Jimmy Rodriguez

As a business owner, you have a lot of decisions to make. And it’s always important to look for the very best solutions for your business’ needs.

If you want your business to be found online, then it needs to be seen online. That means, of course, that you need to understand how search engines (and their rankings) work. But, if you’re looking for one of the fastest and easiest ways to improve your ranking on Google and other search engines, then you can bypass all of the other Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tactics and jump straight into:

Link building.

The landscape of eCommerce is always changing, and a smart business makes sure to stay on top of each new development. Since most of your ability to adapt is dependent on the capabilities of your eCommerce software, it's vital to use a platform that keeps up with the times. That's why, at Shift4Shop, we work constantly to bring you all the newest tools, integrations, and features as soon as possible. When you thrive, so do we!

Google Analytics has been a staple of eCommerce for years. It's a versatile tool built to provide you with data you can use to better understand your customers. And as every successful business owner knows, understanding your customers is the key to growing your business.

With Shift4Shop Version 12, we upgraded our Google Analytics integration to support the newest version, Google Analytics V4. This brings powerful new features to Shift4Shop stores.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more customers, both B2B and B2C, shopped online in 2020, resulting in tremendous eCommerce growth. Online retailers like Amazon and eBay had their biggest years ever. B2B eCommerce will be worth nearly two trillion dollars by 2023, which means eCommerce business owners are in need of more sophisticated online sales methods. 

Online security is at the forefront of risk management in modern businesses. However, it extends beyond mere business safety. Online safety risks are entirely mainstream. In the early days of e-commerce, you might remember that people were hesitant to share their credit card information online. Then, new services and security features came about that made people trust online retailers, and the concept largely disappeared from the public eye.

Subscription boxes have become incredibly popular over the last several years, both with businesses and consumers. While consumers love them for their specificity and convenience (how nice is it to get all of your dog’s favorite food and snacks sent to you each month automatically?), businesses love subscription boxes because they allow for targeting niche audiences and make monthly sales consistent. Of course, just because subscription boxes are popular doesn’t mean that you can start a[...]

Launching an online business entails a lot of hard work. During the initial stages, you'll tackle fun and exciting aspects like designing your website, creating a logo, and uploading products. Soon, though, you'll need to attend to more technical details like shipping — after all, unless you sell only digital products, your customers need a way to receive the items they buy from you!

Shipping for eCommerce can seem daunting, as there are a lot of factors to consider. You need to figure out[...]

Shopping behavior has irreversibly changed since the advent of smart technology. Specifically, shoppers now have the ability to complete shopping cart checkouts from a mobile device in record time with all of their payment information saved. And now, due to global happenings in 2020 and 2021, more compelling reasons have surfaced as to why consumers are choosing to online shop, safety now competing with convenience as their primary motivation.

Additionally, brick-and-mortar stores themselves[...]

Cart abandonment online is a serious problem for retailers and online store owners. Not only do people abandoning their carts leave you, as the store owner, feeling seriously frustrated, but they dramatically reduce the amount of revenue your business brings in. In fact, most conservative estimates reveal that more than 70% of all sales are lost online because of cart abandonment. Some estimates on the higher end believe the actual number of sales lost because of shopping cart abandonment is[...]

Every business owner is looking for ways to reach more customers. Multichannel eCommerce — selling your products on more than one website or marketplace — is one of the best solutions for doing so. Amazon is a common choice for multichannel sales due to its huge customer base and services like Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) that offer new opportunities for retailers.

Many brands have had great success selling on both Amazon and their own websites, but one of the pitfalls of multichannel eCommerce[...]

Getting leads is one thing, but closing those leads is something entirely different. While it can feel great to have request after request come in for work, the only way you and your business can actually survive is if those requests turn into sales. Whether you’re the one pitching a project or responding to a customer’s need, the better your sales proposal, the better the chances are that you’ll get a “yes” at the end of the day.

You can find anything you want online. At this point in time, no one should be surprised by the vastness of information that lives on the internet. But using that information, and simply just scrolling through, are two very different things. And in the world of business where everyone is looking to get ahead (and stay ahead), actually putting knowledge into action is what separates the best from the mediocre.

Having your business rank well online isn’t just a good idea; it’s an essential part of having any successful business in today’s digital world. As such, understanding the ins and outs of search engine optimization (SEO) is more critical than ever. While there are a lot of nuances to achieving amazing ranks on the major search engines (like Google), one of the most tried and true methods for increasing domain authority is link building.

A lot of people talk about doing search engine optimization (SEO), but most of them don’t actually know where to start — or how to get the results they want. The fundamentals of SEO are fairly easy to grasp, which is why so many people, especially business owners and entrepreneurs, talk about them. But, when it comes to actually applying SEO strategies to their business, very few ever get started. (And, if they do, it’s often on aspects of SEO that really don’t yield the best results.)

So,[...]

Taking a screenshot on your Mac should be simple. And, in all reality, it is. But, even those who regularly use screenshots in their work may not realize all of the different ways you can grab shots from websites on your Mac. And, of course, those who are new to Macs need a quick course in how to get started so that they can easily capture information and images.

Before we dive into how to take a website screenshot on your Mac, you need to know if you’re using a Mac “Pre-Mojave” or[...]

Ask anyone in the digital marketing industry what you need to do to grow your business online and they’ll give you one piece of advice — invest in content.

Sure, you could throw money at ads or hire a famous influencer to do one or two Instagram posts about you, but you’ll probably see a year’s ad budget dry up pretty quickly (and not have a lot of growth to show for it).

A more sensible, cheaper approach might just be to make content the focus of your strategy.

When it comes to human resources (HR), few things can make life simpler than the right software. From recruiting to hiring, and then evaluating and tracking performance, HR software allows teams to function better. That means less back and forth and fewer unnecessary emails to remind everyone of what’s going on. Additionally, great HR software ensures that other aspects of business operations are streamlined, including payroll, benefits, time tracking, etc.

When you think of starting a new online business or making the transition to eCommerce, costs and fees may float around in your head. How much will you need to spend on building and hosting your online store? What extra fees will you need to account for?

At Shift4Shop, we want to ease those worries by providing you with a free eCommerce solution – no strings attached. We’ve worked to make eCommerce affordable so that any-sized business can take advantage of our platform.

While every business has its own unique way of marketing depending on its niche and method, today it’s almost impossible to not do some sort of marketing via social media. Not only do the biggest social media platforms (like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram) have a huge reach, but they make it easy for businesses to sort through accounts and find their exact right customers based on interests, stages in life, location, buying habits, etc.