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How Small Businesses Plan to Grow in 2017 (+54 Stats on the State of SMB)
Tracey Wallace / 3 min read
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90% of online small businesses expect to grow their revenue in 2017. 45% expect to grow more than 25% year over year.
This data, collected from a survey of 596 BigCommerce customers, mirrors that of the National Federation of Independent Businesses’ report, which found small business optimism and confidence in the economy is at a 12-year high.
While the NFIB’s data pointed to a political climate that may be more sympathetic to SMBs as the cause of a rise in confidence, BigCommerce’s survey found that small business owners are taking matters into their own hands to accelerate revenue. And they are doing so using tried-and-true ecommerce marketing tactics to drive traffic, win sales and increase customer lifetime value.
45% of SMBs expect to grow more than 25% in 2017.
Return on investment and low cost of customer acquisition from advertising channels are the two metrics that stick out the most to SMB owners when deciding how to spend marketing dollars and allocate marketing personnel resources.
The below data points, trends and following infographic walk you through exactly how SMBs report they will grow their businesses in 2017 –– and exactly how they won’t.
For example, nascent technologies like VR and ecommerce chat bots fall out of favor with small businesses due to a lack of proven ROI. In their place, SMB owners plan to use channels and tactics like social advertising (51%), SEO improvements (46.28%) and email marketing (40.27%) to drive top-line growth.
Most Important Online Channels and Tactics
The below figures highlight the percentage of SMBs surveyed that believe each online channel or tactic will be a primary driver of revenue growth in 2017.
Social advertising: 51%
SEO improvement: 46.28%
Email marketing: 40.27%
Site re-design: 31.98%
Google Shopping: 24.86%
Selling on Amazon: 19.46%
Influencer marketing: 16.57%
Selling on eBay: 15.22%
In addition, 73.23% of SMBs are considering expanding to sell on Amazon or Ebay in 2017.
Social Selling Focus
When it comes to social commerce and advertising, 51% of SMBs expect these channels will play a major role in accelerating revenue in 2017. And, this isn’t a passing interest. More than 50% of SMBs reported that they are more interested in selling on social channels than they were in 2016.
This points to SMBs preference for tactics with proven ROI as illustrated by brands like Spearmint Love, for instance. In fact, survey data showed that nearly 80% of SMBs consider selling on social as a proven strategy for driving top-line revenue.
Specifically, here is how sentiment breaks down by social channel.
75.62% feel Facebook and Instagram have the highest potential for driving growth
49.11% feel Instagram alone has the highest potential for driving growth
14.41% feel Pinterest has the highest potential for driving growth
9.43% feel other channels (like YouTube) has the highest potential for driving growth
0.53% feel Snapchat has the highest potential for driving growth
Mobile Growth Optimization
SMBs are seeing exponential growth in mobile traffic and sales, and as a result many are putting a heavy focus on optimizing for mobile shoppers.
Many BigCommerce customers have already reported they are asking site designers to design mobile-first sites, and then back into desktop versions. This mobile-first strategy is a total reversal of the way sites have been designed for the past decade.
In addition, many online merchants report immediate success from digital wallets like PayPal One Touch, Amazon Pay and Apple Pay, showing as much as 80% of online transactions using one of the above processors.
SMBs surveyed also reported they expect to increase their use of mobile wallets, mobile-friendly site design and mobile-SEO tactics as means to drive top-line growth..
77.84% expect mobile wallets to positively impact business revenue
88.18% expect mobile-responsive design to positively impact business revenue
SMBs are “Wait and See” on New Technologies
When it comes to new technologies like VR or chatbots, the majority of SMBs are taking a ‘wait and see’ approach before adopting.
For instance, when asked about VR for ecommerce, 47.36% of SMBs reported they are not at all interested, 23.59% are somewhat interested and 12.15% are very interested.
Sentiment was similar with chat bots, or bot-based commerce, where 33.27% of SMBs reported that they are not at all interested, 31.51% said they are somewhat interested and 18.84% are very interested.
As for voice-command store management and shopping technology through Google’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri, 51.01% of SMBs said they are not all interested, 25.22% said they are somewhat interested and 9.63% said they are very interested.
The Roadmap to Growth
See the full infographic below for exactly how SMBs are thinking through their 2017 roadmap to growth.
small-business-success-2017-infographic-750x2980.jpg 750w
It’s a fascinating time in ecommerce. Virtual reality may eventually lead to the comeback of malls –– digitally reimagined, of course. Ecommerce bots may soon be trained by consumers (and likely their online shopping data) to provide targeted product recommendations that are tuned to our preferences. Google’s Alexa is already allowing customers to buy online using voice-commands to search for and buy products without the need to ever access a computer or mobile browser .
The future of ecommerce will be fundamentally different than what we know as online shopping today. But those nascent technologies have yet to prove effective for SMBs, and very few of those business owners expect to adopt the technology within the next two years.
For now, at least according to a survey of more than 500 BigCommerce merchants, SMB owners report a high degree of optimism for growth in 2017 –– however, almost all of it will be driven by tried and tested tactics proven to increase revenue.
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Tracey Wallace
Tracey Wallace
Tracey Wallace is the Editor-in-Chief at BigCommerce, where she covers all things ecommerce: marketing, design, development, strategy, plus emerging trends, including omnichannel and cloud replatforming.She is often featured in publications, such as Forbes, Entrepreneur, Mashable, and ELLE, along with leading BigCommerce partners like HubSpot and Square. She launched her career in ecommerce with Y-Combinator backed Shoptiques.
View all posts by Tracey Wallace
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The real brain food could be fresh veggies and olive oil, study finds
Jan. 5, 2017 at 5:24 AMMaggie FoxErika Edwards
NBC News
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A Mediterranean diet that’s loaded with fresh vegetables, fruit and the occasional drink could help preserve your brain into old age, researchers reported Wednesday.
It’s the latest in a series of studies showing that a healthy diet can preserve health, including brain health.
This one’s a little different because it doesn’t seem to show that adding fish to the diet makes any difference. It’s not clear why, but it adds another piece of evidence in favor of dumping junk food and turning instead to fresh salads dressed with olive oil, plenty of fresh fruit, hummus, beans and pasta. Everyone’s brain shrinks as they get older. This study, published in the journal Neurology, found that people in their mid-70s who ate a Mediterranean-style diet lost less brain mass than people who ate a diet more typical of their native Scotland.
“We found that lower adherence to the Mediterranean diet was associated with greater three-year reduction in total brain volume,” Michelle Luciano of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and colleagues wrote. Related: Vegan diet may save your life and the planet, too
The team used a group of Edinburgh residents who were born in 1936 and have been followed ever since. For this round, the volunteers filled out a food diary and then many of them agreed to have a series of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of their brains.
The study took them from age 70 to around 76 and the MRIs allowed the researchers to see just when and how their brains changed as they moved from late middle age into early old age. About 400 of the volunteers made it through two MRIs over three years.
Those who ate more fruits, vegetables, olive oil and the like, and less fried food, red meat and cheese had less brain shrinkage, the team found. On average, their brains shrank at about half the rate that would normally be expected over three years for people this age, they said.
Related: Tasty Diet Cuts Heart Disease
“In our study, eating habits were measured before brain volume was, which suggests that the diet may be able to provide long-term protection to the brain,” Luciano said in a statement. “Still, larger studies are needed to confirm these results.”
Resistant to brain disease
People got points for light to moderate drinking — in this case about a third of drink a day to no more than three drinks a day on average for men and two for women.
Dr. David Knopman, a professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota who was not involved in the study, said this could translate to real-life benefits.
“Loss of brain volume is an inevitable part of the aging process,” Knopman told NBC News.
Related: This Diet Helps You Live Longer
“A bigger brain is in general better for you because at least in late life, it makes a person more resistant to the effects of brain diseases,” he added. “People who have bigger brains in general can tolerate more brain pathology, more brain disease, than those who have smaller brains. So the reduced loss in the people who adhered to the Mediterranean diet in general would be expected to protect them from developing dementia.”
Everyone who took part in the study was healthy and living independently, and the study was not designed to show whether healthier eating reduced the risk of dementia. But other studies have shown that good diets can prevent Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia.
Related: Could a Mediterranean diet keep your brain from shrinking?
A 2015 study done at Columbia University also found that people who ate Mediterranean diets had bigger brains. But it also found this may have been caused in part because people who ate Mediterranean diets also are more fish and less of other types of meat.
The Edinburgh team didn’t find any effect from eating meat or fish, and they found education did not seem to matter, either.
Previous research has linked a Mediterranean diet to a reduced risk of heart disease and some cancers, as well as stroke and to a longer life in general. “People who eat healthy are often healthier in many other respects,” Knopman pointed out.
“They're much less likely to be obese, they're much less likely to have diabetes, hypertension, much less likely to smoke, more likely to exercise. And they're probably more likely to adhere to good health behaviors in general.”
Related: Mediterranean Diet May Slow Brain Aging
But a series of studies done in Spain finds the effects are clear even when people are already starting out with healthier diets. The team in Barcelona adds extra olive oil and nuts to the standard diets of Spaniards and finds the benefits on heart health and brain health are clear.
The Edinburgh study only asked people once – when they were 70 – what they ate. So it’s not entirely clear if it takes a lifetime of eating better to help the brain.
More: Health & Wellness Diet & Fitness
25 Mission Statements From the World's Most Valuable Brands
MISSION STATEMENTS 25FROM THE WORLD’S MOST VALUABLE BRANDS
The best example of a mission statement will define your company and its purpose in 30 seconds or less. Great ones avoid buzz words, empty phrases, or mission statements that are so general they could apply to many different companies. It’s a challenge, but you want to capture what your company stands for in a brief and memorable way.
With your mission statement, be sure to cover what the goals of your business are for three primary components: customers, employees, and owners. Be clear and specific, and you’ll highlight the core of what makes your venture unique and worthwhile.
Sometimes it helps to look at the mission statements of other companies to get a better idea of how to write your own mission statement. Gathered below are the mission statements of the world’s 25 most valuable brands in 2015. We’ve also graded each mission statement to demonstrate how effective they are.
Need help writing your own mission statement? HOW TO WRITE A MISSION STATEMENT IN 5 EASY STEPS Click here to read now »
APPLE Mission Statement: Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.
MICROSOFT Mission Statement: At Microsoft, our mission is to enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential. We consider our mission statement a commitment to our customers. We deliver on that commitment by striving to create technology that is accessible to everyone—of all ages and abilities. Microsoft is one of the industry leaders in accessibility innovation and in building products that are safer and easier to use.
GOOGLE Mission Statement: To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
COCA-COLA Mission Statement: To refresh the world... To inspire moments of optimism and happiness... To create value and make a difference.
IBM Mission Statement: Dedication to every client’s success. Innovation that matters—for our company and for the world. Trust and personal responsibility in all relationships.
MCDONALD’S Mission Statement: We are focused on delivering great tasting, high-quality food to our customers and providing a world-class experience that makes them feel welcome and valued.
SAMSUNG Mission Statement: Dedicated to making a better world through diverse businesses that today span advanced technology, semiconductors, skyscraper and plant construction, petrochemicals, fashion, medicine, finance, hotels, and more.
TOYOTA Mission Statement: To attract and attain customers with high-valued products and services and the most satisfying ownership experience in America.
GENERAL ELECTRIC Mission Statement: Invent the next industrial era, to build, move, power and cure the world.
FACEBOOK Mission Statement: Give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.
DISNEY Mission Statement: Be one of the world's leading producers and providers of entertainment and information. Using our portfolio of brands to differentiate our content, services and consumer products, we seek to develop the most creative, innovative and profitable entertainment experiences and related products in the world.
AT&T Mission Statement: Exploit technical innovations for the benefit of AT&T and its customers by implementing next- generation technologies and network advancements in AT&T's services and operations.
AMAZON Mission Statement: We seek to be Earth’s most customer-centric company for four primary customer sets: consumers, sellers, enterprises, and content creators.
LOUIS VUITTON Mission Statement: Create products that embody unique savoir-faire, a carefully preserved heritage and a dynamic engagement with modernity. These creations make our Houses ambassadors of a distinctively refined art de vivre.
CISCO Mission Statement: Shape the future of the Internet by creating unprecedented value and opportunity for our customers, employees, investors, and ecosystem partners.
BMW Mission Statement: The BMW Group is the world’s leading provider of premium products and premium services for individual mobility.
ORACLE Mission Statement: We help you simplify your IT environment so that you can free up money, time, and resources to invest in innovation. We do this by providing a comprehensive and fully integrated stack of cloud applications, platform services, and engineered systems.
NIKE Mission Statement: To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. * “If you have a body, you are an athlete.” — Bill Bowerman
INTEL Mission Statement: Through computing innovation, we push the boundaries of smart and connected technology to make amazing experiences possible for every person on earth.
WAL-MART Mission Statement: Save people money so they can live better.
VERIZON Mission Statement: Enable people and businesses to communicate with each other.
AMERICAN EXPRESS Mission Statement: Be the world’s most respected service brand.
HONDA Mission Statement: Maintaining a global viewpoint, we are dedicated to supplying products of the highest quality, yet at a reasonable price for worldwide customer satisfaction.
MERCEDES-BENZ Mission Statement: To delight our customers in everything we are doing. To continually improve the effectiveness of our Quality Management System and our business processes. To continually improve the quality of our products and services. To have a team-oriented and open minded corporate culture involving employees through leadership and individual acceptance of delegated responsibility To be aware of our environment. To have a professional relationship with our business partners.
BUDWEISER Mission Statement: Be the best beer company in a better world.
Need help writing your own mission statement? HOW TO WRITE A MISSION STATEMENT IN 5 EASY STEPS Click here to read now »
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