Shopping Platforms & Marketplaces

When you hear the word “app,” odds are you think of a little piece of software downloaded to your computer, smartphone, or tablet. A web application is the same, but you don’t have to download it.

That’s because web applications, or web apps, run inside your web browser and render on standard web pages. They’re available to any end-user with internet access and an up-to-date web browser like Safari, Firefox, Edge, or Google Chrome.

As a business owner, you might be curious about developing your own web app that can run on any computer or mobile device, across all operating systems. Here’s a primer on how common web applications work and their benefits.

What is a web application?

A web application, or web app, is a software application that runs on a web application server you can access over the internet via a browser. Unlike mobile apps, which are built for a specific mobile device operating system, a web app can run on any type of device because it utilizes web browsers, not a device’s operating system, to run.

Software companies often develop both a native app and a web app in tandem to offer a more comprehensive user experience. For instance, you can download the Google Docs app on your phone or access the Google Docs website on your laptop to take advantage of the same service. By offering both native and web apps, companies can cater to different user needs—native apps for those who prioritize performance and offline access, and web apps for those who value convenience and cross-device accessibility.

Web app vs. native app vs. hybrid app: What’s the difference?

These three types of apps share similarities but differ in key ways:

Web app

A web app is a dynamic, browser-based application that delivers a seamless, app-like experience across devices without requiring installation. Think Google Docs instead of Microsoft Word.

Accessible anytime, anywhere, web apps leverage web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to offer interactive features, real-time updates, and cross-platform compatibility. They’re ideal for users who want the convenience of accessing their favorite tools and services directly from a browser.

Native app

Native apps are software programs developed specifically for a specific operating system or device. These native mobile apps adhere to operating system standards and regulations.

On a traditional laptop or desktop computer, native apps take the form of familiar software programs such as Microsoft Word or Excel, Apple’s Pages or Numbers, or streaming services like Spotify. The same goes for mobile devices. You can check the app stores for both iOS and Android and find a native mobile app for just about everything.

Compared to web apps, which only run inside a browser, native apps tend to have greater functionality and more access to the device’s hardware. Web apps remain contained inside a web browser, and they have less access to your operating system as a result.

For example, a mobile app for finding and reviewing restaurants may be able to access your smartphone’s camera, GPS, and push notifications. A web app does not have direct access to these features and relies on browser permissions and APIs for similar functionality.

Hybrid app

Hybrid apps are mobile applications that combine elements of both native apps (built specifically for a particular operating system, like iOS or Android) and web apps (accessed through a browser and not installed on the device).

The main advantage of hybrid apps is that they can be built once and deployed across multiple platforms, saving time and resources. However, they may not perform as well as fully native apps, especially in terms of speed and responsiveness, because they rely on a browser-like environment to function within the native container.

How do web apps work?

Whether they run on traditional computers or mobile devices, web apps can function in modern browsers without the need for any additional programs. Here’s an overview of the web technology that makes this possible, both in terms of server-side and client-side scripts:

Server-side scripts

Server-side scripts run on a web server located in a data center. Users connect to these servers via the internet. Here’s how the process works:

1. Request handling. The process begins when a user interacts with a web app. For instance, they might click a button or scroll down a screen. When this happens, their browser sends a request to the web server. The server-side script receives this request and processes it.

2. Database interaction. The web server gets to work on the requested task, interacting with a database to retrieve, update, or delete data based on the user’s requests. For instance, the server could mine its database for content to show on the user’s display.

3. Guidance from a script. Before the server can generate a response, it must follow the rules of its script, written in server-side languages like PHP, Python, Ruby, Java, or Node.js.

4. Response generation. The server then responds to the query, sending requested data, often in the form of an HTML page or JSON data.

5. Simultaneous security measures. While a web server works to perform tasks, it also takes security measures, including user authentication and authorization, data encryption, and session management. This helps minimize the risk of security breaches—for example, when online customers submit sensitive information via online forms.

Client-side scripts

While a server-side script is doing its work on a remote web server, a client-side script works on the user’s own computer or mobile device. That process looks like this:

1. User interface rendering. Client scripts—which are typically written in JavaScript, HTML, and CSS—must manage the web app’s layout, style, and interactive elements like buttons, forms, and menus to make the user interface (UI) navigable for users.

2. Event handling. When a user clicks a button, hits a keystroke, pinches a screen, or otherwise interfaces with a web app, a client-side script might trigger an action, such as displaying a pop-up message or updating a part of the page.

3. Asynchronous communication (AJAX). Client-side scripts use a technique called asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) to change the information displayed on a web page without reloading the entire page. This enables a smoother application performance because pages update without interrupting the user experience.

4. Client-side storage. A progressive web app can use client-side storage options (e.g., cookies) to store data on the user’s device. This data can include user preferences, session information, or temporary data needed for the app’s functionality. This lets the user access important data without sending constant requests to content management systems on remote servers.

Benefits of web apps

Web apps offer a lot of upside to business owners with respect to revenue, development costs, and user satisfaction. Here are common benefits found in most web applications:

Accessible

You can easily access web applications via a browser on any device with an internet connection. Unlike native apps, they do not require installation, so you can reduce barriers to entry and increase user engagement.

Cost-effective

Compared to native apps, web apps typically have short development cycles because they use common programming languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript rather than iOS or Android-specific syntax. This helps a business save money during the development process.

Easy to update

It’s easy to update web apps remotely, without users needing to download new versions of software. Not only is this convenient for users, but it also allows businesses to quickly respond to market changes and user feedback, bringing new functionality to apps as needed.

Secure

Many web apps are designed to handle secure transactions, such as online payments and personal data transfers. In fact, some of the most common types of web apps run on ecommerce checkout pages.

Thanks to robust encryption and security protocols, they guard requested information from hackers and online thieves. They also sit behind firewalls and have a built-in secure sockets layer (SSL) that native apps don’t, although the latter also have access to plenty of unique security measures as well.

Imagine this: A beauty influencer praises your long-lasting lip tint on their TikTok account, and the product starts flying off the shelves. With your focus on shipping logistics and answering customer questions, you don’t realize your stock levels are low. Since you didn’t reorder in time, you can’t keep the viral momentum going. 

Stockouts are common: Worldwide, stockouts cost retailers $1.235 trillion annually. However, you can mitigate this dreaded scenario with a low-stock alert app, a tool that helps you maintain inventory levels.

What are low-stock alert apps?

Low-stock alert apps are tools that help businesses manage inventory in real time. They send automated notifications via SMS and email when inventory levels reach a certain threshold, giving businesses enough time to reorder products. Avoiding stockouts can ensure you don’t miss sales opportunities.

3 benefits of low-stock alert apps

1. Efficient inventory management
2. Improved customer service
3. Market retention

Low-stock alert apps notify you when you’re running low on a product before it’s too late, and they can positively impact your business in three ways:

Efficient inventory management

Manually monitoring your inventory can be time-consuming and introduce human errors. Low-stock apps help you reorder the right amount at the right time. This helps prevent stockouts, and it also protects against overstocking. Excess stock translates to higher storage costs and, in some cases, dead stock—inventory that is obsolete and hard to sell. 

Improved customer experience

Inventory shortages affect customers. Let’s say a customer excitedly clicks into your website because they want to purchase one of your products. When the page loads, they see the words “out of stock.” Disappointment quickly washes over them. A lack of readily available products can mean delayed delivery times and frustration, which can affect how a customer feels about your brand.

Market retention

Out-of-stock items can hurt your long-term sales prospects. If customers try to buy a product and find it’s unavailable, they may turn to your competitors. But if a product is in stock when a customer needs or wants it, you can nurture that relationship and potentially generate more sales in the future, helping you retain market share.

Top low-stock alert apps

To select the best low-stock alert app for your online store, consider your budget, ease of use, and features. Below are some of the best stock alert apps that can integrate directly with your ecommerce store: 

Stockie

Stockie is a user-friendly app with a straightforward dashboard that lets you explore your real-time and projected inventory counts. You can receive push notifications on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis to stay up to date on your inventory levels, and you can get immediate alerts if stock counts dip below a chosen threshold. You can set low-stock alerts for all products in a particular warehouse location, a single product collection, or an individual product type. 

Pricing: Stockie offers a free plan for one scheduled notification at one warehouse location for one user. The Basic includes five instant or scheduled notifications for three users and comes in at $4.99 a month, and the Advanced plan has unlimited notifications, users, and locations for $9.99 a month. 

LSA 

A leading software for inventory alerts, LSA sends both regularly scheduled email reports on products with low stock levels and instant alerts for products that have dipped below your chosen quantity threshold. If you have more than one warehouse or storefront, LSA offers multi-location support, aggregating all inventory information in one dashboard.

Pricing: LSA offers a 14-day free trial to help you become familiar with all the features. The plans range from $5.99 a month, best for stores with 300 products or less, to $29.99 a month for businesses with up to 2,000 products. 

Stockbot

Offering more than customizable stock alerts, Stockbot is a robust inventory tracker and sales forecasting tool that syncs inventory across locations, anticipating restocking needs before they arise and pinpointing optimal reorder quantity for each product based on demand. You can tailor email notifications with multiple filters such as store locations, product categories, and individual SKU variants.

Pricing: A free version of this app sends store-wide low-stockalerts and real-time web reports to small businesses with fewer than 200 products. Businesses with up to 10,000 products must upgrade to the paid plans, starting at $9 a month. 

Bee Low 

Bee Low is a great app for optimizing the overall efficiency of your inventory management. By customizing dynamic thresholds for stock counts, you can set a minimum and maximum stock level, sending automated notifications to you and your vendors when products fall beneath a certain point. You can customize notifications by filters including variant name, store location, and vendor. Plus, you can export sales forecasting metrics and inventory counts as a CSV file for your convenience. 

Pricing: A free version is available for shops with less than 250 SKUs. The Professional (8,000 SKUs) plan is $5.99 a month and the Advanced (100,000 SKUs) plan is $11.99 a month. 

Notim 

Designed specifically for Shopify businesses, Notim features customizable alerts, low inventory alerts, and analytics for product demand based on sales metrics. When products dip to your set reorder point, you will receive alerts that give you enough time to create purchase orders for each vendor well before stockouts occur. 

Notim also lets customers sign up for restock email alerts, so they can make purchases as soon as you replenish your stock. This encourages a higher potential for future sales and keeps you in contact with customers. 

Pricing: Notim has four tiers: Extra Small, a max of 300 products for $4.99 a month; Small, 500 products or less for $8.99 a month; Medium, 1,000 products for $18.99 a month; and Large, a cap of 2,000 products for $28.99 a month. 

iAlert 

Designed to make inventory management a breeze, iAlert features a high level of customization for alerts, tags, and multiple locations. When items run low, the app can send email or Slack notifications, allowing you to integrate notifications wherever your team corresponds. Plus, you can receive notifications on a scheduled basis or instantly as items dip below a certain level. 

Pricing: The free version gives you limited access to features for up to 500 SKUs. Larger businesses must upgrade to the Basic Plan (1,000 SKUs/$2.99 a month), Advanced Plan (10,000 SKUs/$4.99 a month), or Enterprise Plan (100,000 SKUs/$9.99 a month).

Between rising inflation, an uncertain economy, and the digital transformation revolutionizing shopping habits, consumers are demanding much more these days. More than just a simple transaction, they want value, authenticity, and experiences. And why not? If brands are willing to meet them where they’re at, align with their values, and provide a seamless shopping experience, why would customers expect anything less?

Understanding these new expectations is key for brand owners who want to stay ahead and build genuine connections with their audiences. From increased demand for sustainable practices to tech-driven convenience in ecommerce, each trend reveals how brands can better serve and connect with their future consumers.

Who is the future consumer?

The future consumer has a blend of digital savvy, social consciousness, and a strong desire for personalization. They’re skeptical of generic marketing and more attuned to brands that align with their values. Expect them to demand transparency—from a product’s origin to its environmental footprint. They’re mobile-first, well-informed, and ready to switch brands if they sense a lack of authenticity. This isn’t just a shift but a powerful call for brands to adapt, listen, and build real, lasting connections.

WGSN is a trend forecasting firm, and according to its Future Consumer 2024 report, there are four consumer profiles set to take center stage in the coming years:

• The Regulators are your digital-age control seekers, desperately trying to find order in the chaos of information overload. They’re all about frictionless experiences and predictable patterns, making them perfect candidates for curbside dropoff, click-and-collect, and voice-activated shopping.
• The Connectors are rewriting the success rulebook, ditching the “more is more” mentality for a “just enough” philosophy. These conscious rebels are all about shared resources and transparent sustainability. They’re the ones demanding clear environmental impact labels on everything they buy. 
• The Memory Makers are nostalgia’s new champions, using the past as an anchor in uncertain times. They’re reimagining family structures and prioritizing meaningful connections, while actively seeking products and services that celebrate aging well.
• The New Sensorialists straddle both physical and digital realms, embracing everything from crypto to the metaverse. These creative pioneers are driving the creator economy forward, demanding immersive experiences across both physical and digital spaces; they’re not afraid to shop in meta-malls while collecting digital loyalty rewards.

11 consumer trends to watch in 2025

1. Buyers impacted by inflation are seeking deals
2. Social ads are still a big driver of purchase decisions
3. Brand loyalty is waning
4. Brand collaborations cut acquisition costs
5. Social media is a core discovery tool
6. Customers demand low-friction returns
7. Brands look to omnichannel experiences to reach more customers
8. Building relationships starts local
9. Supply chain issues persist, but brands are getting creative
10. Personalization is in demand, but it’s changing
11. Buy now, pay later options popular with younger shoppers

Keep these trends top of mind as you tailor your marketing efforts to consumers in 2025:

1. Buyers impacted by inflation are seeking deals

Today’s savvy shoppers are becoming strategic minimalists, trimming their retail relationships down to the bare essentials. According to one report, 40% of consumers are swapping their favorite labels for store-brand alternatives (hello, generic goods!).

On top of this, a whopping eight in 10 shoppers are doing the inflation shuffle, with 78% playing a clever game of consolidation. They’re not just shopping less, they’re shopping smarter, hunting down rewards programs, and making those loyalty points work harder than ever.

What to do about it: Offering discounts or other financial incentives to attract price-conscious consumers is one approach—but it may not work for every brand. This can cut into already narrower margins for businesses faced with rising costs. Some business owners may even avoid sales, as this hurts a brand’s image. Bundling products, adding a subscription option, and offering gift cards with a minimum purchase can all help increase conversions.

2. Social ads are still a big driver of purchase decisions

Gen Zers and millennials are driving the growth of mobile advertising. These generational groups make purchases via social media four times more often than older generations. In fact, more than a third of Gen Zers and millennials confirmed they’d made a purchase via social media in the past three months. 

What to do about it: Before investing in social media advertising, understand where your ad dollars will be best spent. Choosing the platform where the majority of your target audience hangs out or the channel where you’ve already found success with organic marketing is the best first step. Start small and test, test, test!

3. Brand loyalty is waning

Several factors can push your customers to buy from your competitors. Competition is increasing, while spending power is predicted to decrease, inspiring consumers to be more critical of where they’re putting their dollars. 

Price, though, isn’t the only reason for waning loyalty. Consumers prioritizing their values are increasingly opting for brands with sustainable business practices. Customers are also seeking convenient, responsive, and personalized shopping experiences—and they’re willing to look elsewhere to find them. Roughly half of consumers have switched products or brands when they couldn’t find exactly what they needed. In most markets, over a third of consumers admit to trying out different brands and 40% have switched retailers in search of better prices and discounts. 

What to do about it: Retaining existing customers is still less costly than acquiring new ones, meaning investing in loyalty is key. Reward loyal customers with exclusive discounts and perks. Reevaluate your inventory management strategies to avoid losing customers over out-of-stock products. Finally, appeal to the social and emotional interest of younger consumers by implementing a sustainability strategy and communicating environmental impact.

4. Brand collaborations cut acquisition costs

Changing social algorithms and stricter privacy laws governing third-party data mean that achieving reach is more challenging. As a result, brands are turning to collaborations to fill the gap. Influencers are moving from passive product shoutouts to an affiliate-based model where they’re actively incentivized to drive sales. According to Statista, ad spend in the influencer marketing space will reach $56.28 billion by 2029. With the right fit, brands and influencers are co-creating campaigns that feel genuine and align with consumer values, creating a seamless flow from discovery to purchase.

What to do about it: Customer interest in your brand can improve with an endorsement from a trusted company or online personality. Be judicious about finding influencers and work with those who share your brand values. Ask for any potential partner’s media kit so you can verify their engagement rates and set up a commission payment structure, ensuring you only pay out when their work results in conversions. 

5. Social media is a core discovery tool

Social commerce is turning scroll-time into shop-time. In 2024, we’re looking at social commerce gobbling up 6.6% of the ecommerce pie in the US, and by 2030, we’re talking about an eye-watering $8.5 trillion. 

A massive 82% of shoppers are using social media as their personal shopping assistant. When it comes to platform preferences, it’s a generational tale of two cities: Gen Z is all about that TikTok life (55% of them can’t get enough), while millennials are keeping it Facebook-faithful (52% are still team Meta).

TikTok can be a lucrative secondary sales channel for ecommerce businesses looking to target younger millennials, Gen Z, and the newest Gen Alpha cohort to age into the platform. Social media isn’t just a place to discover trending products; it’s becoming the entire shopping experience. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok are integrating more seamless, native shopping features, allowing users to shop directly from posts and videos, and even livestream events. As many as 46% of consumers have bought something through a livestream event and would do so again. 

Creators can also monetize audiences by selling through TikTok and a Shopify Starter Plan without having to build a website from scratch. 

What to do about it: As more and more young people are shopping via mobile devices, invest in vertical video content for TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts.

6. Customers demand low-friction returns

While free returns have been a staple service offered by large chain retailers for years, many like Zara and H&M are returning to charging shipping fees. But customers, accustomed to the trend of no-hassle returns while online shopping, continue to demand it. How can brands offer a frictionless return policy that doesn’t cut into their bottom line?

Research shows that 55.76% of consumers want free returns for peace of mind (a.k.a. guilt-free shopping). And a further 40.14% said they don’t think it should cost them anything to return items they don’t want to keep. 

What to do about it: With margins tightening, offering free returns may be out of the question for some small businesses. That doesn’t mean you can’t find creative ways to make the returns process less painful. Combat returns before they happen by improving size charts, photographing clothing on a variety of models, offering a personal shopping assistant service, or using a virtual try-on app. Another option is to try a returns portal app that creates a smooth and self-directed returns experience. 

7. Brands look to omnichannel experiences to reach more customers

With supply chain issues, waning loyalty, and more competition, direct-to-consumer (DTC) ecommerce brands are seeking new ways to reach their customers. Consumers are starting their discovery journeys in places other than traditional search engines. Finding new avenues to get in front of buyers will be key in 2024. 

Retailers are transforming their digital shelf space into prime advertising real estate. It’s a logical follow-on from brands listing their products on popular marketplaces like Amazon. This new “retail media” trend is set to account for $150 billion in global ad spend by 2026. 

And, while nearly a quarter of all retail purchases are set to go digital by 2027, Gen Z shoppers are throwing a curveball into the mix. Despite being the so-called “digital natives,” more than half of them (53%) are still getting their retail therapy fix in good old-fashioned brick-and-mortar stores. 

What to do about it: This isn’t a simple case of online versus offline. Both channels need to work together to create a harmonious shopping experience that spans multiple platforms. Taking an omnichannel approach can help you reach new customers in an increasingly noisy space. Alongside your ecommerce store, surface your products on other channels like Amazon, via online marketplaces, and through social selling, and in-store shopping. 

8. Building relationships starts local

Consumers are returning to in-store shopping, which is great news for local businesses with a retail presence. But even these businesses need to step up their game, putting more emphasis on creating value for their customers through brand experience. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands are even getting in on the action, with many adding physical touchpoints to the customer experience. 

What to do about it: Whether or not your brand has the means to have a retail presence, brand experience is increasingly important to customers. Don’t just sell products. Sell them your brand story, offer them value beyond their purchase, and engage directly on community channels. Alternatives to a full brick-and-mortar experience include launching a pop-up shop, wholesaling to other retailers, and participating in local markets. 

9. Supply chain issues persist, but brands are getting creative 

In our 2023 global consumer survey, 66% of brands expected supply chain issues to get even worse throughout the year. But impatient consumers aren’t waiting for these issues to resolve and, as a result, brands have had to switch things up. 

Businesses are no longer just sitting around waiting for the storm to pass. They’re getting creative with their survival strategies. In fact, 79% are spreading their supplier bets across multiple tables, while 71% are bringing their supply chain closer to home (because sometimes, the best strategy is keeping your suppliers where you can see them).

What to do about it: The Shopify Commerce Trends 2023 report offers this advice to businesses looking to future-proof logistics networks:

1. Hold more inventory to avoid going out of stock.
2. Find additional vendors and suppliers to diversify product sources.
3. Shrink return rates by helping customers make more informed purchases.
4. Digitize supply chains by using apps and AI to automate and streamline processes.

10. Personalization is in demand, but it’s changing

Many consumers expect brands to offer personalized shopping experiences both in-store and online. However, consumer interest in shopping experiences tailored to their interests is matched by their concern for privacy. 

New technologies like AI will fundamentally change personalization. In the 2024 State of Personalization Report, more than 70% of brands said AI will play an important role in personalization and delivering tailored shopping experiences. 

Take a balanced approach to using personal data to create experiences for your customers. Reduce reliance on third-party data solutions and move to collecting data directly, be transparent about how you will use this data to maintain trust with customers, and stay compliant with privacy laws.

What to do about it: You can personalize the customer experience using AI to make product recommendations based on your customer’s activity. Try quizzes or chatbot personal shopping assistants, and send tailored marketing messages specific to their buying habits and preferences.

11. Buy now, pay later options popular with younger shoppers

Fight inflation woes by offering customers a buy now, pay later (BNPL) option. The popularity of this payment method, especially among younger shoppers, continues to increase as consumers watch their spending. 

According to one survey, 50% of adults have used BNPL at some point in 2024—a 36% increase from the start of 2023. The payment system is particularly popular with millennials and Gen Z, with almost seven in 10 people from these groups having used the service at some point. 

What to do about it: Enable Shop Pay Installments in your online store to easily offer a BNPL option for your customers. This gives them the flexibility to make a purchase within their budgets through interest-free payments over time—removing a potential barrier to making a sale.

Consumer trends by generation

While many of the above consumer behavior trends are consistent among all consumers, businesses should understand the needs of their particular target customers as well. These are notable trends emerging by generation:

Boomer trends

Brands targeting a boomer audience shouldn’t discount more traditional advertising channels. Sixty-two percent of this group reported that they discover products most often through cable television ads. 

They also say that brands shouldn’t take a stance on social issues. 

Gen X trends

Gen X prefers to discover new products via social media, search, and retail stores. They’re the generational group that discovers new products on social media more frequently than any other channel, even though it isn’t their preferred way to do so. However, only 19% have bought something through an in-app shop in the past three months. 

Millennial trends

Converting this generation means more than just offering a great product. Millennials are increasingly voting with their dollars, and 47% say they prefer to support brands that offer sustainable products or take a stance on social issues. 

Of the millennials surveyed by HubSpot, 43% have bought a product through an in-app shop in the past three months, while 36% have bought something based on an influencer recommendation. 

Gen Z trends

Gen Z is all about social shopping. They use Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok to search the internet and discover products, but they also seek out recommendations from their nearest and dearest. In fact, 37% have bought a product based on an influencer’s recommendation in the past three months and a further 43% have bought a product through an in-app shop. 

Gen Alpha trends

The oldest of this generation are now teens and are a demographic of future consumers that brands shouldn’t ignore. But even before these kids have their own disposable income, they already wield significant influence over household spending. Appeal to Gen Alpha through transparent, meaningful, and authentic messaging.

Emerging technologies shaping consumer behavior

It’s no real surprise that AI is at the forefront of new shopping technology. It powers everything from recommendation engines to virtual customer support—all aimed at making shopping experiences faster and more intuitive. 

AI is taking personalized shopping to a new level, from curating tailored product recommendations to optimizing customer service interactions. In fact, 92% of brands have incorporated it into their selling strategies, and we’re seeing it power everything from conversational AI for instant customer support to predictive analytics that anticipate what a customer might want next. 

Another rising ecommerce tech is augmented reality (AR), which has transformed the way many consumers try and buy products. AR tech is thought to boost sales by about 30% because it makes online shopping feel as close to in-store as possible. 

From virtual fitting rooms for clothing to interactive 3D product displays for everything from furniture to beauty products and consumer packaged goods (CPG), AR is helping customers make more confident purchasing decisions and reducing the rate of returns. It’s all about building trust through an immersive experience.

The impact of global events on consumer trends

Global events obviously have a huge impact on consumer trends, reshaping priorities and pushing brands to adapt in real time. 

Recent economic uncertainties and environmental crises have made consumers more intentional about their purchases. 

People are thinking beyond just convenience and low cost—they’re considering the sustainability of their choices, the ethics of the brands they support, and the durability of the products they buy. 

This shift toward conscious consumerism has led to a demand for greater transparency around sourcing, production practices, and even delivery methods. Brands that are proactive in sharing their environmental and social impact are gaining trust and loyalty, as consumers look for ways to make more meaningful purchases.

At the same time, global health events and supply chain disruptions have accelerated digital adoption and created a fresh desire for convenience and flexibility. 

Consumers are leaning into ecommerce, but they also want more flexible payment options, quicker delivery, and improved customer service. 

Adapting to consumer demands in 2025

Many small businesses are still reeling from the impacts of the past few years. Those that survived did so by adapting business models and increasing options for their customers. 

As consumer trends shift again, brands should keep the feedback loop open, diversify their supply chains, and explore new sales channels to cater to customer expectations while protecting their bottom line.

Think about what it’s like to start a friendship with someone new. You might check in on them regularly, keep the conversation light, and occasionally send them a link to something you think they’d like. You’d probably avoid asking them for moving help early on and you certainly wouldn’t ask for a kidney. 

With content selling, businesses take a similar approach. They send intentional, useful content to potential customers who have shown an interest in the business to build a relationship. With a sharp content-selling strategy, you too can turn curious prospects into loyal customers. 

What is content selling?

Content selling is a form of marketing that engages audiences once they enter your sales funnel. Your brand aims to convert interested potential customers, or warm leads, into customers through compelling and often educational content. For example, if a customer signs up for your newsletter after visiting your website, you would serve them different types of content to encourage a purchase. 

The content can take several forms, including a blog post or a marketing email. It can address concerns, clarify how to use your product, and upsell or cross-sell other products in your portfolio. Content selling strengthens your relationship with potential buyers or past customers and keeps your brand fresh in their minds. 

Content selling vs. content marketing: what’s the difference? 

While content selling and content marketing both prioritize creating content that connects with your audience, they take slightly different approaches. Here’s how they compare:

Audience

Content marketing casts a wide net, aiming to attract current customers, warm leads, and those with little to no knowledge of your brand. Content selling focuses solely on warm leads and current customers. If content marketing is getting people to enter your sales funnel, content selling is all about getting them all the way through the funnel.

Content topics

Content marketing and content selling use various content types, including blog posts, social media posts, emails, white papers, and infographics. However, the focus of the content is different. 

For example, content marketing is often about introducing brand-new audiences to your brand. They have no brand awareness, so you can share content about your company’s values or mission to introduce them to your brand. 

Content selling focuses on persuading interested audiences already familiar with your brand to make a purchase. Your selling content topics might include more detailed information about your products, comparative infographics, and answers to frequently asked questions. 

Goals

Content marketing seeks to boost your brand’s visibility and establish your expertise in your field, increasing the odds your ideal customers will find your brand. 

The purpose of content selling is to convert. Once an individual signals interest in your brand, each subsequent interaction is an opportunity to nudge them closer to completing a purchase. The content you create must be persuasive, personalized, and powerful enough to build trust and excitement.

How to create a content-selling strategy

1. Understand your target audience
2. Examine your marketing funnel
3. Create your content
4. Maximize your content’s usefulness
5. Automate where you can

Though each content-selling strategy is specific and nuanced, there are key elements that will help you form the basis of your strategy:

1. Understand your target audience

Knowing your audience is a vital part of any business model. If you know your audience’s habits, you can tailor your content and delivery for maximum impact. Analyze your data to learn what subjects most resonate with them and where they prefer to interact with you. Revisit or create buyer personas, then home in on your target audience’s pain points, needs, likes, and motivators to create content that pushes them past interest to action. 

For example, to target someone who cares about giving back, send a newsletter highlighting your company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives or feature the recipient of the scholarship program your company funded with a percentage of each sale.

2. Examine your marketing funnel

Use past sales and traffic data to generate an up-to-date customer journey map. Ask yourself: 

• How many interactions does it take, on average, to make a sale? 

• At what point in the journey do web visitors usually drop off?

• Are there opportunities to speed up or smooth the checkout process?

Much of content selling is about delivering quality content at the right time, and overcoming—or anticipating—moments of customer hesitation or curiosity. If you see a large percentage of your ecommerce store visitors bouncing after they land on product pages, for example, it might mean you need clearer calls to action (CTAs) or more informative product descriptions.

3. Create your content

Content selling can take many forms, depending on what speaks to your audience and where in the sales funnel they need a little nudging:

Top of the funnel

At this stage, they are aware of and perhaps interested in your brand but need to learn more about what you’re offering. Serve your audience with informative blog posts, behind-the-scenes insights showcasing your brand personality, or fun social media posts about your brand values to draw them in. 

Middle of the funnel

Potential customers at this stage are considering your products or services, but they need more specifics before they make a final decision. 

Consider creating: 

• Infographics to compare the features of different products

• An FAQ page with thorough answers to frequently asked questions

Bottom of the funnel 

A person at the bottom of the funnel has made the decision to purchase and needs help checking out, or they’ve purchased from you before and need a reason to return. This is the time to polish your CTA buttons, abandoned cart emails, and shipping policy information so your visitors have no reason not to click Buy.

Providing quality content is about making customers feel like valued members of your brand’s community, even if they haven’t officially joined yet. If you have a lot of gaps to fill in your content strategy, consider using an AI tool like Shopify Magic to help you write product descriptions, first drafts of blog posts, and video scripts. Provide information about your brand voice to help generative AI tools craft copy that’s easier to edit. 

4. Maximize your content’s usefulness

Once you have a polished blog post and fresh graphics, take advantage of different channels (social media, email marketing, and blog posts) to share that new material and reach your target audience. For example, you can repurpose long-form YouTube videos about your brand into quick, snappy videos for TikTok and Instagram Stories. Use clips and highlights to direct viewers to the long-form content and vice versa, bolstering your content ecosystem. 

5. Automate where you can

To make content selling effective at scale, use customer relationship management (CRM) software or artificial intelligence (AI) tools to automate these interactions whenever possible. These tools allow you to create personalized marketing flows and send customized emails at predetermined intervals once someone completes a specific action—like signing up for a newsletter or abandoning their cart before finalizing a purchase.

That same CRM software can analyze the results of your strategy, allowing you to fine-tune your approach over time.

An example of effective content selling

One mainstay of contentselling is the blog, an owned platform your company fully controls. Your brand can go in-depth on issues that matter to you, highlight product features, and spotlight brand ambassadors who embody the ethos of your company, its offerings or services. 

Seea, a swimwear brand for active women and female surfers, uses its blog Seeababes as an informational, visual, and values-based complement to its products. It highlights its design and production team and shares guides for returning to surfing postpartum. This content resonates with its audience and provides a nod to its unique selling point: functional and stylish swimwear design that also supports breastfeeding mothers.

On Instagram and TikTok, Seea connects with audiences with its friendly and inviting content—particularly nostalgic music, sunny vibes, and lifestyle-driven imagery. Entering the Seea universe through these portals, rather than a straightforward marketing email selling swimwear, adds depth and dimension to its customer journey. It helps the customer buy into the brand vision first—to feel deeply moved by a life spent surfing—and then support it with a purchase.

Ever dismissed product descriptions as unimportant? Assumed that as long as the information on your product page is accurate, you’re good to go? It’s time to think again.

Product descriptions are more than a summary of what you’re selling. Written correctly, they can boost your store’s conversion rate and make your products seem more valuable. The right words can even make customers happy to pay more.

Here’s how to make product descriptions work harder for your ecommerce business.

You have a clear idea for your dream store—everything from the visual aesthetics to your products. Your research is done, so you know who your customers would be and your value proposition establishes why they’d buy from you. Your marketing plan is in place so you can start to reach those customers.

But what you might not have is the initial budget to acquire, produce, or store the products you want to sell. You can still bring your vision to life, thanks to the branded dropshipping business model. Here’s what you need to know.

What is branded dropshipping?

Branded dropshipping involves customizing your dropshipped products with branded packaging, labels, and other collateral, like postcards or inserts. Unlike plain, unbranded shipments, this approach ensures your customers receive products with your store’s identity. Not all suppliers offer this option, so without it, products arrive in generic packaging that’s detached from your brand identity.

In general, dropshipping is a retail fulfillment method where you don’t keep the products you sell in stock. Instead, you partner with a supplier who manufactures or sources your products, stores your inventory until you make a sale, and then ships the products to your customers from its warehouse. This approach lets you start an online dropshipping business without the overhead costs of product development or inventory management, freeing you up to optimize your marketing and online store.

What is private label dropshipping?

Private label dropshipping is another term for branded dropshipping, or partnering with a supplier to create and develop branded products. Incorporating your own brand into your dropshipping business means you can develop a loyal customer base that’s interested in your curated selection, even if other dropshippers sell similar items. A cohesive online shopping experience and brand identity set you apart from the competition and may allow you to charge a premium for the same items. 

How to successfully start and run a branded dropshipping store

1. Identify a niche
2. Build your brand
3. Find a supplier
4. Choose products
5. Advertise your brand
6. Prioritize customer service
7. Refine with customer feedback

Experts forecast the dropshipping market to reach $372 billion by 2025. Here’s how to secure your piece of the dropshipping pie, from developing a unique brand presence to finding reliable suppliers:

1. Identify a niche 

The most effective way to launch a dropshipping business is to concentrate on a specific niche. Narrowing your focus—like specializing in skin care products instead of all beauty items—can make it easier to understand your target audience and position your brand as a go-to store in that category.

Choose a niche that resonates with you or addresses an underserved market. Common private-label product categories include home décor, clothing, novelty gifts, lifestyle products, and tech accessories. If you’re passionate about a particular area or see a gap in the market, invest time in market research to generate product ideas.

2. Build your brand

A cohesive brand presence is critical to a successful branded dropshipping business. Everything from your brand story and logo to the typography, brand voice, and visuals on your website help you stand out to potential customers and provide the foundation for a high-quality shopping experience.

Start by considering the products you want to sell or the overall shopping experience you want to create. Then, you should aim to:

• Establish your brand. Define your brand mission and values and develop a consistent brand voice and tone. Then, refine your brand identity—the visual aspects of your brand, like colors, fonts, and imagery. Use a website template with preset color schemes or customize your own.

• Create a store name and logo. Choose a memorable name for the store for your dropshipping business and create a logo. Design your own using tools like Canva or Photoshop, use a free logo maker, or hire a freelance designer for a custom look.

• Choose an ecommerce platform. Finally, set up your online store on an ecommerce platform like Shopify.

3. Find a supplier

Identify the best dropshipping suppliers for your niche by researching their specialties. For example, the coffee-focused supplier Dripshipper combines a roasting facility with a fulfillment center—a perfect fit if you’re looking to sell beans through your own branded dropshipping store.

Prioritize suppliers with expertise in custom branded packaging and mailers. Evaluate shipping timescales and minimum order quantities (MOQ). You can also read customer reviews on platforms like the supplier directory SaleHoo, the print-on-demand clothing supplier Apliiq, and Modalyst, which supplies products from big brands and indie merchants alike.

4. Choose products

Once you’ve settled on a dropshipping supplier, choose the products to market on your site and determine their branding using labels, custom packaging design, and tailored product descriptions.

Consider your brand’s long-term goals when choosing how many products to offer. Dropshipping fewer products may help you own a particular niche, but featuring just a few higher-end items may limit how often customers visit the store. On the other hand, too many products can confuse customers and dilute your brand identity.

Depending on what you offer, aim to start with between five and 20 products, highlighting a few at a time. This approach allows you to gauge what sells while giving customers room to browse. Then, adjust your inventory—or your storytelling approach—based on what shoppers are adding to their carts, and what they’re passing over.

5. Advertise your brand

Brand recognition starts with a strong identity, which helps customers connect with and remember your brand on a deeper level. Once core elements of your aesthetic are in place, stay consistent across your advertising efforts from paid social media ads to email marketing campaigns.

Reach your target audience through strategic partnerships with complementary brands that highlight the benefit of your offerings. A wellness brand, for example, might partner with a kid’s gear brand to target parents in need of a break. Press coverage in product-focused publications can also drive traffic to your site through positive reviews or feature articles. Even small design tweaks, like adding social share links to product pages, can encourage shoppers to spread the word.

6. Prioritize customer service

What makes branded dropshipping profitable is outsourcing inventory management, but this also means relinquishing control over the final stages of the customer experience—like product quality, packaging, and shipping. You rely on your supplier’s processes, so you need to have a plan in place in case something goes wrong.

You’d like to choose a reliable supplier with a strong track record, but the best way to offset the risk of error—in order details, packaging, or shipping delays—is to establish a seamless return policy and a customer service plan for damaged or unsatisfactory products. Be sure to ask your supplier about their procedures for handling mistakes or returns.

7. Refine with customer feedback

Loyal customers are the backbone of your dropshipping business, and one of the best ways to encourage brand loyalty is to engage new and existing customers in conversation.

If the store for your dropshipping business features a subscription model or gives customers frequent reasons to return, nurture that community with a customer loyalty or rewards program that issues discounts for repeat purchases or incentivizes referrals with points or merchandise. Customer loyalty programs also give you a direct line to your biggest supporters and provide the opportunity to get meaningful feedback on aspects of the shopping experience.

Asking for and implementing customer feedback is one way to encourage customer advocacy, an effective form of brand promotion in which satisfied customers feel motivated to recommend your brand to their peers. When customers feel heard and see that their input is taken seriously, they feel more invested in the brand’s success.

Customers abandon their online shopping carts for all kinds of reasons: The timing may be off, they may need more information, or they might get distracted. That’s why ecommerce brands rely on email retargeting to supply a little nudge to turn online window shoppers into paying customers.

Email retargeting helps you re-engage website visitors with personalized messages that are impossible to ignore. Here’s how it works and when to use it.

What is email retargeting?

Email retargeting is an ecommerce marketing tactic where brands send emails aimed to reengage individuals who interacted with your brand but didn’t follow through with the desired action, like making a purchase. The strategy allows you to communicate with customers whose contact information you’ve already gathered in subscriber lists and to create personalized campaigns using their behavior as triggers. This results in hyper-personalized remarketing tactics that convert.

How email retargeting works

Website behavior is commonly tracked through browser cookies (data stored on the customers’ devices), which track browsing history. For deeper insights, you can also supplement cookie data with third-party tools that monitor social media engagement or use tracking pixels, tiny invisible images used to track email opens and engagement. Email retargeting uses this customer data to create personalized email marketing campaigns.

Note that unlike retargeting in digital advertising, which targets anonymous visitors, email retargeting can only reach people already on your email lists. While it may have a smaller reach, email marketing gives you a direct line to customers who have already shown interest through subscribing, making it more effective at driving conversions with a 36:1 return on investment, on average.

When to use email retargeting

Successful email remarketing emails hit the right person with the right message at the right time. Here’s when to use email retargeting:

Cart abandonment

The internet is full of distractions. Email retargeting is your chance to remind shoppers about something they’ve shown interest in and direct them back to their abandoned carts.

There are different types of cart abandonment. Users may abandon their cart at checkout, the final step before purchase, or leave after browsing a product (browse abandonment). Each scenario warrants its own targeted email campaign.

When planning your abandoned cart email, consider why the user might have dropped off. For instance, do you have surprise shipping fees at checkout? You might offer them free shipping to mitigate sticker shock. Small perks like this can encourage people to come back and keep shopping.

Common reasons users stop browsing include indecision, distractions, or price concerns. A small nudge reminds users of their shopping session and can help motivate them to complete their purchases.

Post-purchase upsell

A major advantage of email retargeting is the ability to create audience segments based on their actions and use that data to cross-sell or upsell. For example, you can send follow-up emails offering complementary products with free shipping if purchased before the original order ships, or entice customers back with a discount for their next purchase.

Email retargeting is key in driving repeat purchases, positively affecting customer lifetime value (LTV) and retention. This is especially handy for infrequent purchasers. Businesses commonly use Meta’s ad platform for remarketing using a Meta pixel—a piece of code placed on a website to track purchasers and optimize advertising efforts on Meta platforms—but Meta has a limit of 180 days of data. This means if the purchase was over 180 days prior, email retargeting is your best option.

Lead nurture

Lead nurturing is the practice of developing and maintaining relationships with potential customers (known as leads) throughout their journey. When someone fills out a form but hasn’t made a purchase, email retargeting can help lead them through your sales funnel.

For example, in a business-to-business (B2B) setting, you might see that a prospect early in the buying process downloaded your white paper. You can retarget them with an email linking directly to the asset, then follow up with content relevant to their interests. This can strengthen their relationship with your brand and increase the likelihood of conversion when they’re ready to purchase.

How to use email retargeting

Email retargeting campaigns can help you recover lost sales and improve conversion rates. But it only works if you use customer data well. Here are some email retargeting best practices to help you run your retargeting campaigns:

Collect and match customer data

Every email address—and the consent to contact—is a chance to enrich your data and nurture leads through your funnel.

Track each email submission with a Meta pixel from your Meta Ads Manager and add it to your email database. Meta will provide a snippet of code that you can place in the section of your website so it loads on every page. Meta can then match the people in your email list with their social media profiles.

The sooner you start collecting email addresses, the faster you can gather historical data for remarketing to ensure you aren’t missing out on customer insights or advertising opportunities.

Send relevant, personalized email campaigns

Meet your customers where they are in their buying process. To do this, align your messaging strategy with the different stages of the customer journey, from first learning about your business to making a purchase.

For example, someone who just found your business might get a welcome email, while someone who adds products to their cart but doesn’t check out would get an abandoned cart email. Offers catered to the customer’s decision stage—such as discounts, online reviews, free gifts, and testimonials—can help bring them back to complete the deal.

Make your retargeting campaigns a positive experience

While many may not grasp the nuances of retargeting in marketing, most people today are aware that they’re being tracked online—and not everyone is comfortable with it.

Subtlety is your friend. Avoid directly stating that you’re targeting recipients because they’re on your list. Create a helpful experience rather than one that feels forced by the fact they gave their email.

For example, instead of saying, “We’re reaching out because you’re on our email list,” focus on providing value. If the customer was browsing tennis shoes, you could say, “Based on your recent interest, we wanted to share this special offer with you,” and provide a discount for the tennis shoe they were looking at.

Avoid overwhelming customers

When adding someone to your email retargeting campaign, exclude them from other marketing emails and prospecting activities so there’s no overlap. The messaging in your email retargeting strategy should be the most personal and relevant content. To prevent ad fatigue, implement frequency caps if you’re pairing emails with retargeted ads.

Isolate campaigns to measure performance

Isolate your retargeting campaigns from other campaigns to better understand their effectiveness. This way, you can focus on the specific actions users take—like abandoning carts or reviewing products—and ensure that your emails reach the right audience.

Key email marketing metrics to measure include:

• Open rate
• Click-to-open-rate (CTOR)
• Conversion rate
• Unsubscribe rate
• Spam complaint rate

The heart of every successful business is a good idea—but an idea alone isn’t enough. In order to translate your initial inspiration into a living, breathing business, you need to flesh it out with practical details. This is the process of turning a business idea into a business concept—and it’s the first step toward creating a business plan. A business concept allows you to articulate exactly how your product will connect with customers, and it helps you get support from early stakeholders.

What is a business concept?

A business concept is a short and clear document outlining your business venture’s essential elements. Think of it as a bridge between your initial idea and a fully developed business plan. Your business plan documents also examine the viability of your idea, highlighting its strengths and potential challenges.

The importance of a business concept lies in its ability to provide a well-defined, concise snapshot of your plan’s key elements—often the very factors investors scrutinize when considering funding your enterprise. A well-crafted concept with solid projections attracts funders and shows that you understand the value of your business and how to sustain and grow it.

Elements of a business concept

A business concept doesn’t necessarily come with a preset template or a list of boxes to check. What you ultimately include in your concept depends on your business, its offerings, and your potential investors. Here’s what most business concepts include:

Description of products

At a minimum, your business concept should clearly and concisely describe your company’s products, highlighting the characteristics that set you apart from competitors. Though brief, this section is important, painting a compelling picture that captures and holds readers’ interests.

Target market

Your target market is the group most likely to buy your product and refer friends. Use this section to showcase your ideal customer profile (ICP). Your ICP is defined by their affinities (e.g., gardening, healthy eating, fashion), age, social concerns, family status, income level, price sensitivity, shopping preferences (e.g., online vs. in-store), preferred marketing channels (e.g., social media, billboards, TV, streaming), and geography (from world market to country to specific neighborhood). Use this part of your business concept to explain how you will tailor your messaging to your target customers.

Unique value proposition

Your unique value proposition (UVP) is a succinct declaration that outlines how your customers can expect to benefit from your product. Is it of higher quality? Does it last longer? Can you do what your competitors do but for a lower cost? Your UVP emphasizes why your product or service is the best solution available.

For example, if you’re designing a sound-activated sleep apnea pillow that adjusts firmness to open airways, your UVP will explain the product’s unique value to consumers. This might include superior technology, materials, and overall benefits—like higher thread count, greater comfort, or eco-friendly fabrics—that make your product stand out.

Business model

Your business model is your organization’s plan for generating money. It breaks down your finances, including project expenses, pricing, and profitability projections. It can also cover how your business will source inputs, prepare the product for market (e.g., manufacturing, suppliers, etc.), and deliver it to customers. This section lays the foundation for future business development.

Competitive analysis

A persuasive business concept demonstrates your familiarity with your industry. It outlines what competitors offer and analyzes their delivery, marketing, and pricing strategies. The more facts and figures you include in your competitive analysis, the better. This can preempt questions from investors, loan officers, partners, and other stakeholders about your business’s viability and market share.

Market launch strategy

Entering a market can be the make-or-break moment for your new business, and early stage investors will likely have questions about how you’ll introduce your offering to the world. Your launch strategy outlines your plan to make a lasting, positive first impression.

For example, if you’re opening brick-and-mortar stores, soft launches or preview events can engage local customers. For an online business, you might use social media teasers, build email lists, offer previews to influencers, and provide launch-day deals, like BOGOs or 10% off for new signups.

Growth potential

Much of your business concept will focus on preliminary details, but investors and other stakeholders are chiefly concerned with return on investment and long-term goals. How will you ensure profitability and business sustainability?

A good business concept outlines exactly how you plan to grow your business once you’re up and running. Will you target a new customer type or geographic market? Will you develop additional product lines or service packages? Will you launch an ecommerce operation alongside your brick-and-mortar shop? This section of your business concept outlines these strategies and their anticipated effectiveness, and includes rough execution timelines.

An example of a business concept

Consider a company that’s launching a dog camera with pre-recorded voice responses. This company’s business concept would include the following core elements:

• Description of product. This section explains how the security camera is designed for pet owners to monitor their pets while at work or traveling. The company describes how its product responds to barks or other distress sounds by playing soothing recordings of the owner’s voice.

• Target market. About half of American workers would rather bring their pets to the office than leave them home all day, but it’s not always an option. The business concept notes that with pet owners increasingly unwilling to leave their dogs unattended, there’s a growing demand for in-home camera systems. These systems, often linked to consumers’ smartphones, offer visual checks and live audio interactions. However, owners are not always free to tune in to their camera networks and soothe a pet’s distress in real time.

• UVP. The concept notes that its product provides peace of mind for pet owners. This type of smart dog camera not only allows for visual monitoring but delivers immediate comfort through personalized voice recordings.

• Business model. This section makes clear that the product will be available through brick-and-mortar pet shops, big-box pet retailers, and online via major internet shopping platforms. Pricing will ensure a 15% profit margin.

Getting everything you need for a birthday party is relatively easy. You can grab a cake and snacks from the grocery store, decorations from the party supply store, and beverages from the wholesale liquor store. But a bunch of supplies a party does not make. You need to strike the right tone with the music, bring out the cake at the right time, and ensure everyone’s drinks are flowing all night. Anyone can host one great event, but hosting birthday parties that friends look forward to every year? That’s a skill.

Regularly shipping fantastic products to your customers can be a lot like hosting incredible parties. Sure, it’s never been easier to source whatever you need—be it raw materials, parts, or finished wholesale goods—but putting it all together (over and over again) is the real challenge. Luckily, supply chain mapping can help you get a grip on all the moving parts.

What is supply chain mapping?

Supply chain mapping is the process of gathering, organizing, and understanding the intricate business ecosystem of suppliers, your suppliers’ suppliers, and the many logistical mechanisms that need to function for products to reach your customers.

The supply chain map is a visual representation of all this information. Relevant data might include where suppliers are located, where their suppliers are located, and how long it takes for critical materials and components to reach their intended destinations. It can also include the costs associated with the many subparts of the sourcing process and the supply chain issues that can affect or delay the flow of goods.

“To me, supply chain mapping is about visually understanding each part of the process, from the moment the raw materials are sourced to the final delivery to customers,” says Steve Schwartz, the founder and master tea blender at Art of Tea, a subscription retailer of fine teas from all over the world. “It helps break down every step, so you can track how goods, information, and finances move through your system.”

Why is supply chain mapping important?

There’s value in any small business owner having a bird’s-eye view of their company’s supply chain operations. Being up to date on your supply chain map can help your ecommerce business in the following ways:

Operational efficiency

Supply chain mapping gives you a clear view of your entire supply network, helping you determine both efficiencies and bottlenecks in the process and quickly make adjustments. For example, by researching where your suppliers’ suppliers are located and the estimated time it takes for essential materials to travel from one place to the next, you can better estimate manufacturing and delivery times. With a clear picture, you can see where your supply chain might falter if one supplier experiences delays.

“The mapping process gives us insight into key areas like inventory levels, supplier performance, and potential delays,” Steve says. “It helps us spot challenges early, like delays in sourcing, so we can make adjustments and maintain a steady supply chain.”

Cost reduction

By identifying inefficiencies and opportunities for improvement, businesses can use supply chain mapping to save money. For instance, supply chain mapping can significantly reduce costs involved with inventory management and warehousing. By understanding how fast products move through your system, you can better forecast storage needs and avoid spending on excess space.

Risk management

Having a detailed map of your entire supply chain helps you anticipate potential risks to the flow of goods—things like natural disasters, changes in customer demand, political instability, or labor shortages. For example, if your map shows that you rely exclusively on one supplier for a critical component in one of your manufactured products and that supplier is located in a state frequently hit by hurricanes in the late summer and fall months, you can explore diversifying your sourcing for August through October.

Compliance

Buyers, sellers, importers, exporters, and manufacturers of goods are subject to a combination of complex laws and regulations at the local, state, and federal levels. Supply chain mapping is important for understanding how your sourcing may already comply with such rules, and what changes you may need to make to ensure compliance. This can help you avoid both costly fees and legal penalties that can grind business operations to a halt.

Transparency

Aside from regulatory concerns, there are ethical and environmental concerns to sourcing that—while not legally compulsory—can be important to your brand image. A lot of customers place a premium on sustainable and ethical supply chain practices. They also value knowing exactly where the products they’re buying came from. Understanding all the nooks and crannies of your supply chain map allows you to fully and honestly communicate your sourcing practices to your customers. Over time, this can substantially improve customer satisfaction.

“At Art of Tea, we focus on ensuring traceability and quality from the source,” Steve says. “We map out everything, from where our ingredients come from to how they’re processed, stored, and shipped. We document the whole journey to maintain transparency.”

How to map your supply chain

1. Identify key stakeholders
2. Understand stakeholder relationships
3. Break out costs and timelines
4. Visualize the supply chain
5. Leverage technology

Your line of business, geographic scope of your sourcing, and customer delivery expectations all affect the complexity of your supply chain map. Although these variables differ from business to business, these guidelines offer a starting point for mapping your supply chain:

1. Identify key stakeholders

Know who you’re dealing with. Document all of your suppliers, wholesalers, distributors, and other companies that touch your production, storage, and distribution processes. Consider documenting their suppliers, sub-wholesalers, and sub-distributors if you’re able to obtain that information as well.

No need to connect all the dots just yet. “Keep things simple at the beginning,” Steve advises. “Just having a clear visual or spreadsheet of your key suppliers and timelines can be a game changer.”

2. Understand stakeholder relationships

Once you’ve organized the key players into a single spreadsheet, code them according to function, their relationship to your business, and their relationship to each other. For example, a direct-to-consumer (DTC) clothing company might organize its stakeholders into the following categories, with numbers to represent their position in the production process:

• Raw cotton suppliers (1)
• Fabric manufacturers (2)
• Garment makers (3)
• Distribution centers (4)
• Transportation nodes (5)
• Shipping companies (6)

3. Break out costs and timelines

Once you’ve populated your data platform with all of your stakeholders and detailed their relationships within the supply chain, you can start drilling down into the data. For example, document how long it takes for Supplier A to ship Component X to Manufacturer B, and how much money your business must front to keep that process going. These critical data points will inform how you visualize your supply chain.

4. Visualize the supply chain

Create a visual representation of your supply chain, either on paper or with computer graphics. It might look like a linear timeline or maybe a cycle. It could even be a literal map of all the locations where your materials and components are sourced, annotated with timelines, delivery routes, costs, and contingency plans to mitigate risks.

Given the complexity of this task, you might consider hiring an infographic designer or data visualization expert to help you effectively organize all of the data and present it in a readable, visually appealing manner.

5. Leverage technology

A variety of tools can help you digitize your supply chain maps. Digital software tools like Sourcemap and ecommerce apps like 8Data are interactive and adaptable, and they often offer a variety of features that permit real-time data collection, tracking, and analysis. “Today, we use technology to track everything in real time,” Steve says, “which helps us manage a larger and more dynamic supply chain.”

Steve notes there are likely to be major strides in supply chain mapping innovation as new technologies emerge and existing technologies are refined. “Technology, like AI and blockchain, will play a big role in the future of supply chains,” he says, “especially for improving transparency and real-time tracking.”

Common challenges of supply chain mapping

Building a workable supply chain map is possible for any ecommerce business owner. As noted above, you’ll need to put in some time and effort to collect, organize, and visualize the relevant data. However, many business owners face challenges when mapping their supply chains. Here are a few to keep in mind, as well as some solutions for getting around them:

Scattered supply chain management systems

Supply chains are complicated and involve a lot of different parties. Businesses sometimes have to rely on these different parties to accurately (and even manually) input the necessary supply chain data so it can be centralized and adequately assessed. Human error or delays in reporting can cause big problems here, but supply chain automation tools offer a solution. These tools automatically collect and record the necessary data from points on the entire chain, such as fulfillment data and shipping times.

Lack of transparency throughout the chain

Some of your suppliers may be unable or unwilling to share their own supplier data—an essential part of any comprehensive supply chain map. A lack of transparency in your suppliers’ supply chains might be a red flag that those suppliers are not sourcing raw materials or components ethically or sustainably. If a partner is consistently unable to provide the data you need to fully map out your supply chain, it may be time to seek out another supplier who can meet your data needs.

Poor communication within the chain

Supply chain visibility is only possible when all stakeholders are communicating with each other effectively. If a supplier consistently fails to provide timelines or doesn’t identify inefficiencies in the system, it can result in profit-killing supply chain disruptions and delays.

To avoid breakdowns or outdated data, regularly check in with your suppliers, distributors, and other supply chain partners to ask questions and seek feedback to identify areas for improvement. “Build strong relationships with your suppliers; this can give you flexibility when things don’t go as planned,” Steve says. “Human relationships and trust have helped us in our 20 years of business in the tea space and will for the next 20-plus years to come.”

Building brand goodwill can take years of delivering products consistently, thoughtful customer service, and genuine community nurturing. Yet, your carefully cultivated trust can vanish in an instant. An organic skin care brand’s reputation might shatter when customers find its “clean beauty” products contain harmful synthetics. Or a luxury retailer’s image could crumble after warehouse workers expose dangerous working conditions. The reputation of your business is its most precious—and precarious—asset.

In an era of viral headlines and instant customer feedback, every business decision carries the weight of potential public scrutiny. Learn about various types of reputational risk, their potential impact on your business, and proven strategies to protect (and repair) your brand reputation.

What is reputational risk?

Reputational risk is the potential for damage to a brand’s credibility, public image, or market value due to negative public perception. Whether based on facts or mere impressions, these threats manifest in various forms—from scathing online reviews and social media backlash to product controversies, ethical missteps, and data breaches that erode trust.

Managing reputational risk is important for a business’s survival; even one public misstep can destroy years of built brand trust, leading to an exodus of customers.

Types of reputational risk

From data breaches and employee misconduct to supplier scandals and regulatory violations, threats to your organization’s reputation can come in many forms. Prioritize your mitigation efforts by recognizing that these risks belong to three distinct categories:

Direct

Direct reputational risks arise due to the decisions (or lack thereof) of a company’s business leaders. Mismanagement of data, poor working conditions, and eroding product or service quality are direct forms of reputational risk. These outcomes can damage public perception, weaken brand loyalty, and lead to public outrage that causes plummeting sales, organized boycotts, and customer flight.

For example, gas and oil companies face direct reputational damage when their corporate decisions to cut safety protocols lead to preventable environmental disasters.

Indirect

Indirect reputational risks emerge from the actions of individuals within the organization that cast a shadow over the company’s reputation. These incidents—while not stemming from official policy—can still adversely affect the entire brand’s credibility.

In the financial services industry, for example, a bank’s reputation might evaporate if individual employees engage in unauthorized trading activities despite the bank’s strong compliance policies.

Peripheral

Peripheral reputational risks are ones a company faces due to the actions of its partners, suppliers, and other players outside the organization’s direct control. The missteps of external connections—from payment processors experiencing data breaches to raw material suppliers using child labor—can tarnish a company’s reputation through guilt by association.

For instance, a coffee brand might face backlash if its primary supplier is exposed for using unethical labor practices.

What is reputational risk management?

Reputational risk management is how organizations protect and maintain their name, image, and competitive standing through preventive policies, diligent monitoring, and quick response. Companies that take measures to protect their reputation can maintain customer trust, preserve revenue streams, and safeguard their market position during challenging times.

Risk management programs typically include employee training, preventive guidelines, customer feedback systems, social listening, and crisis response plans to address issues before they escalate. Most importantly, risk management involves making ethical choices in the first place and aligning yourself with thoroughly vetted partners who have similar values.

Methods for reputational risk management

Managing reputation risk can be tricky when vulnerabilities can emerge across your business operations—from production quality failures to executive missteps. While you can’t prevent every threat to your reputation, these tactics can help you protect your brand before damage occurs and respond effectively if it does:

Vet your partners

The most important preemptive measure you can take is to make decisions you stand behind. These decisions can relate to product quality, working conditions, data security, privacy, and customer service. Choose partnerships you can trust to uphold the same values you do. No company is an island and your manufacturers, suppliers, warehousing, and logistics partners—even the advertising and public relations firms you employ—matter when it comes to reputation management.

Do thorough research before signing partnerships. Read customer reviews, interview past clients, lean on referrals, and ask potential partners for as much information as you need before you agree to collaborate.

Train employees on ethics and standards

Employee training is a significant strategy to mitigate reputational risk. By ensuring every team member understands your company’s ethical, privacy, and human resource policies, and their role in protecting your organization’s image, you’re setting up a first line of defense against mismanagement.

Incorporate training into your company’s employee onboarding and continue with annual refresher courses that keep reputation protection top of mind. These sessions should cover practical workplace ethics, including handling confidential information, maintaining professional conduct, and adhering to compliance standards.

As part of training, include common reputational risk scenarios, from handling sensitive customer information to addressing potential conflicts of interest. Along with workplace conduct guidelines, establish social media policies around discussing company information, communicating with customers online, and representing the brand on personal accounts to reinforce employees’ roles as brand guardians.

Monitor brand mentions 

Brand mentions (any time someone discusses your company or products online) surface across customer reviews, social media posts, Reddit threads, and industry forums. Monitoring these conversations helps identify potential reputation threats early, allowing your team to address concerns before they escalate into larger issues. Quick and thoughtful responses to negative feedback demonstrate commitment to customer satisfaction and can transform critics into advocates.

For instance, if a customer posts about receiving a defective product on TikTok, sending a free replacement with a handwritten apology note might resolve the issue. It could also prompt them to update their review and share their positive experience with others.

Here are a few tools to track your brand mentions across the web and social media:

Develop a proactive public relations strategy

Having others sing your brand’s praises carries more weight than self-promotion, which is why strategic public relations (PR) can do wonders for your brand. Just as negative press can damage reputation, positive media coverage can shape public perception and create powerful first impressions, driving sales and building credibility. Beyond reaching out to journalists at mainstream press outlets, consider building relationships with newsletter authors, podcast hosts, and industry influencers who maintain deep connections with their dedicated audiences.

Pluto Pillow, a custom sleep pillow brand, pitched journalists directly rather than hiring expensive PR firms, building brand legitimacy and driving organic growth. Its founder spent three hours daily crafting personalized emails to journalists who covered sleep products and direct-to-consumer brands, leading to features in Business Insider and the Today show that generated thousands of sales.

Measure brand sentiment

Regular customer surveys provide direct insight into how your target audience perceives your brand, revealing potential reputation issues before they surface on public channels. By gathering feedback systematically, you can identify patterns in customer sentiment, spot emerging concerns, and make proactive improvements to your products or services. These check-ins with your customer base help quantify brand perception while providing actionable data to guide reputation management decisions.

For example, if your brand sentiment analysis reveals frustration with shipping speed, you can adjust carrier partnerships or add expedited options before customers take their complaints to social media.

Here are key questions to include in your brand sentiment surveys:

• How likely are you to recommend our brand to friends or colleagues?
• What five words would you use to describe our brand?
• What could we do better to improve your experience with our brand?

Seek brand-aligned causes

Partnering with meaningful causes helps build authentic connections with customers while demonstrating that your brand’s values extend beyond profit. When selecting causes to support, focus on initiatives that naturally align with your company’s mission and resonate with your customer base—as Patagonia did with environmental activism. However, these partnerships must feel genuine and long-term rather than opportunistic, as consumers can quickly identify and criticize surface-level PR plays.

Our Place, a premium kitchenware company, centers its brand around the cultural power of home cooking and connecting people with their heritage. Through partnerships with influential voices like Selena Gomez and commitments to sustainability and mental health initiatives, Our Place has aligned with meaningful causes to strengthen its brand reputation while creating positive social impact.

Establish clear escalation procedures

Most public complaints on social media come from customers who feel ignored or frustrated by standard support channels. Your initial customer service response is crucial for protecting your reputation. A clear escalation process allows your team to quickly identify high-risk issues and provide personalized solutions that bypass standard policies.

Empower your support team to make immediate decisions—from sending replacement products in response to quality issues to refunding shipping after delays to offering store credit for inconveniences.

Prepare a crisis communication strategy

Despite your best efforts, your business may face a situation that requires you to directly confront a misstep. Whether you’ve discovered a quality control issue or are facing a major website breach, you’ll need to issue a public statement through appropriate channels. This might be through customer emails, an Instagram update, or a formal press release.

Here are some tips to approach a crisis communication strategy:

• Act swiftly but thoughtfully. Respond quickly to prevent speculation, but ensure your message is accurate and comprehensive.

• Take full accountability. Avoid deflecting blame or making excuses; customers respect brands that own their mistakes.

• Outline specific solutions. Detail exactly how you’re addressing the issue and what steps you’re taking to prevent future occurrences.

• Consider consulting outside expertise. Guidance from PR professionals or crisis management experts can help you avoid tone-deaf responses that could worsen the situation.

People often use the terms “tactics” and “strategy” interchangeably. In fact, most thesauruses list them as synonyms. It makes sense: Both words describe approaches people use to achieve their goals, and they’re intimately related. In the military, for instance, a strategy is a big-picture plan, while tactics involve on-the-ground maneuvers. There’s a similar distinction in business.

Here’s a look at how tactics and strategy differ and relate, and how you can use both to realize goals for your small business.

Tactics vs. strategy: What’s the difference?

Strategies outline your overarching objectives, whereas tactics focus on small, actionable steps. In other words, your strategy refers to the plan your business follows to achieve its long-term vision, like growth. Tactics are the specific components that make up your strategy—the concrete, short-term actions you take to reach your broader strategic goals.

For example, you might have a broad customer engagement strategy, within which your tactics might include partnering with social media influencers or launching a customer loyalty program.

Strategic plans tend to be more rigid, developed with specific long-term objectives in mind, while tactical plans are more flexible and can adapt to changing strategic goals or conditions. If your social media partnerships don’t increase sales, for example, you might pivot to tactics like video content or email marketing—all within your broader strategy to increase engagement.

Ultimately, the right strategy composed of the right tactics will help you achieve your business goals.

What makes a good strategy?

Good strategies share certain characteristics. Keep the following in mind as you craft yours:

Alignment with values

Aligning your strategic and tactical planning with your business’s core values can guide your decision-making processes and ensure your team are all on the same page—especially if you change tactics on the fly.

For example, if you’re co-branding an initiative, identify a strategic partner that’s aligned with your business’s core values. This can lead to a stronger, more authentic partnership that amplifies both brands and prevents miscommunication or conflicts that hamper your strategy.

Clear vision and well-defined goals

Strategies are first and foremost about reaching articulable organizational goals. For a well-defined strategy, develop a clear understanding of your objectives, set realistic timelines for achieving these strategic goals, and establish methods to measure progress.

Say you sell compression socks, and your goal is to sell 5,000 pairs during Q4. To achieve this, you might develop a strategy to release one new print or pattern each week of the quarter. To prepare, you set a six-month timeline for creating, approving, and producing around a dozen different designs. By clearly defining your objective and timeline, you make it easier to measure progress.

Contingency planning

Strategies are about long-term objectives, but the longer your strategy execution period, the more likely something is to disrupt your plans and necessitate adaptation. Envision a contingency plan—or multiple—for every business strategy.

For example, at the start of the year, you might set a sales goal for Product A. But, by April, a supply chain issue—like an uncontrollable weather event or international political disruption—arises, affecting a critical input. With a strong contingency plan in place, you can make up lost sales revenue. For instance, you might pivot your marketing strategy for Product B, for which you have plenty of inventory and materials.

What makes a good tactic?

The tactics you can employ are nearly endless, and it’s unlikely that any two of your strategies will use the same combination. Here are a few characteristics of good tactics:

Alignment with strategy

Just as your core values drive strategic decisions, your strategies should guide tactical decision-making. Ensure that all of your tactics actively contribute to your strategic objectives since excess or ineffective tactical actions can waste precious time and resources.

Say your shirt brand’s overarching strategy is to increase online sales by 20% within six months by targeting eco-conscious consumers. As a tactic, you launch a digital ad campaign featuring new products. Focusing the campaign solely on your new line of sustainable, organic cotton t-shirts—instead of introducing shirts made from various materials—ensures your tactics are closely aligned with your big-picture strategy.

Adaptability

A strategy can’t adapt to changes in the business environment if its underlying tactics aren’t adjustable and adaptable. Choose tactics that are flexible enough for you to respond to feedback and unexpected external factors in real time.

Suppose your company wants to increase sales by 15% within the fiscal year by being more responsive to changes in product demand. It implements a semi-automated pricing system that analyzes and responds to fluctuations in demand based on website purchases. This dynamic pricing system lets you be more responsive to changes, while a manual override function lets you disable automation if your pricing strategies need adjustment.

Iterative applicability

Adaptability is a key feature of any good tactic, but it’s just as important to be able to reapply your tactics if they’re successful. You may see a substantial increase in sales after one of your social media campaigns goes viral, but you can’t expect the same results with every campaign. Instead, choose tactics that you can replicate consistently with reliable results.

Let’s say you want to raise brand awareness by boosting newsletter signups by 30% over the next year. A good iterative tactic would be to offer discounts to customers who provide their email at checkout. You might apply the same basic tactic in other strategic and tactical planning situations. For example, you could reward customers who attend live events or potential customers who provide their cellphone numbers during specific marketing campaigns.

How to track the success of your business strategy and tactics

Tracking progress provides valuable data you can use to later replicate successful strategies and tactics and avoid ineffective ones. Here’s how to devise a tactic tracking system:

Set KPIs

An effective strategy defines your key performance indicators (KPIs)—specific, measurable metrics that reflect your business goals. These might be financial benchmarks, growth percentages, concrete milestones (like a product launch or website redesign), or any other factors to quantifiably measure strategy.

Build a dashboard

Numerous project management tools offer dashboards for tracking the progress of individual tactics and your overall strategy. Whether you choose a robust online platform or a basic spreadsheet, keep your team organized and all necessary information reviewable at a glance.

Monitor in real time

Monitor your strategic and tactical outcomes in real time to get ahead of any problems. Maybe engagement is lower than you hoped for the first of several social media posts you publish. Regularly monitoring data gives you time to refine your content before publishing your next posts.

Establish feedback loops

Create feedback loops to help team members and stakeholders identify poor strategies and weak tactics before they cause too much damage. Real-time feedback mechanisms, like weekly check-in meetings, reporting requirements, or a customer feedback system can go a long way.

Reassess regularly

Schedule periodic strategy and tactic reviews after implementation. Did you and your team achieve your strategic goals within the finite timeline? Could you have been more efficient? Take everyone’s opinions into account and determine how you’ll proceed with the next phase of strategic planning.

Document and share progress

Archive your tracking reports somewhere easily accessible—like a shared drive—so stakeholders can reference them in the future. Making these materials available to your entire team fosters transparency, keeps everyone on the same page, and invites collaboration in developing strategies.

When you’re new to retail, you want to give your business room to grow. Traditional retail restricts you to local foot traffic, involves hefty real estate costs, and requires staff presence during business hours—all of which can hinder growth. Shifting to a virtual merchant model could free you from these barriers and increase customer satisfaction.

Take businesses like Allbirds and Glossier, which grew from small startups into retail giants by adopting a virtual merchant approach, enabling them to reach customers everywhere. But running a virtual merchant business requires a few upfront considerations, in particular keeping customers’ data safe when handling online transactions.

What is a virtual merchant?

A virtual merchant is someone who sells products or services through an online store, giving customers a secure way to pay over the internet. Virtual merchant services connect your business with a secure payment processor so you can accept credit cards and handle transactions through your website.

To operate as a virtual merchant, partner with virtual merchant providers to set up a merchant account—a business account for payment and credit card processing. This enables you to accept payments through a secure payment gateway. Your merchant services provider automatically handles all payment processing, taking a small percentage—typically 2% to 3%—of each transaction, similar to how physical stores process credit card payments.

This approach is increasingly popular among business owners looking to reach customers beyond their local area. It offers the flexibility to sell products 24/7, without the overhead and limited hours of a physical storefront.

How do merchant accounts work?

A merchant account is a specialized bank account that lets you accept and process electronic payments from customers. When a customer makes a purchase, their payment information travels through a secure gateway to verify funds. The virtual merchant provider then processes the transaction and temporarily holds the funds in your merchant account before automatically transferring them to your business bank account. This typically happens within one to two business days, minus any processing fees.

To obtain a merchant account, you need to apply through a payment processor or bank, which evaluates your business type, sales volume, and credit history before approval. Many businesses choose all-in-one platforms like Shopify, which bundle the merchant account, payment gateway, and online store tools.

Here are the key elements that enable online businesses to process payments:

• Payment gateway. The secure system that encrypts and transmits transaction data between merchants and card issuers.

• Virtual terminal. A web-based tool that lets merchants manually process payments for phone orders.

• Payment processor. The service that handles the movement of funds between customer and merchant accounts.

• Point of sale (POS). The physical hardware or software that processes payments at in-person locations, working alongside online systems for unified sales tracking.

Virtual merchant security

With online stores, security isn’t just a feature—it’s an essential. When you’re processing payments and handling sensitive customer information, a single data breach could devastate your business and destroy customer trust.

That’s why modern virtual terminals employ multiple security measures to protect every transaction, from the moment a customer starts online ordering until the payment clears.

Here are a few key security measures virtual merchants use:

• Multiple firewalls. These digital barriers create layers of protection around your payment systems, blocking unauthorized access attempts before they reach sensitive data.

• Data encryption. Software scrambles every piece of payment information into unreadable code during transmission, making it useless to potential thieves.

• Tokenization. Instead of storing actual card numbers, systems use unique tokens to represent payment data, adding an extra layer of protection.

• SSL certificates. These digital certificates create secure connections between customers’ browsers and your payment system, verifying your site’s legitimacy.

• Fraud detection software. Smart algorithms constantly monitor transactions for suspicious patterns, flagging potential threats in real time. For example, Shopify’s Fraud Control app monitors risk levels, tracks chargebacks, and analyzes order patterns to help merchants block suspicious transactions.

• Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance standards. These industry-wide security rules set the baseline for how businesses must protect card data. All Shopify stores come with built-in Level 1 PCI DSS compliance, which meets the highest security standards for protecting payment data across key PCI categories, like securing network systems and implementing strong access controls.

When you check out in an online store, there might be times where the multiple items you want to buy have different shipping dates. For example, an online record store that sells rare albums, including several you’ve long coveted, has a preorder promotion for a release by your favorite artist. When you add that item to your cart, along with two other albums, you notice that your order is divided into three different shipments: two arriving from different locations on the same day, and the third—the pre-ordered album—set to ship after its release. This is an example of a split order, which aims to get efficient and fast deliveries to consumers, even when items don’t ship together.

What is a split order?

A split order—also known as a splitshipment or partial shipment—refers to a single order with multiple items divided into separateshipments. This happens when a merchant ships items from different locations or at different times. Customers get parts of their order in separate deliveries, often on different days. The available items ship when they’re ready, often resulting in faster fulfillment.

Order splitting can help you meet fast shipping deadlines amid an increasingly complex supply chain, but the method has its drawbacks. Split order can result in additional costs, extra resources to coordinate multiple shipments, and increased environmental waste.

Why are split orders used?

Split orders are used for a variety of reasons, including: 

Inventory in more than one location 

Companies often split orders when inventory is stored in different warehouses or regions. While centralizing stock can streamline shipping from a single location or fulfillment center, logistical hurdles and product unavailability can prevent this. Splitting deliveries can help you optimizeshipping and reduce delays. 

Back-ordered or pre-ordered items

When an order is partially ready and includes back-ordered or pre-ordered items, you might send available itemsfirst, with the rest sent later in a separateshipment. This keeps shoppers from needing to place a new order.

Large items or quantities

Sometimes a single order of a bulky item or a large quantity needs more than one box. For convenience, you might split the order and send it in multiple packages.

Customer requests

Sometimes customers ask for split orders. They might create a split order to ship to different addresses or for different arrival times. For example, a customer who buys multiple holiday gifts in a single order can use split shipping to send each gift directly to family members across the country.

Order customizations or special requests

A customer might purchase a personalized item, which may require extra service or shipment from a separatelocation. For instance, they might want to engrave a picture frame or get a set of towels monogrammed. These items may arrive later to allow time for the extra steps involved.

Drawbacks of split shipments

Split orders can let you shipmultiple quantities of orders out more efficiently, but they also come with drawbacks, including: 

Higher costs 

Splittingorders into several shipments often adds logistical, labor, and overhead costs to cover additional packaging, transportation, and delivery services. These extra expenses can quickly add up, particularly for large companies handling high order volumes.

More waste

More packages means more waste and a larger carbon footprint. Even if you use sustainable materials, you can’t ensure consumers will recycle packaging. Multiple shipments also means extra delivery trips, leading to increased fuel consumption and carbon emissions.

Increased returns 

With products from a single order arriving at different times, consumers might initiate returns for some items before the others have even arrived. This can complicate the returns process, and it adds to your environmental impact if separate orders must be shipped back.

Tips for avoiding split orders

Sometimes a split order is unavoidable, but here are some steps you can take to avoid the hassle:

Forecast customer demand

To keep your warehouses stocked, start by forecasting customer demand and understanding which products are often purchased together. Analyze shopper data using real-time inventory tracking tools, RFID tagging technology, and specialized software platforms like Sortly, Zoho Inventory, NetSuite, and Cin7. You can then make sure that commonly paired products are shipped from the same warehouse locations.

Keep your warehouses stocked

Use demand forecasting to keep ample inventory in your warehouses. Whether you’re a small- to medium-sized company with one regional warehouse or a major ecommerce business with multiple global locations, keeping popular items stocked allows you to avoid stockouts and maintain efficient order fulfillment.

Let customers choose singular delivery

Customers can opt in to split their delivery, but they should also have the option to opt out—an attractive option for eco-conscious shoppers. During the checkout process, give shoppers the option to create rules for their delivery preferences, like waiting for their entire order to be ready for a lower shipping rate, even if it results in a longer delivery time.