12 posts tagged with "smb-marketing"

If you've ever tried to build a multi-step email flow from scratch — you know how it goes. You open the flow builder with good intentions, get halfway through the branching logic, realize you need to create a new segment first, and forty-five minutes later you still don't have anything live.

Email automation is one of those things that almost every store should have more of, and almost every store doesn't — not because it's complicated in theory, but because it takes a long time to build in practice.

On March 24, Klaviyo launched Composer, an AI agent that takes a plain-language prompt and assembles a complete campaign for you — segments, email copy, SMS messaging, multi-step flows, all of it. Here's what it actually does and whether it's worth your attention this week.

If you've been quietly stressing about your returns rate — the math that never quite adds up when shipping costs go one direction and customer expectations go another — you're in good company. Most stores are dealing with this. And in 2026, the industry has quietly hit a turning point.

72% of US retailers now charge some form of return fee, up sharply from just a few years ago. Among affordable luxury brands, the share charging for returns went from 4% in 2023 to 20% in 2026. Amazon introduced return fees for certain items at select locations. H&M, Zara, and other major chains followed. No retailer that introduced a return fee between 2023 and 2026 has subsequently removed it.

The era of free returns is not exactly over — but its days as the universal default are.

If you imported products while the IEEPA tariffs were in effect — and you're already exhausted just from having paid them — there's news worth knowing: the government opened a refund portal on April 20. There's $166 billion in collected tariffs available to come back, and some of it might be yours.

The bad news, because there's always bad news: the process is genuinely annoying, the window is short, and big companies are already in line with legal teams doing the filing for them.

Here's what's actually going on, and what to do about it this week.

If you're running a loyalty program and it mostly consists of a stamp card behind the counter or a weekly email blast that goes to everyone at once — you're not alone. Most restaurants are doing exactly that. And according to fresh data from the Paytronix 2026 Loyalty Report, most restaurants are leaving a significant amount of repeat business on the table because of it.

Here's the number that should stop you mid-scroll: after just four visits, 95% of your guests come back on their own. The problem isn't getting customers to like you. It's getting them to that fourth visit before they drift away.

If you run a Shopify store and you've been ignoring the little sparkle icon in your admin, yesterday's earnings call gave a decent reason to click it.

On May 5, Shopify reported Q1 2026 results: $100.7 billion in gross merchandise volume — the second consecutive quarter above $100B, up 35% year-over-year. Revenue hit $3.17 billion, beating estimates. The stock actually dipped on margin concerns, but that's a Wall Street story. The merchant story is about what's driving the volume, and a big chunk of the answer is AI.

If you're like a lot of shop owners, National Small Business Week means one thing: your inbox gets louder. You'll hear from your POS provider, your email platform, maybe your bank — all of them suddenly very supportive of the small businesses they charge monthly fees to. Understandable. Most of it is noise.

But this year, two things are genuinely worth your time — and one of them starts in 48 hours.

If you haven't looked at your Google Business Profile in the last week, do it now before reading the rest of this. Open a new tab, search your business name, and confirm your listing still shows up in Google Maps and local search.

Back? Good. If everything looks fine, you're already ahead of a lot of people this week.

On April 27, Google swept through local search and suspended thousands of business listings with no advance notice — restaurants, retail stores, service businesses, all of them gone from Maps and Google Search results overnight. Some owners didn't notice for days. If your listing disappeared during your busiest hours this week, no explanation email, no context — that's what happened.

The good news: most suspended listings can be reinstated. The less-good news: you have to catch the problem before Google's enforcement compounds it.

If you've been running an ecommerce business that imports products — especially from China — you paid a lot more in duties last year than you should have. The Supreme Court agreed with you in February. And now, as of this past Monday, you can actually do something about it.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) launched the CAPE portal on April 20 — a refund system for IEEPA tariffs ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court. More than $166 billion in duties is on the table, plus interest. Over 55,000 parties filed claims on day one alone. If you imported goods in 2025 or early 2026, this week is when you need to pay attention.

If you've been quietly ignoring TikTok Shop because it felt like a platform for Gen Z brands and beauty influencers with massive followings — here's the number that might make you look again.

More than 171,000 small businesses now account for over a third of all US TikTok Shop purchases. Sales to those smaller sellers — independent stores, micro-brands, people running $50K to $500K operations — rose 70% year over year. And social commerce as a whole just crossed $100 billion in the US for the first time in 2026.

This isn't a trend you can keep deferring. It's a channel that's actively working for people at your scale, right now.

If you're the kind of restaurant owner who drafts the staff schedule at midnight after close, or the one who has to remember to update the Tuesday special across every delivery platform by hand — this week had something for you.

In the span of nine days, three of the biggest names in restaurant technology launched AI agents designed to do the jobs that never fully make it off your to-do list: scheduling, menu management, marketing campaigns, supply orders. Not assist with them. Actually do them, autonomously, while you run the floor.

That's a different category than what's been available before. It's worth understanding what each one actually does — and what they still can't touch.