos of themselves unboxing subscription boxes and post them online. There’s a reason people watch these videos, too – vicarious pleasure is a very real thing and it compels many new people to subscribe to your box!

So how do you actually do that? We have a few suggestions:

1. Use custom packaging so that when your box arrives in the mail, people are immediately excited about it.
2. Pack the boxes in such a way that not all items are seen at once. One way you can do this is by covering the contents with a thin sheet of cardboard and putting a small letter on top for people to read before opening the rest of the box.
3. Make sure the individual items themselves are bright and colorful and that their packaging really stands out, making a feast for your subscribers’ eyes.

6. Set up the supply chain.

Understanding the supply chain is one of the key success factors for subscription box businesses. You need to make sure the boxes are a reasonable size and weight, so you need to have all that information from your item suppliers in order to proceed. Hopefully, you will also receive a discount on the items themselves so that you have a healthy profit margin. You may need to tweak the items in the box in order to get them to fit or to get the price to be reasonable.

Especially important to subscription box businesses is having good relationships with custom packaging providers such as Noissue or Arka. While custom packaging definitely costs more, remember that the experience is the selling point, not the items themselves which can all be purchased individually.

Lastly, you will want to work with a fulfillment company that you trust. Odds are, the items and packaging will arrive separately and in large quantities. While you can pack and ship your own items, companies like Fulfillrite can take care of that for you. In particular, preparing subscription boxes in advance would be considered a kitting project. As far as receiving the supplies themselves and then sending out the subscription boxes, both of those are very routine tasks that can be cost-efficiently handled by a fulfillment company on your behalf.

7. Start marketing your subscription box before launching the service.

Treat your subscription box service launch like you would any other product launch. You need to start marketing it long before you actually start shipping boxes. At a minimum, you need a good brand name, logo, and website. If you’re not sure where to start, you can always use Shopify.

Marketing for a service launch is more complicated than we can adequately discuss in a post like this, but we’ll give you a few tips here:

• Build your website with conversions in mind. Everything on your site needs to ultimately increase the odds that someone will subscribe to your service.
• Create a sense of urgency with special offers and landing pages. Getting new subscriptions is harder than retaining them!
• Remember the marketing funnel: first someone becomes aware you exist, then they become interested, they think about buying from you, then they ultimately choose to buy from you. Then after that, they choose whether or not to purchase from you again.
• Customize your boxes as much as possible.
• Build a mailing list.
• Start content marketing online, including guest blogging.
• Implement a referral program.
• Look into pay-per-click advertising on sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

If you want to research this subject in more depth, we stumbled across this fantastic guide that will show you how to market your subscription box!

When in doubt, consider the advice of Ajenoui. “The most effective strategy for acquiring subscribers has been offering a seamless, customizable experience.” Clearly, providing a good customer experience is not something that can be overlooked!

8. Figure out shipping and fulfillment.

We touched on this before, but it’s especially important. If you have 500 subscribers, that means someone will need to receive all your supplies and packaging, prepare the subscription boxes, apply postage, and then send them to your subscribers. You can do this yourself, but it makes a lot more sense to work with a fulfillment company since they specialize in handling large quantities of orders at once.

If you go through a fulfillment company, you don’t have to worry about assembling the boxes by hand. All you have to do is design the packaging, pick the items, and go find customers. Everything else can be taken care of for you, leaving you with a lot more time to find subscribers and make money!

9. Take feedback, make improvements, and retain customers.

As with any business, once you start shipping your first few subscription boxes, you will need to gather customer feedback. Customer retention is essential, so try to incorporate feedback as much as you can. Make improvements when they are recommended. In the long run, it will pay off!

When it comes to retention, Ajenoui advises offering “personalized engagement, exclusive offers, and flexible subscription management.” He later mentioned that “streamline your operations with a reliable platform is essential for scaling and long-term success.”

As you gather feedback, consider what questions you can ask to ensure that you are in line with Ajenoui’s thoughts on best practices.

10. Establish great customer service.

Customer retention is essential for a subscription-based model. That means that once you have started shipping boxes, you need to have excellent customer service in order to keep customers subscribed. Do anything and everything you can to keep customers happy. Be sure they can reach by phone, email, and – if you have the resources to adequately manage it – social media!

Final Thoughts

Subscription boxes provide customers with unique experiences and business owners with unique opportunities. If this is a business model that you want to pursue, follow the tips above and you’ll be well on your way to success!

Roughly 10% of packages get damaged in the mail. Naturally, this is not a comforting statistic if you are in the business of shipping fragile items.

Our source here is the Fulfillment Lab, which considered the average damage rate over 15 billion packages delivered in 2022 and 2023. As you can imagine, for fragile items, the risk of damage is even higher.

The numbers above imply something truly shocking—about 1.5 billion packages are damaged in the mail. How much glassware has been shattered? How many electronics have been ruined? It’s impossible to say for sure.

What we can say for sure, though, is that damaged shipments aren’t just a hassle—they are a huge problem that causes serious economic damage. Broken packages cost businesses money, hurt their reputation, and frustrate customers. And on the buyers’ sides, receiving a shattered item can be disappointing, especially if it’s something rare or sentimental.

In this post, we’ll break down the most common reasons fragile items get damaged and how to pack them properly to lower the odds of damage. Then we’ll talk about what to do if you’re the buyer stuck with a broken package.

4 Common Reasons Items Break in the Mail

We were curious as to why the damage rate for packages sent by mail is so high. So we reached out to Will Schneider, a fulfillment expert at Warehousing & Fulfillment. When asked why packages break in the mail, he cited four common causes. Among them, he lists “poor packaging, mishandling during transit, improper labeling, and inadequate cushioning.”

We’ll briefly expand on each of those causes:

1. Poor packaging: Packages move a lot when they’re on the road. Packaging deteriorates over time, meaning that it may fall apart before it reaches its destination.
2. Mishandling during transit: A lot of people and machinery handle packages as they go from origin to destination. It’s not uncommon for packages to fall once or more during the shipping process, potentially damaging the contents.
3. Improper labeling: Fragile items need to be clearly labeled as fragile. Not everyone remembers to do this, though, leaving postal workers with no idea if they’re picking up a box full of clothes or a box full of fine china.
4. Inadequate cushioning: Because of the high risk of mishandling, shippers should pad the inside of packages with cardboard, paper, air cushions, and other similar materials. Not everyone remembers to do this, though, leaving items vulnerable to damage.

Taken together, these four factors lead to a lot of items being damaged in the mail. Luckily, though, shippers can eliminate some of these risks and, if nothing else, mitigate the risk of mishandling by proper packaging. We explain how that works in the following section.

4 Tips To Safely Ship Fragile Items

The risk that packages will be mishandled is a fact of life for shippers. But that doesn’t mean shippers can’t take steps to reduce the odds of items being damaged in the mail. Here are four practical tips that any seller can follow.

1. Use a well-sized rigid box.

The first rule of shipping fragile objects is to choose a rigid box. The last thing you want to do is ship a Faberge egg in a polybag or padded envelope!

Of course, you can’t just grab any box that’s available. It’s tempting to choose a very large box since you would be able to fill it with more bubble wrap, but this isn’t a good idea. According to Packlane, you want to choose a box which has 2 inches (or 5 cm) of extra space on all sides of the fragile item.

The reason for this is simple: you want to have enough room to pad the fragile object without giving the item(s) enough room to rattle around inside the package.

2. Fill excess space with cushioning materials

Once you select the right box, cover the fragile item in bubble wrap. Use as many layers as necessary.

After that, you will want to fill the extra void space with different materials. Your options include paper, bubble wrap, Styrofoam, peanuts, and air pillows. Paper and cardboard based alternatives are excellent as well, if you’re especially environmentally-conscious.

3. Label your box as fragile.

This is a fairly obvious recommendation, but nevertheless not one that you want to skip. Be sure to write “FRAGILE” in all caps on the box. Write the word on at least three different sides so that people will be more likely to see it. You may also want to add a “THIS SIDE UP” label as well.

4. Insure your package if it’s valuable.

If you’re shipping something really valuable, or even if you ship fragile items regularly, consider insuring your package. You can do this directly through carriers like USPS, UPS, FedEx, or DHL. However, if you ship fragile items regularly, you can also receive a discounted rate from third-party parcel insurers such as Shipsurance.

What should buyers do if they receive damaged items?

Despite the sellers’ best efforts, some packages will inevitably break in the mail. Buyers should be aware of this fact so that they can take action when items arrive damaged. We wrote about this at length in our article, “Who to blame when your package gets lost in the mail.”

But if you’re in a hurry, Will Schneider has simple advice you can follow if your package arrives damaged. “Document the damage with photos, contact the seller immediately, and file a claim with the shipping carrier if needed.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. Though it is worth remembering: shipping damage happens all the time and businesses have processes to resolve these issues. You will most likely be able to resolve your issue and get a replacement item without too much trouble.

Final Thoughts

Shipping damage is very common. But shipping fragile items can be done safely if you take a few precautions.

When in doubt, choose a rigid box that’s the right size, add a lot of padding, and label the package. If all else fails, rest easy knowing that shipping insurance can and often will reimburse you for damages!

Running a small business can be a disorienting, confusing experience, regardless of how much experience you have. It’s tough to know where to turn for timely and useful information, reliable data, and time-saving software.

That’s why in this week’s post, we’re going to share some of our favorite helpful websites for small business owners. They range from government agencies such as the Small Business Administration to informative blogs like The Balance Small Business to software like Trello.

31 Helpful Websites Small Business Owners Should Bookmark

1. BizFilings

Looking to start your business for the first time? The paperwork can be intimidating, especially if you’re not familiar with the process. BizFilings can help streamline the process of getting set up.

This site helps you fill out the forms needed to create a sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC, or other type of business. It doesn’t stop there, though. It will also help you choose the right type of business.

2. SCORE

SCORE is a network of expert business mentors who work on a volunteer basis. They’ve been around since 1964, have mentored over 11 million entrepreneurs, and are a resource partner of the Small Business Administration (SBA).

According to their website, they provide the following services:

• Mentoring with experienced entrepreneurs.
• Webinars and courses on demand on subjects such as marketing and finance.
• A library of online resources which includes blogs, templates, guides, checklists, and more.
• Local events to allow entrepreneurs to meet up.

3. Small Business Administration

Created in 1953, the Small Business Administration (SBA) was established to help small businesses succeed. Like SCORE, the SBA offers a number of different services including:

• Free business counseling
• Guaranteed business loans
• Home and business disaster loans
• Access to bidding opportunities for federal contracts

4. Bureau of Labor Statistics

If you need statistics on the economy or a certain industry, one of the first places you should check is the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This government agency provides statistics on pricing, employment/unemployment, compensation, working conditions, and productivity.

You are likely familiar with some of their work, which includes, just for starters:

• Consumer Price Index
• Unemployment Rate
• Consumer Expenditure Survey

5. HubSpot

HubSpot is best known for being a customer relationship management software, akin to a free version of Salesforce. However, arguably the best thing that this company has done for small businesses is found on the Resources section of their website.

Suffice it to say, if you can think of any problem that small businesses face, HubSpot has written a very detailed article about it. Examples at the time of writing include:

• How to Write a Blog Post: A Step-by-Step Guide [+Free Blog Post Templates]
• The Social Media Content Calendar Template Every Marketer Needs [Free Template]
• How to Create a Sales Plan: Template + Examples

6. The Balance Small Business

Similar to HubSpot, the Balance Small Business has written about nearly every issue you can imagine a small business owner running into. Examples from their blog at the time of writing this post include:

• 5 Ways CEOs Can Encourage Employees to Bring Their Whole Selves to Work
• 63 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2024
• Reduce Your Business Expenses With This $30 Microsoft Office Alternative

7. Entrepreneur

Of all the major magazines and papers dedicated to business and finance, Entrepreneur is the one best tailored for small business owners and entrepreneurs. While HubSpot and The Balance Small Business are better for long-form, specific instructional guides, Entrepreneur provides more timely news information.

8. Google Trends

We mentioned this in our marketing research video.

Google Trends may be my favorite way to conduct market research. The basic idea is simple: Google keeps count of what people search, as well as when they search and where they search from. In practice, this means that you can plug in all kinds of words to see if people are interested enough to Google them.

9. Legal Zoom

If you need to create simple, routine legal documents, Legal Zoom is a good resource to remember. One of their most well-known services include business formation documents, but they also handle wills/trusts, and intellectual property filings.

10. Shake Law

Along the same lines as Legal Zoom and BizFiling, Shake Law provides simple, plain English legal agreements that can be filled out on mobile devices. According to its Wikipedia page, it contains a number of stock contract templates on subjects such as:

• Freelancing/independent contractor agreements
• Non-disclosure agreements
• Buying and selling
• Rental of goods
• Personal loans

11. Trello

If you’ve never used Trello before, it can be difficult to explain exactly why it’s so useful. In short, Trello is a digital kanban board. If you’re not familiar with the concept, it’s simple: tasks are written on sticky notes and put into columns such as “to-do”, “doing”, and “done.”

Trello lets businesses easily organize tasks by allowing businesses to create an infinite number of these boards. Individual tasks can be assigned to users with due dates. You can also store notes and checklists within each task as well.

This is really just scratching the surface, too. Trello power-ups add a lot of functionality to boards. Best of all, Trello is free up to a point, though many of its most complex features require a monthly plan.

12. Salesforce

Salesforce is the most popular customer relationship management (CRM) platform. If you’re not familiar with the concept, it can be difficult to explain. Suffice it to say, a CRM can help you coordinate your marketing, sales, and service around clients or customers and their unique needs.

Relationship marketing is really difficult to do well, but it’s one of the most important tools that marketers – especially small business marketers – have at their disposal. Salesforce can help you track all the information you need to maintain productive and positive business relationships.

13. Shopify

Shopify is one of the most popular ways for small businesses to start a store. The basic idea is that Shopify makes it very easy to set up a good-looking, well-run store.

We’ve talked a lot about how to use Shopify in our other articles, listed in our eCommerce growth tips guide.

14. Wix

If you need to set up a website, but not necessarily a store, Wix is great option. One of the best parts about Wix is that you have nearly complete freedom to make any kind of website you want with their drag-and-drop editor.

15. Freightos

We’ve talked about how to use Freightos before in a prior post. To reiterate what we said earlier:

One of the most disorienting parts of running a business is freight shipping. Oftentimes, you have to have your items manufactured in another country, or at least another part of the country. As recently as 10 years ago, getting goods from point A to Point B would have involved calling a freight broker. That’s just not the case anymore.

Freightos is a freight shipping marketplace. Basically, in the same way that Kayak helps you book flights, hotels, and rental cars, Freightos helps you book shipping by air, sea, road, and rail.

16. Payability

If you’re used to waiting weeks or months before getting payouts, Payability is a good website to keep in mind. Many businesses have trouble with cash flow, often having an insufficient amount of cash on hand to handle long stretches of expenses without revenue.

Payability can help smooth out cash flow problems by making your money available to you nearly immediately. They charge a modest fee of 0.5-1% for doing so, which can be worth the expense during an intense cash crunch.

17. Trustpilot

If you need to evaluate the quality of vendors you’ve never worked with before, Trustpilot is one of the best places to check. It’s no secret that online reviews are easy to game at this point, but Trustpilot does a better job of resisting that than most other sites.

Trustpilot creates a proprietary TrustScore for companies, which incentives companies to have a large number of recent reviews. Companies without a lot of reviews or with nothing but old reviews will not rank as highly as companies with recent, positive reviews.

Customers can see where reviews came from and they can also see why reviews were flagged. This gives you a chance to see if companies are trying to suppress bad reviews. On the flipside, Trustpilot gives businesses a good opportunity to plead their case and try to have bad reviews removed. Overall, it’s a remarkably fair system.

18. Slack

Slack is a simple chat room software that companies can use for free, with some paid features. It’s a good way to connect people across long distances. While the concept is nothing new, Slack is particularly popular because of its simplicity, ability to easily share files, and ability to integrate with other popular software.

19. Dropbox

Dropbox is a cloud storage app that allows you to keep all your work documents in one place. For business, they charge $15 per user per month for 5 TB of storage space. If you need more than that, you can have unlimited space for $25 per user per month.

20. QuickBooks Online

Small business accounting can be a big pain, but QuickBooks makes it easier. Their online app allows you to track expenses, create and send invoices, manage payroll, and run reports. Most accountants will work with the system too, so it’s easy to get a professional’s help if you use QuickBooks.

21. Better Business Bureau

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) has been around for over 100 years, and for good reason. The BBB grades businesses on a scale from A+ to F based on their trustworthiness. Like Trustpilot, it can be a good way to screen vendors for the quality of their service when you don’t have much info to go on otherwise.

22. Wave

Wave is a free accounting software that helps small businesses track their money. It’s great for managing invoices, expenses, and payments all in one place. Even better, it doesn’t require a lot of accounting knowledge to use.

23. Canva

Canva is a design tool that makes it easy to create professional-looking graphics. You can use it to design logos, social media posts, or even brochures. It’s user-friendly, with tons of free templates to get you started.

24. Klaviyo

Klaviyo helps small businesses create email marketing campaigns. Whether you’re sending newsletters or special offers, it’s simple to build and track emails. They also offer helpful tools like automated follow-ups and audience segmentation.

25. Fiverr

Fiverr is a marketplace where you can hire freelancers for small tasks. From graphic design to writing, you can find someone to do almost anything. Best of all, you set the price and timeline, so it’s flexible for any budget.

26. Moz

Moz is an SEO tool that helps small businesses rank higher on search engines like Google. It offers keyword research, site audits, and backlink analysis. With Moz, you can improve your website’s visibility and bring in more customers.

27. Trinet

Trinet is an all-in-one HR software for small businesses. It helps manage things like payroll, benefits, and employee records. If you’re looking to simplify HR, this tool can save you time and reduce paperwork.

28. Gusto

Gusto makes payroll and benefits easy for small businesses. It handles taxes, paychecks, and even direct deposits. With Gusto, you can make sure your employees get paid on time, while staying compliant with tax laws.

29. Hootsuite

Hootsuite helps you manage multiple social media accounts in one place. You can schedule posts, track performance, and respond to messages. For small businesses, it’s a time-saver that keeps your social media organized.

30. Upwork

Upwork is another platform where you can hire freelancers for all kinds of jobs. Whether you need a writer, developer, or virtual assistant, you can find them here. It’s perfect for outsourcing work without hiring full-time staff.

31. Square

Square lets small businesses accept payments easily, both online and in person. Their point-of-sale system is user-friendly and works on mobile devices. It’s a great option for shops, restaurants, or anyone needing simple payment solutions.

Final Thoughts

We hope that you find this list of websites helpful in your small business journey! Notice any good websites we left off? Reach out on social media and let us know – we’d love to take your feedback and make this post even better!

Fun fact – 1.7 million packages are lost or stolen in the United States every day. That’s about 620 million packages per year according to a 2023 report by Security.org.

Obviously, that is a terrible fact, but it’s also an unavoidable one. So it begs the question: “who is liable when a package is lost in the mail?”

In this article, we want to take a moment to discuss that. Specifically, how you can be sure the package is lost, how you can determine who is responsible, and – ultimately – what you can do about it.

For the purposes of this article, we will be speaking to the recipient/customer and their point of view. Bear this in mind if you are the seller.

When Was the Package Lost in the Mail and Who’s Responsible?

First things first, you want to make sure your package is actually lost. Check the tracking information and confirm that the answer to the following three questions is “no”:

1. Is the package still out for delivery?
2. Did the package wind up at a neighbor’s house by mistake?
3. Has the package been delayed because of the weather?

If the answer to all the above is “no” and the package is more than, say, four or five days late, then it’s probably lost. In fact, you may have even had your package stolen by a porch pirate.

By now, with your package well and truly lost, you’re ready to find the responsible party. So where do you turn?

As a general rule of thumb, if you don’t see any evidence to suggest otherwise, the seller or shipper is responsible. If a package is marked as delivered and you have not seen it, then the seller is responsible. The exception is that if a package is actually lost prior to being marked delivered.

What Can You Do About It?

Okay, so at this point, you know the seller is responsible. You will want to contact them directly first.

Please note that while the seller is responsible, they may not have actually caused your package to be lost. They are just your first point of contact.

In any case, a lot of big sellers will send you a replacement item. No big deal, easy fix. In fact, it’s become rare to see situations where this doesn’t happen.

The seller, may in turn contact the shipping company to file a claim. This is especially true if they have shipping insurance. If their packages are insured, when they file a claim for a lost one, they can be reimbursed for the loss. Sellers may file a claim based on the carrier who delivered the package:

• FedEx: File a claim
• UPS: File a claim
• USPS: File a claim
• DHL: File a claim

What if the Seller Does Nothing?

First, let us reiterate – most big sellers will send you a replacement item. No big deal, easy fix. In fact, it’s become rare to see situations where this doesn’t happen.

But if the seller is unresponsive or refuses to help, don’t worry—you still have options. First, if you paid by credit card, you can contact your card issuer and file a chargeback. Many credit card companies offer protection against lost or undelivered items, allowing you to dispute the charge and potentially get your money back.

Another option is to check if you purchased through an online marketplace like Amazon, eBay, or Etsy. These platforms typically offer buyer protection programs that can assist you in cases where the seller isn’t cooperating. You can file a claim through the platform, and they may intervene on your behalf to ensure you receive a refund or replacement.

If you made your purchase through PayPal, you could also use their Purchase Protection program, which offers similar recourse for lost or undelivered goods.

If you choose to do this, it’s best to make sure you have a receipt and a copy of any communication you have had with the seller. This should help support your claim.

Final Thoughts

When in doubt, contact the seller. They can usually help you when your package is lost in the mail. If the carrier is truly the one at fault, the seller can often receive reimbursement through shipping insurance.

If you are the seller, remember that a small percentage of your items will inevitably be lost in the mail. Have a plan in place for dealing with situations like that so you’re not caught off-guard. When in doubt, assume as much responsibility as you can. If the costs start to add up, look into shipping insurance.

A lot of work goes into running a successful crowdfunding campaign, and although you might have reached your funding goal, you haven’t quite crossed the finish line – it’s now time to start fulfilling your rewards. This is where a pledge manager comes in handy.

Pledge managers are used by crowdfunding project creators to collect the vital information from their supporters needed to fulfill the rewards promised during their campaign. They provide surveys that backers can fill out to help track what they pledged, record their reward choices, and collect shipping and payment information.

A pledge manager is great for campaigns with:

• Physical rewards
• A high number of backers
• Numerous reward variants (size/color options)
• Add-ons

Here are five reasons why you need a pledge manager for your crowdfunding campaign:

1. Pledge managers will help you raise more funding.

Just because your campaign is over doesn’t mean you can’t raise more money. A good pledge manager will allow you to include add-ons and reward level upgrades in your backer survey, which can encourage backers to spend more and increase the average pledge value per backer. Allowing upgrades in your post-campaign survey gives backers an opportunity to change their minds on their pledges as the project gets closer to fulfillment.

2. Pledge managers allow you to correct shipping issues.

Calculating shipping costs can be a bit of a headache for any project creator, but a pledge manager will take care of any discrepancies with shipping costs. If a backer didn’t pay the correct amount of shipping with their pledge during the initial funding period, you can charge them the amount they owe or give them credit for the extra amount through your pledge manager. This can also be helpful if your backers have moved since pledging to your campaign.

3. Pledge managers give you a chance to recover failed pledges.

Failed pledges are common and happen for a variety of reasons: insufficient funds, credit card expiry, or fraud protection from the bank. This can be a problem because it means you may not collect as many funds as expected and even risk not having enough to fund the project, even though it’s been deemed “successful.” A pledge manager will ensure that all backers, including those with failed pledges, can be imported into your survey after the campaign ends. Backers with failed pledges are added with a pledge value of $0, but the reward tier they attempted to pledge to is saved. When it’s time to send your surveys, the backers with failed pledges will have another chance to pay for the reward they pledged to.

4. Pledge managers will help you build a mailing list for future projects.

With Kickbooster’s Pledge Manager, you will have the opportunity to give your backers the option to opt in to future email marketing communications. This is a great way to build your email list because you’re targeting a group of people who are already interested in your product and what you have to offer. Your backers are likely going to want to be contacted about other products and future crowdfunding projects they will likely be interested in.

5. Pledge managers make transitioning to eCommerce easier.

Most third-party pledge managers require creators to create every product for each reward level. If they decide to open an eCommerce store one day, they will have to go through the entire process of setting up products again. This can be a tedious process for creators who wish to continue selling their products after reward fulfillment is over.

Pledge managers like the one provided by Kickbooster integrate directly with your eCommerce store, pulling products from your store directly into your survey to configure. This means that each product only has to be created and configured once. When a survey is completed in Kickbooster’s Pledge Manager, an order will automatically be created in your eCommerce store, the same way a sale is when a customer makes a purchase directly through your store. This allows you to manage fulfillment in one place while also taking advantage of integrations for your eCommerce platforms, fulfillment centers, and order management systems.

This is a guest post by Kickbooster, a software company that provides solutions for crowdfunding creators. Services provided include both a pledge manager and a referral marketing system.

Learn more about Kickbooster’s Pledge Manager and how it can elevate your post-campaign experience here.

There are a lot of fulfillment companies out there. So when we say we provide “order fulfillment you can trust,” you might wonder what that actually means.

We can pitch our services all day long, but we think our clients say it best. Here are some videos – both edited and unedited – so you can hear directly from them.

Unedited Videos

We have no tricks up our sleeves! When you see an edited testimonial video, it’s natural to be skeptical about whether or not we’re cherry-picking the good parts.

Here are the full, unedited videos that we received and used in the making of the shorter video.

If you want even more opinions, check out our Reviews page or Trustpilot.

Leesa McGregor, Alphabet for Humanity

Brad Schaffer, Spaza / Halo Dish Covers

Thomas Kennedy, TMK Supplies

Hey there. It’s Joe Slack from the Board Game Design Course. The Fulfullrite team kindly allowed me to write another guest post here and today I wanted to talk about what to do with the extra games that you’ll inevitably have left after your Kickstarter campaign. I hope you get some helpful ideas from this article!

One of the toughest things to figure out after my first successful Kickstarter campaign, Relics of Rajavihara, was exactly how many copies of my games I wanted to have made and what to do with them afterward. After accounting for all orders from Kickstarter, retail store orders, and late pledges/upgrades in my Gamefound pledge manager, I estimated I would need to order a little over 1,700 copies.

The number wasn’t exact, as I needed to account for possible loss or damage. So, I added a buffer of about 5%, which might be on the high side (some recommend about 2% extra), but this also gave me the flexibility and some extra copies on hand when some retail stores sold out quickly and wanted to re-order, as well as for reviewers requesting a copy.

But did I want to print 1,800 copies to have some extras available, or go up to 2,000 copies? 2,500 copies? More?

This was a tough decision to make. It was made even harder by the fact that I didn’t know what I would do with those extra copies and how I would sell them.

It’s a difficult number to get right. On the one hand, it would be great to have extra copies available if stores wanted to re-stock your game or new customers are asking for it. But on the other hand, you don’t want to end up paying for storage every month for pallets of games that aren’t selling.

I eventually decided on 2,500 copies. This would give me plenty of copies for backers, as well as any other later orders, plus I would have some on hand to help fulfill my next campaign, which was for the expansion, Montalo’s Revenge. This follow-up campaign included the option for backers to get the original game as well.

This worked out well, especially since my manufacturer offers up to 1 year of free storage (this is rare, but much appreciated!) and my next campaign did even better. In fact, I had a lot of backers returning for the expansion, plus many new backers who pledged for both the base game and expansion.

But if you’ve run a successful Kickstarter campaign, what are your other options to sell any extra copies you got printed?

Retail

It can be incredibly hard for a new creator or publisher to get their game into retail outside of any one-off orders you get from retail stores backing your crowdfunding campaign.

It would be a TON of work to contact or visit a bunch of independent game stores, just to potentially sell a few copies here or there. It can be done, but it will take a lot of time, effort, and travel. You’re way more likely to get someone’s ear by visiting their store and demoing your game than by cold emailing a store, to which you will likely get a rejection email or no response at all. But it’s still a lot of work.

That’s why most publishers looking to get their games into stores work through a distributor.

Distributors

Distributors are the middlemen/middlewomen between publishers and retail stores. If you can arrange a deal with a distributor, they will take your game and shop it around to retail stores for you.

Retailers will essentially be able to look at a distributor’s catalogue and order whatever games they would like to stock on their shelves. This allows them to get a few of this game, a dozen of that game, etc., all in one shipment rather than getting them from each individual publisher (which saves a lot on shipping as well).

However, getting in with a distributor isn’t easy for a new creator or publisher. They often like to see a catalogue of games from a publisher rather than just one before they will consider you. There are exceptions, of course, especially if your game did extremely well and there is a lot of demand for it. But this is definitely an exception.

If you go to a distributor trying to unload a few hundred games you can’t sell, they’re not likely to be interested. They get asked this often. If you were in their shoes, how excited would you be about trying to sell a bunch of games that others are just trying to unload?

Still, there are some distributors that are worth checking out who may agree to sell your games for you. Traditionally, they would buy your games at 40% of MSRP and then sell them to retail stores. In some cases though, they may work off of commissions with similar rates. This is the difference between being paid up front (more risk to distributors) or after copies sell (less risk to distributors).

Here are some distributors that you can contact to see if they are a good match:

• Bridge Distribution (I’m currently in talks with them for my games)
• Funagain Logistics/Hitpoint Sales
• Quartermaster Logistics/Cool Stuff Inc.
• PSI

Amazon/Cool Stuff Inc/other

Another option is selling your game yourself on Amazon or through a web store like Cool Stuff Inc.

The margins will be a lot better with this approach than distribution or direct to retail, however, the selling will be up to you. There are thousands of already popular games available for sale on these platforms, with tons of reviews and lots of sales, so how will anyone find yours?

You’ll have to find a way to advertise or otherwise direct people there so that they find your game. Otherwise, they may just sit there, racking up storage fees (which I understand Amazon will increase drastically if your product isn’t selling quickly).

Many fulfillment companies will also organize Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) shipping for you, so if you are shipping your games to them to fulfill Kickstarter orders, you could also send them your extra copies to sell in this manner.

Selling them yourself

Another option is to sell your games yourself. There are a few different ways you can do this:

1. Sell from your website
2. Sell them at conventions (and other events)
3. Sell them on future Kickstarter campaigns

From what I understand talking to other publishers, only a very small portion of sales come directly from their website. If they are a larger company and offer a pre-order for their next release, this can generate some decent sales, but outside of this, you won’t likely sell a ton of copies.

Plus, you’ll again have to do all the marketing to bring people to your site, which is a lot of work and is not in everyone’s skillset.

First, make sure you have a plan for order fulfillment. If you need a hand getting your games out to backers and you’re not interested in doing this yourself (I wouldn’t recommend doing this on your own unless you have few backers and/or a lot of time on your hands), Fulfillrite is a great option.

So, you might instead consider conventions or other events. You must note that getting a booth or even a table at a major convention can be very expensive. Plus, you have to travel to get there, be at your booth at all times and hire staff or volunteers to help demo and sell your game, and you’ll be on your feet all day. Being an independent publisher, you’ll also likely get an out of the way spot at the back of the hall.

Many medium and large publishers just aim to break even from these conventions. Of course, people will see your game there and even though they might not buy it on the spot, this could generate future sales.

A smaller convention or another event, such as a local fair or flea market, might be another option. This would be much less expensive to attend, however, the latter events will not be your core audience. At the same time, you may be the only one there with a cool game to demo, so you would stand out. Still, selling hundreds of copies of your game could take many trips to many events.

If you run another Kickstarter campaign in the future, you could also offer your first game as an add-on or as part of a bundle. If your first game did well enough to warrant an expansion, offering the original game on this next campaign is a no-brainer, as many more people will discover your game that missed the original campaign. They will all need to purchase the base game before they would be able to play the original.

You could even leave your pledge manager open or re-open it later to take additional orders after you deliver all your games to your backers. You’d just need to have these games available for you or your fulfilment partner(s) to send out when they are ordered. Again, it would be up to you to drive traffic here so that more people discover your game.

Wrapping it up

How many extra copies you have printed is up to you. But you should have a plan for how you will sell those extra copies, as they won’t sell themselves. It might be interesting to test the waters and try selling your game through one or more of the approaches above with a small number of copies just to see what method would work best for you.

If you’re thinking about launching your game on Kickstarter sometime in the future, check out my free Kickstarter Success Checklist. It will give you step-by-step pre-launch steps, a list of important tasks to complete right after you hit launch, and tips on how to keep your campaign going strong.

Joe Slack is a board game designer, publisher, instructor, and the author of the #1 international best-selling book, The Board Game Designer’s Guide, along with 3 other books on game design. He has taught Game Design and Development at Wilfrid Laurier University and runs the Board Game Design Course, an online course for new game designers. Joe has 4 games published with other publishers (Zoo Year’s Eve, Kingdom’s Candy: Monsters, Four Word Thinking, and King of Indecision) and one self-published game (Relics of Rajavihara) and expansion (Montalo’s Revenge).

Hey there. It’s Joe Slack from the Board Game Design Course. The Fulfillrite team was kind enough to ask me to write a guest post on how to know your game is ready for Kickstarter. Of course, I was completely on board!

After having run 3 Kickstarter campaigns (2 successes following 1 failure) and having studied what it takes to be successful on Kickstarter, I wanted to share my top 3 signs that you’re ready to launch.

If you’re looking to self-publish your game, consider this a checklist of all the things you’ll want to have in place well before you hit that launch button.

#1: Your Board Game is Amazing

If your goal is to successfully Kickstart your game, the first thing you need to ensure is that your game is amazing and that people really enjoy playing it (and want to come back for more).

There is a lot of competition in the board game world, with thousands of games being launched on Kickstarter every year (4,490 in 2020 and 2,439 in the first half of 2021 alone!). So, your game has to stand out. It has to be interesting and innovative. It has to do something different than all the other games on the market.

Your game has to be amazing enough to make people want to back your campaign over all the others out there. People have a limited amount of disposable income and only so much they can allocate to board games, so your game has to really stand out. It’s not enough to have just a “good” game.

When you playtest your game with other designers and players, you’ll often receive a lot of feedback. Quite often it will be necessary criticism that you need to hear in order to identify problems with your game and make it the best it can be.

Often, other designers will give you feedback that would change the game more into the game that they would have designed or would have liked to play, so you have to watch for this.

But when players only have suggestions on how to make small changes that would make the game slightly different, but not necessarily better, take note of this. If this is the only feedback you’re consistently receiving and there are no major problems being identified and no suggestions for improving your game, this is a great sign.

But there are certainly other signs and signals that players give you that will boost your confidence as well.

“Can we play again?”

This is like music to a game designer’s ears.

While this won’t happen with every game, particularly longer games that you wouldn’t normally play multiple times in a row, with a shorter game, this is something you want to hear from your players. If one player has just tasted defeat, they may want a re-match. If it’s a co-op game and the players narrowly lost, they may want another chance at redemption.

If your game is a bit on the longer side, what you might hear instead is players discussing strategy and what they would do the next time they play. They’ve found some depth to your game and have indicated they are interested in playing again in the future.

Even better, if players finish playing your game and immediately ask when it will be available, this is a great sign. It’s even better if they say this while playing your game.

They’ve indicated they enjoyed your game and are interested in picking it up when it becomes available.

If your players are consistently asking when your game is coming out, it means there is some demand for it, which is always a great thing!

It’s an amazing feeling when someone is ready to pull out their credit card and buy your game right there on the spot.

If players are asking to buy your game right now, they are putting their money where their mouth is. They’re not just saying they like your game, they are ready to put down their hard-earned cash to get a copy so that they can share this with their friends and family.

If you’re hearing any of these types of comments consistently, you can be confident that there is definitely a demand for your game and that there is something really special about it. At this point, you’ll know that your game is getting close to the stage where you’ll be ready to launch your Kickstarter campaign.

After all, if your game isn’t amazing, then it’s going to be a tough sell.

#2: You Need an Audience

It is so critical to bring your own audience to your Kickstarter campaign. You can’t rely on the hope that “if you build it, they will come.”

Having an amazing game is a great first step, but nobody knows about it, you’re not likely to hit your funding goal. Even an “ok” game with great marketing will do better than an amazing game that nobody knows about. So, you need to build an audience.

The best way to do this is by getting anyone who is interested in your game to sign up to your email list. Whether you’re demoing your game at a convention, talking about it online, or wherever you can, you need to get people to go from interested to a subscriber. You also have to keep them engaged by sharing backstories, art, and interesting facts about your game or game design journey.

Some suggest that about 10-20% of your email subscribers will actually back your game. You want your game to fund quickly so that it gets more attention and draws more people in, so if you can build up your email list to the point where 10-20% of them would make up the funding goal, you’re in a really good position and can be more confident that your project will succeed.

Without a solid number of supporters, you’re not likely to fund (or at least not without a LOT of effort).

Download my free Kickstarter Success Checklist to ensure you’re ready to launch with success!

#3: You’ve Set Your Campaign up for Success

You have an amazing game.

You’ve built up a sizable audience of raving fans.

But you’re not quite there yet. You still need to put everything together so that your campaign page is ready, you can offer pledges and shipping that are accurate for your project, and you can transition to the next steps of manufacturing, shipping, and fulfillment once your campaign ends successfully.

Before the campaign, you’ll want to prepare several other things in advance. These include the following steps:

• Put together a project plan
• Find an artist and graphic designer, then commission some art for your game (or all of it if you’re able)
• Set up your landing page and email service provider
• Promote your game and collect email addresses
• Set up a Facebook group for your game (optional)
• Get manufacturing quotes and decide on a manufacturer
• Record your Kickstarter video or hire this out
• Get prototypes made
• Contact reviewers and influencers and get them to review and promote your game
• Start putting together your Kickstarter page and launch your notification page
• Research and determine your shipping and fulfilment partners
• Finalize your pledge levels, pricing, stretch goals, and funding level
• Determine your launch date and ensure it’s not coinciding with other big launches (and announce your launch date in this spreadsheet as well)
• Get feedback on your Kickstarter page and make improvements
• Run ads leading up to your campaign (optional)

I go even more in-depth on each of these steps in this article on the Board Game Design Course blog.

As you can see, there’s a lot of work that goes into launching a successful Kickstarter campaign. There are a whole lot of things you need to do that are way beyond game design and require a completely different set of skills.

But if you’re willing to put in the effort and ensure your game is ready before you hit launch, you too can have a successful Kickstarter campaign.

If you’re thinking about launching your game on Kickstarter sometime in the future, check out my free Kickstarter Success Checklist. It will give you step-by-step pre-launch steps, a list of important tasks to complete right after you hit launch, and tips on how to keep your campaign going strong.

Joe Slack is a board game designer, publisher, instructor, and the author of the #1 international best-selling book, The Board Game Designer’s Guide, along with 3 other books on game design. He has taught Game Design and Development at Wilfrid Laurier University and runs the Board Game Design Course, an online course for new game designers. Joe has 4 games published with other publishers (Zoo Year’s Eve, Kingdom’s Candy: Monsters, Four Word Thinking, and King of Indecision) and one self-published game (Relics of Rajavihara) and expansion (Montalo’s Revenge).

In the course of prepping this interview for you to read, I probably checked my phone five or six times. I’m not the only one: half of Americans spend five to six hours on their phone every day excluding work-related tasks. It’s a serious social problem, and the folks at Light Phone are working on a solution.

Light Phone is designed to be used as little as possible. It’s a simple idea: take all the good parts about a smartphone – phone calls and texts, the calculator, music and podcasts, alarms, and directions. Then strip away all the stuff that steals your attention. No social media, no browsing, no email, news, or ads. Everything that is and is not on Light Phone is deliberate.

It’s even designed to look and feel like a tool and not a toy. Instead of using a distracting and bright display, Light Phone uses sedate E-Ink for a display that’s easy the read at night and in broad daylight. Plus the battery lasts a long time, meaning you don’t even have to constantly think about charging it.

In this interview, we ask Co-Founder and CEO Kaiwei Tang to tell us about how he came up with the idea, how he turned it into a real product, and how he got people on board with the idea of a distraction-free phone.

What follows is a transcript of our conversation. It has been edited for clarity and brevity.

First, tell us a little bit about Light Phone.

Light Phone is a phone that is designed to be used as little as possible.

It doesn’t fight for the important things that we take for granted, our time and attention. The Light Phone offers utility and the peace of mind we’ve become accustomed to with our smartphones whilst eliminating the distractions, manipulation and stress of social media, news, or email. I don’t believe that the ever-increasing digital connection makes us happier.

It’s also a simple phone that is built around intention and purpose. It’s not a dumbphone. It offers modern tools such as calls, texts, directions, music, podcasts, hotspot, etc. through a completely customized and in-house designed typographic-based interface.

We spent years designing and developing Light Phone to produce a slim, credit card-sized phone with a matte black and white E-ink screen. The screen feels nothing like a smartphone, which is not an accident and it is perfect for viewing outdoors in direct sunlight. It’s a phone that isn’t interested in collecting and selling your data, ever.

We call it a phone for humans.

How did you first come up with the idea of the Light Phone?

My co-founder Joe Hollier and I were invited to a designer incubator hosted by Google in 2014. We were encouraged to build a mobile application, but we quickly realized that making another app is just the last thing this society needed from us. People are becoming increasingly frustrated and appalled at how much time their phones were sucking out of their lives and we wanted to create something that would give those people an alternative.

Almost every tech company were and still are, making apps that are “sticky” — they encourage users to stay for long periods of time. The reason is simple, the longer someone uses an app, the more revenue an app could make through advertising; however, the result is devastating to our attention and well-being.

As a reaction to the pernicious influence of time-grabbing apps & social media, we decided to create a product that would encourage users to take a break from the internet and their smartphone.

How did people initially react when you pitched the idea of creating a new smartphone?

The reactions were extremely polarized in 2014. People either loved it thinking that its radical approach could change their life for the better, or they could not see a reason to lower their screen time. Everyone had a strong opinion on the Light Phone, which continues to this day.

Our users often told us that having a Light Phone in public sparked some really great conversations between them and other people. They chatted about why they chose to “Go Light”, they discussed their relationship with technology, what problems they have experienced with social media and apps as well as what phone features are critical to them.

I think it’s really amazing that the Light Phone becomes a conversation piece and our users are making a conscious choice. Part of what we are trying to do is to be more intentional in terms of deciding what technology to use and how we design our tech tools.

How long did it take you to develop Light Phone II?

It took us almost 2 years from designing, developing to actually shipping Light Phone II. We customized almost every aspect of the phone to make sure the design aligns with our mission and the value of the company. It wasn’t a re-purpose of any existing phone on the market. It was a challenge for both us and our suppliers at the time, to work on such highly customized hardware and software. It is part of the reason the price of an unlocked LPII ($299) might seem relatively high if you compare it to any vintage feature phones or flip phones.

Customized hardware requires a lot MOQ (minimum order quantity) on almost every component inside the phone. We are not a big technology company like Apple or Samsung, we can’t afford to order any part in hundreds of thousands to get lower costs. This is something we have been trying to be transparent about and communicate with our customers as well. It is the reality of a small start-up but hopefully as we continue to grow we can offer a more affordable option.

What was the first prototype like?

The first prototype of Light Phone II is a 3D printed solid block I did in our co-working space. We were trying to get a look and feel on different sizes and thicknesses. It’s a non-functional mock. I also bought many used vintage phones, broke them apart, and then reassembled them to create the first functional light phone from those scrapped components. It was like a scene out of Todd McLellan’s book, Things Come Apart.

Did you have to create your own e-Reader ink?

We worked with our manufacturing partner, E-ink Technology, to create a smaller size e-ink display that wasn’t available on the market. We also spent a year optimizing the performance and refresh rate of the display. E-ink displays are not often used on phones so there was lots of trial and error to get to where we are.

How did you secure funding?

Light Phone II IndieGoGo campaign in 2018 really kicked us off. We raised over $3.5 million via pre-orders from our wonderful backers who believe in us. The campaign also led to a good deal of press coverage here in the US and internationally. The media attention gave us and our prospective investors a really good indication of whether or not people want the product.

The last several years we received investment from mission-aligned angel investors and VCs such as Pinterest’s Ex-President Tim Kendall, Lyft Co-Founder John Zimmer, Twitter’s Co-Founder Biz Stone, Bullish VC, Able Partners, Hinge VC, White Bay Group, and many others.

We are really grateful for the support from our early backers and investors.

How were you able to market a product specifically made to avoid social media and similar distractions?

I honestly don’t think paid social media advertisement is or should be the only way to promote a product. It has definitely proven to be effective on many products but at the same time, social media and the majority of technology companies are basically profiting from our data, attention and time.

The last few years we have had a lot of customers help us spread the word to their friends and family based on their experience using Light Phones. We also received lots of press coverage organically.

I think a user’s endorsement is so powerful and it also makes the product really meaningful to others. Instead of spending millions on paid marketing, I think we prefer to spend our limited resources on making the experience better. That being said, hopefully more people can find out about Light Phone and join all our users “going Light.”

What was the mass manufacturing process like, especially with all the supply chain disruptions?

Recent supply chain disruptions did slow us down. We have many vendors that provide components of the phone and their factories are located in different regions of the world. Other than the shipping backlog that I think a lot of people heard about and were affected by, we have also had to contend with COVID lockdowns in local areas that disrupted our vendor’s shipment and schedule.

We tried our best to keep people posted about shipping irregularities and be transparent about the problems our suppliers had. Thankfully our customers are very understanding and trust we are doing all we can.

How do Light Phone users get cell service? Which networks are covered and how do they pay for the plan?

We have our own Light SIM card and service plan (optional). Our users can use the Light plan which is on AT&T network, or use their existing T-Mobile, Verizon, or AT&T SIM card.

Light dashboard is where Light Phone II users customize their phones, accounts, tools as well as payment.

Do you find yourself marketing more to smartphone users? Or traditional phone users who might want a little bit extra?

I do think all users have different needs and different senses of what makes an ‘essential tool’, which is why we are working on adding a few more utility tools so that more people feel comfortable to Go Light. Although, Light Phone will never have social media, browser or advertisements.

The last few years we have been focused on sharing the health benefits of going light that we have heard from our users i.e. less stress, less anxiety, becoming more productive, getting more time back, sleeping better, etc. We also have parents and schools who are interested in getting a Light Phone as their kid’s first phone.

We also created a campaign to interview our users so they can share their experiences firsthand.

Going Light with Desi from The Light Phone on Vimeo.

Are there any exciting future upgrades on the horizon?

At the moment, we offer phone, text, direction, music, podcast, hotspot, calculator, and an alarm clock on Light Phone II. We have plans to introduce other utility tools such as a calendar, meeting reminders, notepad, barcode reader, voice memo, two-factor authentication… We are also working on a feature that would enable users to use their existing smartphone number on Light Phone II.

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Interested in ordering a Light Phone for yourself or a friend? Check out their website here to learn more.