If you've followed the news lately, you've probably seen that a lot of goods are in short supply. Everything from semiconductors to sausage, rental cars to lumber has been hard to come by. You can blame the pandemic for many of these shortages, sure, but the underlying issues are more...

Ecommerce is booming faster than ever before. Small businesses naturally want to ride the wave. Shopify is one of the best ways to do that, and that's why we've been talking about it so much over the last several weeks, resulting in posts such as: How to Set Up Your...

Every Friday, we answer a common question about fulfillment, shipping, or business. This week's question comes from a reply to one of our weekly emails. Today we will answer the following question: "how do I create a product prototype?" Create the Best Prototype You Can Alone For the purposes of...

Brands and businesses are becoming more and more aware that their packaging serves a purpose beyond functionality; it is also a strategic and strong marketing tool for those who know how to wield it. Packaging boxes are even more of a necessity in online/eCommerce businesses, with every order having to...

You might have heard about the increased international shipping rates as of July 1, 2020. After the United States floated the possibility of withdrawing from the Universal Postal Union, all parties reached a compromise that would allow the U.S. to set its own postage rates. Put into plain English: a...

Every Friday, we answer a common question about fulfillment, shipping, or business. This week's question comes from one of the fans who entered our giveaway contest for a Roku. Today we will answer the following question: "why is sea shipping cheaper than air shipping?" Sea shipping costs less for the...

Packaging is becoming an increasingly common and high-demand utility for businesses around the world. For an e-commerce business, the first direct touchpoint that your brand has with your customer is when they receive the package and unbox it. Studies related to the psychology of shopping show that, “packaging plays a...

THE COMPANY Calamityware is a graphic-designer owned e-commerce company that sells products with (often humorous) designs drawn from the owner’s personal sketchbook. Calamityware uses the crowd-funding platform Kickstarter as the basis of every product they sell, using the platform to test the demand for each product idea before initiating a...

THE COMPANY Creative Beast is a small business that sells realistic, built-to-scale dinosaur action figures made by owner-operator, David Silva. Creative Beast uses the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter and the pledge management system BackerKit to launch each new line of action figures. Once launched, the dinosaurs are also available to buy online as...

The Company Level 99 is a board game publishing company owned and operated by Brad Talton. Some of their more popular games include BattleCON, Pixel Tactics, Millennium Blades, Argent: the Consortium, and Empyreal: Spells & Steam. Once launched on Kickstarter, the games are also available to buy online as well as at select retail outlets. The Challenge...

Lean supply chain management has become a hot buzzword in the business world lately. Indeed, lean principles are being taught everywhere from books for start-ups to Fortune-100 companies. It's no surprise to find that lean principles are now applied to the complex world of supply chain management. What Does "Lean"...

Happy customers mean a happy business. It seems overly simplistic, doesn’t it? But unhappy customers often abandon their relationship with a company they’ve had a bad experience with. For many eCommerce companies, a product being out-of-stock is enough to drive customers away. That’s very costly, but also preventable. eCommerce SMBs...