Entrepreneurs and small retailers understand the challenges they face in growing and maintaining their business. Because they wear many different hats and must manage multiple aspects of their company, there are certain resources every retail entrepreneur needs to know. We’ve put together a list of 25 online resources for retailers that can help you increase brand awareness, keep customers happy, grow sales, and be successful.
- Retail Insider. Retail Insider is a blog focused on looking beyond the obvious. More than a news site, it offers opinions and insights on the retail industry by selected columnists, as well as regular features such as Q&A’s with leading e-commerce and multi-channel retailers, and their “Innovative Retailers” series.
- CrossCap. CrossCap offers a range of products to improve the efficiency and execution of marketing activities, including project and promotion management, digital media, and in-store marketing services.
- Smart Retail. Businessman Scott Kreisberg hosts a web series featuring retail stores in the Los Angeles area. His show examines how independent specialty retailers run their business, highlighting both their successes and their challenges.
- Retail Minded. Retail Minded offers resources for small businesses to address in-store issues, marketing on a limited budget, mobile trends, employee management, product trends, and more. The Retail Minded Magazine takes a look at personal money management, total wellbeing, retail management, merchandising, and marketing.
- Vend. Vend offers cloud-based retail management software designed to help retailers grow. Features include point of sale, product, inventory, and customer management, as well as hardware, integration, and e-commerce.
- Multichannel Merchant. Delivering original research and in-depth analysis of trends and best practices, Multichannel Merchant reaches key decision-makers responsible for e-commerce, management, marketing, and operations at companies that sell merchandise through multiple channels. Here you can find news, how-to’s, executive summaries, technology and supplier comparisons, tip sheets, and resource information to help companies sell and deliver products wherever and whenever the customer wants them — at home, work, store, or other locations.
- Retail Customer Experience. This is is an internet portal devoted to helping retailers make decisions based on experience, not on price, with an understanding that retail today is fundamentally different than any other time in history and staying competitive requires a new, holistic understanding of customers and how they want to shop.
- National Retail Federation. The mission of NRF, the world’s largest retail trade association, is to advance the interests of the retail industry through advocacy, communications, and education. Retail is the nation’s largest private sector employer, and NRF represents discount and department stores, home goods and specialty stores, Main Street merchants, grocers, wholesalers, chain restaurants, and Internet retailers from the United States and more than 45 countries.
- Snap Retail. SnapRetail provides small business owners a way to create a responsive website, send email marketing campaigns, and connect with customers through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
- U.S. Small Business Association. The SBA helps Americans start, build, and grow businesses. It is an independent agency of the federal government with the mission to aid, counsel, assist, and protect the interests of small businesses, to preserve free competitive enterprise, and to maintain and strengthen the overall economy of the nation.
- Retail Wire. Describing itself as the retailing industry’s premier online discussion forum, RetailWire editors select news topics worthy of commentary to facilitate virtual round tables of industry opinion and advice covering key dynamics and issues affecting the retailing industry.
- Square. Square offers a service to run your entire business, from a register in your pocket and analytics on your laptop to small business financing and marketing tools that drive new sales.
- Internet Retailer. Internet Retailer Magazine provides business information on market trends, technology, competitive practices, and the people who are shaping the e-commerce industry.
- Retail Geek. The Retail Geek blog is about how people shop, what makes a great retail experience, whether it’s online or in-store, and how retailers sometimes fall short. Its author, Jason Goldberg, also discusses marketing technologies and focuses on helping retailers deliver great shopping experiences across physical and digital touchpoints.
- Shopify. Shopify is a retail platform that enables merchants to manage all aspects of their business, including products, customers, orders, selling both online and in-store, and mobile applications.
- Houston Chronicle Small Business. The Small Business page of the Houston Chronicle provides a variety of information on setting up and running a business, even ideas for the types of business to consider. They offer information on managing employees and finances, workplace regulations, and business models and organizational structures.
- Retail Owners Institute. ROI offers online courses in retail financial basics such as inventory control and cash flow management.
- Retail Focus. Retail Focus covers the latest news in the world of retail design.
- Entrepreneur. Entrepreneur publishes content designed to inspire, inform, and celebrate entrepreneurs. Their website offer real solutions to the challenges entrepreneurs face, as well as tips, tools, and insider news to help entrepreneurs build and grow their business.
- Retail Design Blog. Retailers and brand managers, among others, contribute stories on topics that include store design, branding, and visual merchandising.
- Business.com. The mission of Business.com is to help businesses grow by providing executives with the knowledge, products, and services they need.
- The Retail Doctor. The Retail Doctor is a retail consulting firm created by business mentor, Bob Phibbs. Phibbs has helped thousands of businesses in every major industry to strengthen their business structure, close more sales, and stay ahead of their competition.
- America’s SBDC. America’s SBDC represents America’s nationwide network of Small Business Development Centers. Its mission is to help new entrepreneurs realize the dream of business ownership and to assist existing businesses in remaining competitive. It provides entrepreneurs with access to help with writing business plans, accessing capital, and marketing resources.
- Forbes list of 100 best Websites for entrepreneurs: Forbes has put together a list of the 100 Best Websites For Entrepreneurs, providing information on everything from raising capital to general industry insight.
- Resources for retailers: Retail Startup, a division of The Retail Owners Institute, provides a number of retail management resources.
In an ever-changing economy, it can be a challenge to keep a business up and running. Access to resources is essential for entrepreneurs who are managing several different aspects of their business. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel; help is usually just a click away.
