Today I’m on a mission this morning, a hunt for something very illusive, something which millions of my fellow citizens are also hoping for – a daily deal I actually want to use. While Groupon, LivingSocial, and all the other standalone and integrated daily deal sites compete fiercely over membership growth and media attention for having the most impressive features and biggest deals, I can’t help but wonder what happened to a much simpler, and yet far more profitable concept – offers that people really want. Continue reading →

Driving around San Mateo it’s easy to pick out the remnants of forgotten local businesses, desolate storefronts that couldn’t cut it due to the “economy”, changing models or in many cases, the launch of stronger national competitors down the road. With stronger pricing power, larger selection, a consistent experience and huge marketing footprints it’s been virtually impossible for local business to take on national chain in any field.

Putting aside the philosophical debate over the benefit or harm chain merchants are causing to communities, one thing is certain, whether it’s the local coffee shop, grocery store, gym, video rental shop (pre-digital of course), or just about any other business, volume has been the winning formula. Continue reading →

I don’t work in the flower industry, don’t know much about the business (beyond how to order products at least) but when Teleflora made a Facebook post with a customer service email address the day after Valentine’s Day, the reason why was pretty obvious – something had gone wrong – something which was making people very, very upset.

Of course anyone working in ecommerce, or any corporation, could have told you there would be problems. Tens of millions of flower orders , dozens of companies, and just 18 or so hours to get them all there on time (but not too early), it’s only logical that some orders would fail within the process… Some complaints were inevitable…

Continue reading →

Forums have not evolved. They’ve remained about the same concept, post and reply, member, and almost all about content creators and readers with little done to encourage the vital 9%… the responders.

The future of forums is of course in integrating and growing up. Continue reading →

Whether it was the Internet, social media, or the printing press, the one thing that is certain in business is that trends and tactics will change. The smart companies are the ones that adapt to these new concepts fast, ideally before they are even seen as true evolutions, while companies that conservatively wait, end up struggling to remain relevant and, oftentimes, to remain profitable. People play a major part of this cycle as well… Continue reading →