![\"Jenni-Lyn](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/Snarky_Tea_image_1.jpg?v=1682623226\")
Name: Jenni-Lyn Williams, Chief Snark Officer
\nBusiness: Snarky Tea
\nYear founded: 2016
\nBased in: Philadelphia, United States
\nSolutions: Shopify Shipping, order management, fulfillment, inventory management, return management
Snarky Tea was born in 2016 after working mom Jenni-Lyn Williams switched from coffee to tea as a way to cut down on caffeine. Williams found that the tea brands available in stores weren’t functional, and they also didn’t appeal to her personality. To change this, she decided to build a company that creates tea blends and other products that speak to women, empowering them to take on the world each day.
\nWhat started as a small operation producing charismatic tea blends with snarky names in Williams’ garage, quickly grew into a successful online business. Thanks to publicity opportunities through Vogue and the Oscars, and an appearance on Shark Tank (with two sharks investing), Snarky Tea exploded into a thriving direct-to-consumer company with hundreds of products.
\nWith such fast, massive growth, Williams needed a way to manage and scale her fulfillment operations—quickly. That’s when Shopify entered the scene.
\nAs a result of moving to Shopify, Snarky Tea has been able to:
\nWith too many systems, Snarky Tea didn’t have an accurate view of inventory across its supply chain. Data would not sync correctly, which led to selling out-of-stock items. It was also difficult to streamline fulfillment as order volume grew. “We’re printing 500+ shipping labels in a day,” says Williams. “The printer can only hold so much paper, and of course, it always needs ink right in the middle of a print job. So things would not print and there’d be a batch of 30 unprinted orders that we didn’t know about.”
\nSnarky Tea needed a reliable way to improve efficiency and simplify fulfillment processes. That’s when the company turned to Shopify’s built-in order management and delivery solution. With Shopify, Snarky Tea is able to manage inventory, fulfill orders quickly, and reduce shipping costs—all within one centralized ecommerce platform.
\nWhen it comes to inventory, Snarky Tea uses inventory transfers to keep track of incoming products. “We use Shopify’s native inventory management capabilities to track our production as it moves from our manufacturing facility to the fulfillment center,” says Williams. “We also use it to manage all of the components on our kitted items and sampler sets. It’s truly a game changer and keeps us from having to spend $250+ a month on an outside system.”
\n\nWe use Shopify’s native inventory management capabilities to track our production as it moves from our manufacturing facility to the fulfillment center. It’s truly a game changer and keeps us from having to spend $250+ a month on an outside system.
Having accurate information about inventory, as well as the real time status of items, helps Snarky Tea remain organized and keep things running smoothly. Williams says, “Shopify saves us so much time. We don’t have to take manual inventory counts until month end, and we can trust that the data in Shopify’s inventory system is accurate and up-to-date.”
\n![\"Snarky](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/Snarky_Teas_image_4.jpg?v=1682623677\")
When it comes to fulfillment and shipping, Snarky Tea chooses industry-leading rates with USPS from Shopify Shipping. From within the admin, Snarky Tea can view orders for the day, buy labels at a 30% discount, then print labels and packing slips.
\nSnarky Tea also uses the shipping labels index to fix anything that may have been missed during batch printing. Thanks to this helpful Shopify feature, Snarky Tea can see the print status of each order label. “Having a status that can show whether a label was printed or not seems like a small thing, but it’s saving us from unnecessary headaches and stress,” says Williams.
\n\nHaving a status that can show whether a label was printed or not seems like a small thing, but it’s saving us from unnecessary headaches and stress.
![\"Snarky](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/Snarky_Teas_image_2.jpg?v=1682623631\")
Once orders are picked, packed, and ready for pickup, the company uses USPS manifests in Shopify. “Manifests make pickups with our local USPS delivery person easy,” says Williams. “They need to scan one form to see all the shipping details for a batch of orders instead of scanning each order individually.”
\n![\"Jenni-Lyn](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/Snarky_Teas_image_3.jpg?v=1682623661\")
“The more that I can do in Shopify’s ecosphere and not have to leave it, the better. Things happen in the transition from one system to the other … anything that Shopify does, they do it well.” —Jenni-Lyn Williams, Chief Snark Officer, Snarky Tea
\n\nThe more that I can do in Shopify’s ecosphere and not have to leave it, the better. Things happen in the transition from one system to the other … anything that Shopify does, they do it well
Thanks to Shopify, the company is able to centralize its inventory management and order fulfillment, as well as purchase shipping labels from one place.
\nIn a 30-day period, the company saved more than $25,000 in shipping costs alone. “By using Shopify for postage rather than a regular post office,” Williams says, “we are seeing, on average, a 30% discount on shipping rates.” Leveraging Shopify to manage its shipping labels will save the company approximately $305,000 per year in shipping costs.
\n\nBy using Shopify for postage rather than a regular post office, we are seeing, on average, a 30% discount on shipping rates. This saves us more $305,000 in shipping costs per year.
In addition, Snarky Tea is saving time (and avoiding frustration) by using the Shopify platform. Since employees no longer have to manually perform certain tasks or check multiple systems for information, the company now saves over 360 hours per year.
\nLooking to the future, Snarky Tea is dedicated to fostering connections with its shoppers, turning them from one-time buyers into repeat, lifelong customers. The company’s new rewards program has helped with this, as has its Facebook group, in which Williams hosts tea-time live chats to talk with the community about both the company and life.
\n“We have a community, and with everything we do, we think about them,” says Williams. “If you build a relationship with your customer, that is the #1 most incredible feeling—it gives you purpose and meaning.”
\nhttps://www.shopify.com/blog/case-study-snarky-tea
\n"}]},"page_header":{"background":null,"backgroundOpacity":100,"color":null,"fieldGroupName":"page_header","title":"Snarky Tea: Shopify Success","opacity":100,"position":"on","size":{"desktop":64,"tablet":null,"mobile":null},"spaces":{"top":null,"bottom":null,"leftright":null,"units":"em"}},"link":"/blog/snarky-tea-brews-success-with-shopifys-built-in-order-management"},{"id":"cG9zdDo1NTEy","title":"Marketing Attribution: Definition and Different Models (2023)","date":"24.05.2023","schemaDate":"2023-05-24","modifiedGmt":"2023-07-27T07:37:39","slug":"marketing-attribution-definition-and-different-models-2023","acfSchemaPost":{"blogPostingImage":null},"categories":{"nodes":[{"id":"dGVybTox","name":"General Articles"}]},"levels":{"nodes":[]},"acfPost":{"fieldGroupName":"acfPost","excerpt":"What led a customer to buy from you?\r\nIt’s a simple question that becomes difficult to answer the more you start digging into it.\r\nDid they see an Instagram post or TikTok video, search for your product on Google, or open a promotional email?","squaredImage":{"altText":"Marketing Attribution: Definition and Different Models","localFile":{"childImageSharp":{"gatsbyImageData":{"layout":"fullWidth","backgroundColor":"#d8f8a8","images":{"fallback":{"src":"/static/09f4774a8d29811322301e65583c7049/b956e/marketing_20attribution.webp","srcSet":"/static/09f4774a8d29811322301e65583c7049/d1fa5/marketing_20attribution.webp 750w,\n/static/09f4774a8d29811322301e65583c7049/b956e/marketing_20attribution.webp 1024w","sizes":"100vw"},"sources":[]},"width":1,"height":0.4228515625}}}},"metaData":{"title":null,"description":"Discover the factors that influence a customer's decision to purchase from you. Dive into the complex world of marketing attribution and learn how to track and measure your marketing channels effectively. "},"banner":{"title":"Marketing Attribution: Definition and Different Models (2023)","showTitle":true,"image":{"altText":"Marketing Attribution: Definition and Different Models","localFile":{"childImageSharp":{"gatsbyImageData":{"layout":"fullWidth","backgroundColor":"#d8f8a8","images":{"fallback":{"src":"/static/09f4774a8d29811322301e65583c7049/b956e/marketing_20attribution.webp","srcSet":"/static/09f4774a8d29811322301e65583c7049/d1fa5/marketing_20attribution.webp 750w,\n/static/09f4774a8d29811322301e65583c7049/b956e/marketing_20attribution.webp 1024w","sizes":"100vw"},"sources":[]},"width":1,"height":0.4228515625}}}}},"timeToRead":null,"sections":[{"fieldGroupName":"post_Acfpost_Sections_ArticleRichTextContent","content":"What led a customer to buy from you?
\nIt’s a simple question that becomes difficult to answer the more you start digging into it.
\nDid they see an Instagram post or TikTok video, search for your product on Google, or open a promotional email?
\nMarketing attribution only gets more complicated the bigger your business becomes, with a website, social media properties, influencer programs, offline interactions, and other touchpoints to consider. And as consumer behavior evolves with the times, it becomes even trickier.
\nWhile it’s not a perfect science, the more marketing attribution data you can see across the customer journey, the better decisions you can make for your business. Ahead, learn the basics of marketing attribution, the different attribution models, and how to track and measure your marketing channels effectively.
\nTable of Contents
\nMarketing attribution is the process of evaluating and tracking the performance of your marketing channels.
\nThe goal of marketing attribution, of course, is to gain a clearer understanding of all the different interactions and touchpoints that customers have with your brand on the path to conversion.
\nIt allows you to credit the channels and specific campaigns that contribute to a conversion, which, in turn, helps you understand how and where to invest your money and attention.
\n![\"A](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/attribution-2.jpg?v=1682975644\")
While the marketing attribution definition sounds straightforward in theory, tracking your marketing touchpoints effectively can be quite complicated in practice. As technology progresses and consumer trends change, so do the ways we track attribution. Consider the following factors:
![\"Chart](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/marketing-attribution-history_0120bea2-6bd7-4069-a5ac-0ff84dc0ef8b.jpg?v=1682975690\")
Before we talk about how attribution works or the different marketing attribution models, we need to make one thing clear: There’s no such thing as 100% “true” marketing attribution.
\nYou can never fully understand exactly how each marketing touchpoint individually affected each customer journey, even when using the best marketing attribution software. All marketing attribution models and tools are merely an approximation of the real world.
\nThe only accuracy you can strive for is in:
\nUTM parameters are a string of labels beginning with a “?” or “&” that you might find after a URL:
\nwww.yourstore.com?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc
\nWhile it may look and sound foreign, UTM is a standardized system of tagging in digital marketing. Tags are easy enough to create using Google’s own Campaign URL Builder or a Chrome extension like UTM.io. Google’s Campaign URL Builder will automatically encode special characters such as spaces or question marks that might otherwise break your URL.
\nThere are five standard types of UTM parameters that can be used to describe incoming traffic for analytics tools so they can be grouped, organized, and analyzed in buckets.
\nYou can choose when and how to use them, but be sure to be consistent in your UTM labeling and tracking:
\nYou can also create your own custom UTM parameters to get even more granular with how you bucket your traffic. You could use “utm_season=fall” to track a specific seasonal campaign.
\nAdditionally, you can also use any of the valuetrack parameters to dynamically tag different marketing campaign settings or user attributes. For example, &utm_device={device} would automatically change {device} to identify what browser a user is visiting your site with.
\nHere’s an example of what this looks like. If I wanted to track the traffic and sales from a Google Ads search campaign for winter jackets by targeting the non-branded keyword “winter jackets,” my URL with UTM tracking might look like this:
\nwww.mystore.com?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=nonbranded
\n%20search%20winter%20jackets&utm_term=winter%20jackets
Breaking that down, each parameter tells you something about the traffic:
\nUTMs help you track your traffic down to specific sources so you can analyze how it performs on a more granular level—but only when you keep the following in mind:
\nWhen properly implemented, you can group and analyze traffic from different sources in Google Analytics and other reporting tools.
\n![\"Screen](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/GAsource_medium_2e93fe5b-9e21-4663-a0c8-146054d03235.jpg?v=1682975756\")
Proper UTM tracking is a step in the right direction, but by default, if the same user visits your site on multiple devices, each “visit” will be attributed as a separate user and a separate “journey.”
\nFor example, if a user sees an Instagram Story about a product, they may view the product but not buy it right away. Instead, they may research the product on their phone on the way home, before finally searching for it again on their laptop before bed and converting on a Google Shopping ad.
\nTo get around this and group all behavior coming from the same user, you’ll need to enable User-IDs in Google Analytics and integrate your CRM.
\nUser-IDs in Google Analytics create unique non-PII (not personally identifiable) IDs for each user, which gets included wherever their data is sent from. You can then use the ID to unify interactions across devices, as well as online and offline touchpoints, for each customer.
\nThe ability to turn what may look like many independent user journeys across different devices into a series of interactions from one user with your brand is crucial for painting a clearer picture of how your customers engage with you across different devices and campaigns.
\nDrive your business forward with Shopify’s analytics
\nShopify’s user-friendly reports and analytics capabilities help you make better decisions, faster. Choose from pre-built dashboards and reports or build your own to spot trends, capitalize on opportunities, and supercharge your decision-making.
\nExplore Shopify’s analytics
\n![\"A](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/attribution-4.jpg?v=1682975795\")
There are generally considered to be seven different types of marketing attribution models you can choose from based on the goals of your business and where in the funnel you want to place the most value:
Each model is outlined below to help you understand each attribution model across your marketing touchpoints. Note how the exact same customer journey can be interpreted differently depending on the model used.
\n![\"Chart](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/last-click_9526187f-3211-409d-ab84-3970aac8831e.jpg?v=1682975844\")
Last-click attribution is the most commonly used model and is the default for most marketing platforms and marketing attribution tools. This single-touch model is useful when you are aggressively trying to convert traffic into customers.
It gives 100% of the conversion credit to the last-clicked ad and corresponding keyword. As such, lower-funnel campaigns, such as branded search or retargeting campaigns, will be given more value while brand awareness and upper-funnel campaigns may receive none.
\n![\"Chart](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/first-click.jpg?v=1682975868\")
This single-touch attribution model sees the first touchpoint as the most important, as it gets 100% credit for bringing customers into your funnel in the first place. This is useful when you’re prioritizing spending money on campaigns that build traffic and find new audiences.
It gives all conversion credit to the ad or corresponding keyword that gets the first click. As such, high-value bottom-of-the-funnel activities, like remarketing, are missed in this model, potentially leading to a reduced investment in these efforts that actually drops your overall conversions and top-line revenue.
\n![\"Chart](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/last_click_non-direct_d1c2c0be-023f-44a5-8160-8aae4acd027b.jpg?v=1682975889\")
The last non-direct click model gives credit to the last click event before a buyer comes directly to your store to make a purchase. It gives 100% of the credit to the last, non-direct touchpoint.
In the example above, that would be Email.
\nDirect traffic is often from customers who have already made the decision to purchase because of marketing on a different channel. Last non-direct click attribution helps you filter out direct traffic and focus on the last marketing activity before conversion.
\nUsing last non-direct click attribution, you learn that it was actually Email that drove the final conversion. Direct will be an attributed channel in this model when the customers only trackable event is coming directly to your store.
\n![\"Chart](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/linear-attribution_00ff69c1-55c3-463b-b921-7d4e8a606dbe.jpg?v=1682975917\")
A linear attribution model distributes conversion credit equally across all clicks on the customer’s path to purchase. This is the simplest form of multi-touch attribution. With this model, you don’t miss out on crediting any interactions. However, it doesn’t tell you exactly what marketing channel had the most impact.
![\"Chart](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/time-decay_8c647b8c-aad0-4464-8994-be4060c4e9e6.jpg?v=1682975943\")
The time decay attribution model is similar to last click. However, it also gives some credit to the interactions that led up to the conversion, with more weight given to clicks that happened closer in time to the conversion.
![\"Chart](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/position-based_a0b6531d-1acc-46de-b5dd-a1090e5e0eed.jpg?v=1682975977\")
A position-based (or U-shaped) attribution model gives equal weight to the first and last click—each of these interactions gets 40% of the credit. The remaining 20% is spread out across the other clicks in between.
The assumption here, however, is that the first and last click are the most valuable interactions, while there may be campaigns or touchpoints in the middle that also play a significant factor.
\n![\"Chart](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/algorithmic_ba9eb2f1-a25d-45fb-81f0-0e1908b8c7c3.jpg?v=1682976004\")
This model is often referred to as custom attribution. When you have enough data available, you can allow machine learning to dictate which touchpoints deserve the most amount of credit in a customer’s journey.
Theoretically, this is the best model, but it relies on having enough historical data for machine learning to distribute weight across different touchpoints.
\nWhen you examine marketing attribution in Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Google Analytics, or Shopify reports, you might notice discrepancies. Which is the source of truth? Technically, all are “correct”—they just view marketing differently. Here’s a primer on how each one works.
\n![\"Screen](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/Channel_Performance_3_f1d3375f-40c3-4689-9a50-b01a9bbee3f0.jpg?v=1682976050\")
In Shopify’s Channel Performance report, marketing attribution models provide a holistic understanding of your customers’ journey to conversion. Through the report, you can toggle to the attribution model you prefer:
Shopify’s Marketing Insights tools and reports help you better understand your business. See insights at a glance, analyze marketing channel performance, and choose the attribution model that’s best for your business.
\nGoogle Ads only tracks Google Ads traffic. It doesn’t deduplicate conversions from other advertising campaigns on different platforms because it doesn’t “see” those touchpoints. Instead, it will take credit for any user who touches a Google campaign at any point—even if they later touch Facebook/Instagram, email, or visit your website directly and convert.
\nBy default, the Google Ads attribution window setting shows actions taken within 30 days of clicking on your ads using last-click attribution.
\nThe Meta advertising platform tracks only Facebook ads traffic and interactions (which also includes Meta-owned properties like Instagram).
\nIt also does not deduplicate data from other advertising campaigns on different platforms and will take credit for any user who sees or clicks a Facebook ad within a certain time span, even if they later interact with a Google Ads campaign or email, or visit your website directly and convert.
\nFacebook defaults to last-click attribution with attribution windows of within 24 hours of viewing your ad and within 28 days of clicking your ad.
\nFacebook Ads is the only one of the more detailed advertising platforms that will take credit for users who potentially “see” an ad (even without clicking it) and convert in another way. It’s recommended that you change the settings to be click-based if you’re looking for a better comparison of your results across platforms.
\nGoogle Analytics and other analytics platforms will track clickable actions across different paid and unpaid channels. Generally, analytics platforms can be configured to connect external/offline data sources, User-ID, and/or other web properties that are not directly part of your online store.
\nGoogle Analytics offers a Data Import feature that lets you upload data from other sources so you can analyze it all in Google Analytics. Adding additional data sources and incorporating User-ID are the best ways to include the majority of your customer interactions across platforms in one place.
\nGoogle Analytics will also deduplicate conversions from all channels and will give credit to the last touchpoint in a conversion journey, unless it was a direct visit to your site. In that case, it will give credit to the last non-direct touchpoint.
\nWhile most attribution is click-based, impression-based attribution and reporting is also possible.
\nThink about your own experience. Do you click on every ad that captures your interest? Even when you don’t, those ads can still impact your decision to buy a product in the future.
\nAn ad server allows you to consolidate and deduplicate all your marketing data in one platform, while also giving you access to impressions-level data. This data allows you to more clearly see your customer’s path to purchase and which channels you should invest in.
\nFor example, you may see great performance from your search ads at a click level. However, when you look at impression-level data, you see that those that convert on search were actually exposed to a video ad on YouTube beforehand and later searched for your product on Google.
\nThe Google Marketing Platform is one example of this type of technology, where you can have access to impression-level data for channels such as search, video, display, Gmail-sponsored ads, and some social media platforms.
\n![\"Three](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/attribution-1.jpg?v=1682976089\")
Understanding the landscape of marketing attribution, the holes in it, and the different models you can apply are a good first step toward better tracking, cleaner customer databases, and smarter decision making. Despite marketing attribution becoming increasingly complex, there’s no denying the many benefits of marketing attribution.
Marketing attribution can offer invaluable insights about how and where customers are interacting with your brand on their path to making a purchase. This attribution data can help inform marketing campaigns and your overall marketing strategy to maximize ROI.
\nThe most popular attribution models in marketing include:
\nMarketing attribution is important because it allows marketers to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns and track the customer journey. Attribution helps marketers understand which marketing channels and activities are driving conversions and customer engagement, and which are not. This data can be used to make informed decisions about future marketing strategies, allocate budgets more effectively, and optimize campaigns for better performance across your sales cycle.
\narketing attribution is the process of assigning credit for sales or leads to the various touch points in the customer journey. It is the practice of analyzing the impact of each touch point or marketing activity on a customer’s decision to purchase or take action. Different attribution models exist to attribute credit to different parts of the customer journey, depending on your preferences.
\n\n
The amount of plastic produced and thrown away each year has reached staggering levels. In fact, the United Nations estimates that some 400 million tons of plastic waste finds its way into landfills each year.
\nJulia and Jordy Kay wanted to help reduce this number.
\nTheir idea? Create a plastic-free version of traditional cling wrap, the kind found in kitchen cabinets around the globe. “We were essentially the customers, and we just wanted a better product than plastic wrap,” Julia says.
\nIn 2019, Julia and Jordy launched Great Wrap, a materials science company that’s turning potatoes into compostable stretch wrap. Since its inception, the duo has raised over $24 million and built their own production facility.
\nBut it wasn’t easy.
\nJulia sat down with the Shopify team to share her tips for starting her own production facility.
\n![\"An](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/GreatWrap_Factory_Fun_0459_HighRes_1.jpg?v=1682547528\")
Julia and Jordy partnered with Monash University, a research-intensive university in Australia, welcomed angel investors, and received government grants in order to fund their business. “We kicked off a research project with Monash University converting food waste into a pathway to make a biopolymer, it’s been about a 2-3 year process and we’ve learned a lot,” Julia says.
\nOn top of working with students and faculty at the university, the pair has investors and mentors like Simon Griffiths, founder of Who Gives A Crap, who served as guides along their development process. “We’ve really always been attracted to investors who have built things themselves and have a really great understanding of what it takes to start from an idea and get it into a process,” Julia says.
\nJulia and Jordy found it was easier to set up their own manufacturing facility rather than contract with one. “We wanted to be able to experiment, and we were really excited about creating jobs too,” Julia says.
\nWith their own facility, they not only have control over what goes into their product, but what is happening to the waste created after their product is made. “It’s important to zoom out from the product and think about that whole process,” Julia says.
\nBy opening their own facility, Great Wrap is able to map out the entire life cycle of its products, from what’s happening to the waste, to how that waste is being processed and discarded. The pair have been able to alter their formulas to improve the quality overtime, and design pathways with Monash University to begin setting up their own biorefinery on site.
\n![\"Great](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/Copy_of_Copy_of_GW_22.02.22_CHawks3581_1_1.jpg?v=1682548248\")
“When you’re building your factory you need to garner the support of your community as well as the larger network of business owners who can potentially use your product,” Julia says.
\nJulia and Jordy designed social media content around the development and growth of their factory. 24 hours after posting the content Great Wrap had done nearly $30,000 in sales.
\nBy sharing your facility progress on social media, your audience can feel like they are a part of the building process. In turn, they will be more likely to make a purchase—and come back for more.
\nWith the proper resources, support, and marketing strategies, Great Wrap has been able to operate out of their own facility for a little over three years now, with plans to open a US-based factory in the near future.
\nTune in to the full Shopify Masters episode to discover what it takes to build your own production facility, and scale to gain international recognition.
\nhttps://www.shopify.com/blog/great-wrap-plastic-free-global-recognition
\n"}]},"page_header":{"background":null,"backgroundOpacity":100,"color":null,"fieldGroupName":"page_header","title":"Build Your Own Facility","opacity":100,"position":"on","size":{"desktop":64,"tablet":null,"mobile":null},"spaces":{"top":null,"bottom":null,"leftright":null,"units":"em"}},"link":"/blog/what-it-takes-to-build-your-own-production-facility"},{"id":"cG9zdDo1NTAw","title":"10 Tips for Growing a Successful Small Business","date":"24.05.2023","schemaDate":"2023-05-24","modifiedGmt":"2023-07-28T06:02:25","slug":"10-tips-for-growing-a-successful-small-business","acfSchemaPost":{"blogPostingImage":null},"categories":{"nodes":[{"id":"dGVybTox","name":"General Articles"}]},"levels":{"nodes":[]},"acfPost":{"fieldGroupName":"acfPost","excerpt":"Many successful businesses generate enough profits to enable owners—possibly shareholders or investors, depending on the type of business—to grow their businesses and live with a sense of financial security. However, while small business owners value profits, some are willing to sacrifice a portion to have a healthier work-life balance, create a product that’s eco-friendly, or provide a service with a social mission. Each entrepreneur has a slightly different definition of what it means to achieve business success.","squaredImage":{"altText":"10 Tips for Growing a Successful Small Business","localFile":{"childImageSharp":{"gatsbyImageData":{"layout":"fullWidth","backgroundColor":"#885888","images":{"fallback":{"src":"/static/7e1ba96f7282b47331dab7afd76d3d03/b956e/business_20success.webp","srcSet":"/static/7e1ba96f7282b47331dab7afd76d3d03/d1fa5/business_20success.webp 750w,\n/static/7e1ba96f7282b47331dab7afd76d3d03/b956e/business_20success.webp 1024w","sizes":"100vw"},"sources":[]},"width":1,"height":0.4228515625}}}},"metaData":{"title":null,"description":"Discover the 10 keys to business success, from defining your mission and setting goals to building a strong team, ensuring customer satisfaction, and implementing effective marketing strategies. Learn how embracing change, getting organized, prioritizing self-care, and giving back to the community can contribute to the success of your business. Find valuable tips and insights to help you scale and grow your business effectively"},"banner":{"title":"10 Tips for Growing a Successful Small Business","showTitle":true,"image":{"altText":"10 Tips for Growing a Successful Small Business","localFile":{"childImageSharp":{"gatsbyImageData":{"layout":"fullWidth","backgroundColor":"#885888","images":{"fallback":{"src":"/static/7e1ba96f7282b47331dab7afd76d3d03/b956e/business_20success.webp","srcSet":"/static/7e1ba96f7282b47331dab7afd76d3d03/d1fa5/business_20success.webp 750w,\n/static/7e1ba96f7282b47331dab7afd76d3d03/b956e/business_20success.webp 1024w","sizes":"100vw"},"sources":[]},"width":1,"height":0.4228515625}}}}},"timeToRead":null,"sections":[{"fieldGroupName":"post_Acfpost_Sections_ArticleRichTextContent","content":"Many successful businesses generate enough profits to enable owners—possibly shareholders or investors, depending on the type of business—to grow their businesses and live with a sense of financial security. However, while small business owners value profits, some are willing to sacrifice a portion to have a healthier work-life balance, create a product that’s eco-friendly, or provide a service with a social mission. Each entrepreneur has a slightly different definition of what it means to achieve business success.
\nBusiness success can look very different from company to company. For some, it’s sales metrics, while for others, it’s social impact. In this article, we’ll talk about the 10 keys to business success.
\nA successful business generates a profit through the sale of goods or services, but every owner defines success for themselves based on personal values or goals. Some small business owners consider themselves successful if they’ve grown their business without taking on debt. Others have taken on debt but still feel successful because they are scaling up to become a global brand. Beyond profits and growth, key performance indicators (KPIs) measure metrics such as customer loyalty and website traffic to assess how effectively you’re reaching different benchmarks on the journey toward business success.
\nFor example, a business selling certified organic coffee beans might have a target number of farms using regenerative farming practices to source from each year; someone selling mass-produced coffee pods at reduced prices might have a monthly goal for the number of pods sold. Typically, the universal goals for a business revolve around units sold, dollars earned, company growth, repeat sales, and brand recognition (think global brands like Nike and Adidas), but there are myriad other ways a business owner might measure success.
\nAs a small business owner, you may face numerous challenges running and growing your business, from marketing to finding qualified employees. Here are 10 tips to help you scale and grow a successful business:
\nIs your mission to provide a unique service? A low-cost item? Or to be environmentally friendly? Successful businesses have a mission, even if it’s simply to provide customers with the best value possible. Writing your intent in a mission statement defines your business’s mission and acts as a blueprint for a successful business. Periodically, revisit your original business plan and mission statement to ensure you are on the right path.
\n\nCreate both short- and long-term goals and understand the reasoning behind each to help guide your success. As part of an effective strategic plan, business goals should be SMART, meaning they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based. They can be financial, operational, or even growth-related. Maybe a goal for one business owner is to sell a specific number of units per month over a year to drive up sales, while for another it’s to ramp up marketing efforts and gain a target number of social media followers.
\nGoals can be reassessed, so there’s flexibility to create and adjust your business roadmap. Successful entrepreneurs monitor progress and look at the numbers behind their business to analyze the data and check if progress is being made toward their goals. You can also break your goals into steps to make them more attainable. If you get stuck at this step, consider hiring a business coach to help create long-term positive habits.
\nA strong team is inclusive, collaborative, and reliable, and is essential to building a successful business. Research from a 2020 McKinsey & Co. report, Diversity Wins, shows that assembling a team diverse in age, gender, and ethnicity, among other factors, increases productivity. The most effective teams encourage feedback and welcome a diversity of opinions, which can spur creativity and help with problem-solving.
\nIf you’re an entrepreneur who typically follows the school of thought, “If you want it done right, do it yourself,” remember: Your team is there for support, and each member offers unique skills that can help in your business’s growth.
\nHappy customers often become repeat buyers, spreading the word about their favorite stores, designers, apps, platforms, or services. Besides the value proposition of a particular product or service that makes the business loved, it’s often great customer service and knowing how to improve it that keeps customers returning. Ensure customer satisfaction in the following ways:
\nA delicious edible item, gorgeous wearable piece of art, or delightful service will likely organically attract a target audience of consumers that become repeat customers. Making and offering an excellent product or service with a high value proposition helps give you a competitive advantage. By reading business books, studying your respective industry and competitors, and listening to entrepreneur podcasts by industry experts and successful entrepreneurs, you can gain valuable insights into bettering your offerings and finding business success.
\nMarketing is key for mapping your business journey, including tracking goals through KPIs to measure your success. Implementing multiple marketing strategies—from paid advertising to robust social media advertising—strengthens brand awareness, which is a core driver of sales. A small-business owner might act as a de facto marketing director early in the business, thinking they are saving money. However, hiring a marketing consultant can be helpful to devise a more concrete plan.
\n![\"Template](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/opt.gif?8282590590928260908\")
Free Webinar:
\nMarketing 101
\nStruggling to grow sales? Learn how to go from first day to first sale in this free training course.
\nMarketing strategy involves short- and long-term plans for a business and takes many forms: collaborations with like-minded businesses, pop-ups for specific projects or events, and social media campaigns (leveraging platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok). All expose your business to a new target market. Fostering connections through joining professional associations or attending conventions are additional ways to market your business and expand your potential customer base. If you lack the skills or time to implement a social media marketing strategy, you can hire social media directors, consultants, or coaches on a contract basis to help.
\nBusinesses constantly face challenges—from waning market demand and competitive new businesses to difficult clients and point-of-sale (POS) system problems. However, being nimble, adaptive, and willing to pivot can lead to success. Some challenges like lackluster sales might require doubling down with tenacity and perseverance, while others like a consistently unreliable supplier might call for embracing change and working with someone new.
\nWeigh the pros and cons of embracing new technologies, whether it’s a new payroll platform or more elaborate systems overhaul. Having your own business means doing your due diligence, because new doesn’t always mean better or faster.
\nWhen financial records, business licenses or permits, tax forms, or other documents (whether virtual or paper-based) are difficult to locate or go missing, it can be frustrating and distract from time spent on your business. It can also cost you billable hours.
\nHiring an office organization consultant is an option for business owners lacking the organizational skills or time to take on the task themselves. While you may do your own bookkeeping, you could also hire a part-time bookkeeper to help run a successful business operation.
\nIntro to bookkeeping
\nBookkeeping is an essential part of running any small business. And, when you take care of it the right way, bookkeeping lets you track your money, cash in on tax deductions, and plan how your business is going to grow.
\nResting, sleeping, exercising, eating well, relaxing, and spending time with friends and family are all forms of self-care essential for mental health—including for entrepreneurs. For many business owners, it’s easy to slip into the 24/7 work cycle. However, you can achieve more when well-rested, according to a recent US Chambers of Commerce article on the importance of a good night’s sleep for entrepreneurs.
\nBusiness success isn’t always defined by profitability. Even with minimal cash flow, there are ways to give back and lift others within the community. Volunteering at a business-related event, donating a product or service for a raffle, speaking at a school, or mentoring are ways to give back. Entrepreneurs can also give back by making a commitment to only use ethically sourced materials in their products.
\nIncreasingly, impact is at the core of mission-driven startups. Social ventures are for-profit businesses that are also socially responsible companies that give to certain groups or causes. For example, Sweet Beginnings is a Chicago-based social enterprise that offers training programs and employment for formerly incarcerated individuals to become beekeepers and harvest honey for their products.
\nStart by defining what success means to you and what takes priority: Is it sales, growth, customer satisfaction, or brand recognition? Besides running a profitable business, do you value a collaborative and engaged workforce? Once assessed, you can measure your success through data collected via A/B testing, customer reviews, and email open rates, among other metrics.
\nThere is no set timeline achieving business success. However, you can start by creating a business strategy to reach your goals. By mapping out the incremental steps to reach certain benchmarks—from units sold to new hires—you can develop a general timeline to achieve success based on your experience and industry standards. Keep in mind, your timetable could change or take longer than estimated due to the ever-changing commerce landscape.
\nNo, there’s no single formula for success or every business would succeed. While owners of small businesses have different goals and priorities, there are some key markers that make a business successful. These include having an excellent business idea, vision, and passion, and being a hard worker. If you are a leader with empathy and willing to delegate responsibilities to your team, you embody some of the traits required to achieve success.
\nhttps://www.shopify.com/blog/business-success
\nSuccessful companies prioritize customers. They design products that meet customer needs, provide exceptional customer service, and build marketing campaigns around customer behaviors.
\nTo do this well, businesses need to know a lot about their customers. Demographic data and broadly available market research can tell you what certain populations tend to think, do, or prioritize, but that information is not specific to your business. It can’t tell you, for example, what your existing customers think of your company or what their specific needs are.
\nVoice of the customer (VoC) programs fill this gap. By soliciting specific information about customer needs, VoC programs can help businesses improve the customer experience, increase customer loyalty, identify market opportunities, and boost sales. Here’s what VoC programs are and how you can successfully implement one.
\nTable of Contents
\nVoice of the customer is a type of customer research program that gathers direct and indirect feedback about your customers’ preferences, needs, and experiences with your business.
\nVoice of customer programs emphasize actionable insights and offer a basis for business owners to make changes based on findings. In many cases, they also involve following up with customers to address their feedback and communicate any changes.
\nLearn with Shopify
\nLearn how to create exceptional customer service experiences at any stage in business. Taught by Mat Patterson, customer service evangelist at Help Scout, you’ll gain practical tips to help you make customer service a competitive advantage.
\nBefore starting a voice of the customer program, consider your goals and what impact you’d ideally like to see. The first (and most obvious) reason a business would start one is to gain valuable insights into customer experience, which you can use to improve your customer satisfaction and ultimately increase revenue.
\nYou can also use voice of the customer programs to conduct audience and market research or support a specific business goal, like improving a particular offering or boosting performance in a certain market. In fact, voice of the customer programs are highly customizable—you can design yours to gather just about any type of customer feedback you might need.
\nBusiness leaders often use voice of the customer programs to guide strategies that help their organizations achieve the following:
\nThe right methodology to gather voice of the customer feedback depends on your desired outcome, available budget, and team’s capacity. Here’s an overview of five popular methods and the tools they require.
\nCustomer interviews can be a heavy administrative lift, but they’re also a great way to gather direct input. Because interviews are a conversation, you can adjust your questions in real-time: If a customer says something particularly intriguing—like, for example, that they would recommend your product to everyone they know if it only had one additional feature—you or an employee will be right there to ask what that feature is.
\nDaphne Williams, chief growth officer at Sweet Beginnings, found a lot of useful insights in customer interviews. “One-to-one interviews can be particularly insightful,” she says. “One interview I did, a customer brought our product and showed me where they purchased the product from, and what else is in their cabinet. That provides a certain level of insight as to what they actually purchase. It’s a good read to see what people say they do and what they really do.”
\nInterviews can also help you improve customer relationships. Facilitators can use one-on-one interactions to establish rapport with customers, express gratitude, and answer any questions the customer might have.
\nBusinesses can conduct interviews over the phone, in person, or using video chat technology (like Zoom or Google Meet). You might also consider taking notes or having an assistant jot down the customer’s answers or any follow-up notes.
\nFocus groups are a market research technique in which a small number of people participate in a loosely structured discussion, often around brand perception, a current product or service, or a new idea.
\nFocus groups offer some of the same benefits as one-on-one customer interviews. In both cases, facilitators can ask follow-up questions, pursue promising lines of inquiry, and build relationships through personal interaction. Unlike interviews, however, focus groups don’t take place in a vacuum—participants will react to each others’ comments and may either disagree or reach consensus, a dynamic that can help business owners anticipate the larger social conversation around an issue or initiative.
\nConsider recording sessions so you can review customer insights in-depth at a later time. You can use a video camera or your computer’s native recording technology, using a screen recorder like Loom for virtual sessions, and using a transcription tool like Rev to simplify data processing.
\nIn-person or online surveys are a common method of gathering voice of the customer feedback. The Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey is one popular example. NPS surveys ask customers how likely they would be to recommend a company, product, or service to a friend on a scale of one to 10, and use responses to generate a customer loyalty score.
\nYou can also target survey questions to individual objectives. For example, if you want to increase the effectiveness of your social media marketing campaigns, you might ask customers how often they use each social media channel.
\nRyan Zagata, founder of Brooklyn Bicycle Co., uses surveys to understand why customers don’t buy from his store: “To be frank, a lot of the best feedback is from people who didn’t buy our bikes. What we’ve learned is, obviously there’s a lot of bike brands out there that we compete with, but we compete more with somebody not buying anything. They don’t buy any bike as opposed to somebody buying a bike. We don’t lose to another brand as much as we lose to somebody not buying anything.”
\nRyan continues, “How do you find out when people don’t buy your product, what they did? Did they buy something else? Are they still saving up for it? We got all sorts of answers.”
\nTools like SurveyMonkey and Google Forms can help you gather quantitative and qualitative feedback and organize customer responses by question. You can also use a post-purchase survey tool like Grapevine to automate survey sends based on customer activity.
\nIncluding a customer feedback form on your website can help you gather direct feedback on an ongoing basis. Feedback forms also give customers a private way to lodge customer complaints, allowing your team to address issues without that information necessarily becoming public.
\nIf your web builder offers a native contact form application (like Shopify’s), you can customize it to solicit customer feedback. If not, use a plug-in like Formidable Forms or WPForms.
\nOnline customer review analysis is a common method to gather indirect feedback. Monitor popular review sites like Google Business, TrustPilot, Yelp, and Capterra for mentions of your company, gather reviews in a spreadsheet, and analyze results.
\nReviews are a type of qualitative feedback, which can make it hard to process data—particularly if you have a lot of them. You can use tools like MonkeyLearn to process text, automatically categorize reviews by sentiment, and extract quantitative insights.
\nImplementing a voice of the customer program requires planning. Here’s how to start your own.
\nDetermine your objectives, which can be to understand how customers perceive your brand, test the concept for a new product or service, or learn more about customer behaviors. Think about what your desired outcome is from the feedback.
\nThen, select a method for collecting data, considering your available resources and the type of customer input you need. If your goal is to evaluate your overall customer service efforts, you might select a low-cost method that will allow you to reach a large number of respondents, like an online customer survey. If you’re interested in testing the concept for a new product or service, you might organize a focus group to dig deeper into audience reactions.
\nDevelop your voice of the customer questions and use your selected methodology to collect and record customer feedback. VoC programs often aim to answer some versions of the following questions:
\nAnalyze customer feedback, using digital tools as applicable. Depending on your voice of the customer methodology, you might review qualitative responses manually, process quantitative data, or combine both approaches.
\nFor example, if you asked your customers what they consider when making lunch for their children, you might review responses and find that nutrition, convenience, mess, and child preferences show up repeatedly. You can then use a data analysis tool to calculate the percentage of responses that name each factor.
\nSend an email thanking all respondents for their participation in your program. Follow up with unhappy customers to discuss their specific concerns, and address customer feedback as needed.
\nVoice of the customer programs emphasize meaningful, data-informed action. Your research will tell you what’s working for your business and what’s not. To translate this information into improved business outcomes, you’ll need to adjust your business products, services, and processes based on findings. Address major problems and implement easy changes right away, and schedule time to plan and implement other adjustments over the following weeks or months.
\nBusinesses measure the voice of customer program success using both direct and indirect methods. At a high level, a VoC program is successful if your customers are happier and better served after it.
\nYour specific analysis process will depend on the method you choose to gather feedback. When analyzing VoC data, remember to:
\nCommon voice of the customer program challenges include the following:
\nSome companies implement ongoing voice of the customer programs (for example, through post-purchase surveys or customer review analysis) and process data monthly or quarterly. Many also repeat larger initiatives (like Net Promoter Score surveys) once or twice a year to monitor for changes and support continuous improvement.
\nVoice of the customer programs are popular among companies across all industries. They can be particularly valuable for businesses that serve a large number of customers, because without a structured program, it’s difficult for these businesses to gather and process customer feedback.
\nhttps://www.shopify.com/blog/voice-of-the-customer
\nAll businesses strive for growth. Growth means you can expand your team, pay better wages, and share stronger profits with owners and shareholders. How can businesses achieve growth? One of the most important ways is through higher productivity.
\nThis kind of growth is different from using more resources or capital to hire more people or make more products. It comes from efficiency. Total factor productivity is a way to measure it.
\nShortcuts
\nTotal factor productivity (TFP) is an economic concept that describes the portion of a company’s increased output that cannot be explained by increased capital or labor inputs and thus is considered a measure of operational efficiency. TFP is also known as the Solow residual because it was created by Nobel Prize–winning economist Robert Solow. TFP can apply to entire economies or industries.
\nBy way of illustration, let’s use a highly simplified example. Imagine that two fishers, Wanda and Beth, are each given one hour, one fishing rod, and 20 worms. After the hour is complete, Wanda returns with 20 fish and Beth returns with 15. Wanda was able to generate more output with the same amount of input. Compared to Beth, her fishing trip has a higher total factor productivity rate.
\nWhat drives increases in total factor productivity in practice? TFP can increase when input returns a disproportionately large increase in output. For example, an increase in TFP often occurs when technological advancements increase production speed or workers gain experience and institutional knowledge. TFP can also be moved by macroeconomic and cultural forces.
\nCountries such as the United States use total factor productivity to evaluate economic health, and economists use TFP to analyze efficiency across industries.
\nThe most common method for calculating total factor productivity is the Cobb-Douglas production function. This function divides a business’s total output by the weighted geometric average of capital and labor. Usually, the weighted averages used are 0.7 for labor and 0.3 for capital.
\nYou must convert all the variables to the same unit of measurement to use this function. If capital input and total output are measured in dollars, then labor too should be converted to dollars. You can do this by multiplying the total hours employees worked by their average pay rate. The standard version of the function is written like this:
\nY = A x K^α x L^β
\nHere’s what each variable in the above function represents:
\nY = total output. This is the total production, in dollars, goods, or another unit, generated by a country or business.
\nA = total factor productivity. This is the variable you’ll need to solve for.
\nK = capital input. This is the value of the physical capital used during production.
\nL = labor input. This is the amount of labor, measured in total working hours, used during production.
\nα and β account for the output elasticity of capital and labor, respectively. Output elasticity is the percentage by which output changes if the input changes. In other words, if capital investment increases, or if the amount of hours worked (labor) increases, the values set for α and β determine how much output increases in tandem. In a system with perfect competition, α + β = 1.
\nIt may seem counterintuitive that output can change while input remains the same, but sometimes external factors influence operating efficiency. The following elements can affect TFP:
\nTotal factor productivity analysis is used mostly by economists studying the broad economy or large companies doing productivity evaluation. A small business owner wouldn’t need this kind of analysis. However, it’s useful for all business owners to understand how output could change when there’s no change in inputs, such as capital, equipment, and labor. This can help a business owner spot inefficiencies, find growth opportunities, and control costs.
\nTotal factor productivity is an indicator of economic growth, but it isn’t the only measure of an economy’s health. A high TFP often indicates that an economy is more efficient or the cost of production has decreased. Efficient production allows businesses to keep their prices low while still generating profit. This could lead to economic growth if an economy is solely made up of these businesses, but economic theory is complex, and many other factors can influence the economy. Outside forces such as a widespread natural disaster or population decline may slow economic growth even if TFP remains high.
\nAdvancements in technology can increase output or decrease required input for the same output. Innovations like automation and AI reduce the amount of labor needed to produce goods. Advancements like digital control systems in equipment mean that modern machines need less energy to operate and require less maintenance.
\nTotal factor productivity can’t paint a complete picture of a company’s performance because TFP is only an indicator of efficiency. It can show that a company is cost-effective and productive, but it doesn’t provide information about the quality of its product or its customer base. To assess a company’s performance, TFP should be used in conjunction with other metrics, like Net Promoter Score and sales data.
\nTotal factor productivity offers a comprehensive look at efficiency. Other productivity measures might focus on a single type of input—for instance, exclusively calculating the output generated per unit of labor. Finding a business’s TFP measures the influence of several factors. This makes TFP a useful tool for spotting inefficiencies and identifying areas of growth.
\nhttps://www.shopify.com/blog/total-factor-productivity
\n