The holiday season is expected to bring retailers a bit more joy this year, especially those who provide shoppers with the online experience they're looking for, new research finds.
This year, the majority of shoppers will be doing some online research before making any purchases, according to Deloitte's annual holiday sales forecast.
Specifically, 84 percent of shoppers will use digital tools before and during their trip to a store to learn more about the products and stores they're interested in. Additionally, those shoppers are expected to make purchases at a 40 percent higher rate than those who don't conduct online research while shopping.
Retailers should focus on the right functionality, rather than more functionality, when creating digital experiences this holiday season, said Alison Paul, vice chairman of Deloitte LLP and a retail and distribution sector leader.
"Rather than offer their full e-commerce site on a mobile device, for example, retailers may be more effective by helping consumers compare prices, scan through local assortments, and navigate the store," Paul said in a statement.
"Retailers that better understand how consumers make purchasing decisions, then deliver tools that support that process in a way that is consistent and complementary across online, mobile and store channels — may have the advantage this holiday season."
Overall, in-store and online sales are projected to increase this holiday season by between 4 and 4.5 percent from a year ago, according to the study. Last year, sales rose by just 2.8 percent.
In total, holiday sales – those made between November and January -- are expected to climb to as much as $986 billion this year.
Income, wage and job growth are all positive indicators heading into the holiday season, according to Daniel Bachman, Deloitte's senior U.S. economist.
"Debt levels remain at historical lows, and stock market gains coupled with increasing home prices have a wealth effect on consumers, which may encourage increased spending compared with prior years," Bachman said.
Online and mail order sales are expected to take the biggest jump this year. Deloitte forecasts a 13.5 to 14 percent increase in non-store sales during the 2014 holiday season.
The biggest decision an entrepreneur makes – and it has to be made over and over again – is: When do I stop doing (fill in the blank) myself and hire a pro to do it?
The answer is always the same: As soon as you can afford to, because you add more value on the visionary and strategic level. From payroll processing to vendor management to day-to-day operations, the timing of your withdrawal is always subjective, and you — all by yourself — might not be the best judge.
So, at least as far as storage is concerned, let's demystify the process by determining what the pain points are as you grow your business, and what options you have in response to those triggers.
Where does it hurt?
A recent Entrepreneur magazine article identifies five likely causes of storage headaches. A couple would be familiar to anyone who's ever refreshed a computer bought five years ago:
Upgraded software and operating systems have a way of eating up all that huge RAM or flash storage the new hardware's vendor is boasting about.
The more storage you have, the more storage you need, thanks to the growing preponderance of data contained in media files.
Those are the technological drivers, but then there are the business drivers, which actually have very little to do with increasing revenues. They're more like costs of doing business, i.e., hackers, lawyers and Uncle Sam:
Security threats necessitating more frequent backups to multiple spaces.
Legal advice to save emails dating back five or more years.
Government regulations requiring businesses to maintain and back up data they might otherwise delete.
What are you doing now?
If you really have no external storage strategy right now, I do hope you're at least saving frequently. That works for documents pretty well, but if you're dealing with spreadsheets, you'll soon find that you spend as much time saving to a disk as you do working through the macros and pivot tables.
But hitting the "save" button every 10 minutes isn't the answer. It doesn't matter how many times you've saved a document if you have it stored to only one device – and that device crashes.
The cheapest — free, actually — way of doing this is to back up to a no-cost place in the cloud. If all you need is 5 gigabytes, there is no shortage of options. C|Net compares no fewer than a dozen. Google Drive is, of course, the 600-exabyte gorilla in the room, but it has competitors. Apple and Microsoft are both in the game, of course, and even Amazon isn't above giving away 5GB to back up your music downloads and vacation selfies if it serves as a gateway to their industrial-strength Amazon Web Services offerings.
What to do next
If you're a one-person operation, or if your business is a highly siloed one in which each partner tills his or her own garden, any of these are fine. But do you have to collaborate? Do you have to share files in real time? If so, you might want to go with a fit-for-purpose file sync provider.
You've probably heard of Dropbox. Techies don't think too highly of it but end users do. It has a lot of competition – the digital intelligentsia seem to gravitate toward SugarSync — but Dropbox's competitive advantage is a simple, intuitive user interface and, for this column's readership, that's probably enough. Only problem is, you get only 2GB for free. After that, it's toward the high end for each 100GB increment.
Bear in mind, this market moves literally at the speed of light. Competitors emerge, succeed and fail while others run in beta. As the paradigm moves from tacking on additional backup space through shared storage as a collaboration tool to the eventual erasure of the line between attached storage and cloud storage, some business models will evolve as others dissipate. Wikipedia lists 34 active file-hosting services and another 11 that went out of business. This article is just a snapshot as of this date. Next year, we might all look back on this article and laugh.
But there's nothing funny about how fast your storage requirements are likely to grow over that 12 months. How long will 5GB hold you? It's the equivalent of 10 CD-ROMs. At some point, you're going to have to turn to cash for cache.
Online shouldn't necessarily be your first step, especially if you're working on your own. Remember that security is one of your key drivers. Although backing up your data in the cloud is more secure than parking it on one, single potential point of failure, maybe it's not by much. Just ask Jennifer Lawrence (hyperlink intentionally omitted).
The low-tech option is the simple, USB-attached thumb drive. At this point, even the smallest one — with a one-time price of $8 — gives you more space than Dropbox does before it stair-steps up from free to $200. Or you can buy an external drive for $70 and attach a full terabyte (roughly equivalent to your local library branch) to your workstation.
Then what?
Storage requirements tend to grow by, as a ballpark figure, 25 percent year-over-year. Your mileage may vary, particularly if you're growing a business. That benchmark is based on a mature company's experience; don't be surprised if your small business's capacity has to double or triple this coming year.
Here's where we encounter the truly paradoxical thing about the storage domain: Its unit costs are constantly shrinking, but the number of units required keep getting higher. That's why you should budget – again, as a rough rule of thumb – to spend as much on storing your data and apps as you do on actually working with them on your computers.
As storage sprawls, its costs can spiral out of control. Here's how to get ahead of that.
First, realize that some data is more important than others. Anything that is held strictly for archival purposes, park in the cheapest space available to you, whether that's a thumb drive or Google Drive or whatever. Keep two copies, and only two copies.
Anything that's mission-critical and must be easily accessed, back up to multiple, secure sites. Pay what you have to for security, but only for what really needs to be secured because it's a trade secret or required by government regulation.
Of course, no security is foolproof. If you want to keep all your files in-house, one option that might be for you is network-attached storage. For somewhere between $300 and $1,000, you can get NAS in a box. It doesn't just store your data, it backs it up according to its redundancy capability, known as its RAID level. You'll probably be comfortable with RAID 5, which means that your files are stored on the main hard drive, then backed up on four others.
Alternately, you can buy additional space and functionality on any of the cloud sites discussed above or in the cited C|Net article, or do some research yourself. When and if that proves insufficient, it would then become time to consider Infrastructure as a Service solution. The best known of these is Amazon Web Services, but it doesn't have the field to itself. Rackspace, Microsoft Azure and Google Compute Engine are among the other players. Of course, they're not just looking to host your data, but your server capacity, network and apps as well. You might not feel comfortable handing that much of your critical assets to a black-box IaaS provider at this point in your company's development – or ever.
Microsoft's new Surface Pro 3 is designed for use with a keyboard, even though the accessory is sold separately. BUY Microsoft Surface Pro 3 >>> Credit: Microsoft
A laptop is the perfect productivity machine when you need to work away from the office. A tablet, meanwhile, is better suited for consuming content and using touch-screen mobile apps. But you don't necessarily have to choose between the two. With a convertible laptop/tablet hybrid, you can get the best of both worlds in a single device.
Hybrids come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some allow you to detach the display from the keyboard entirely, while others are basically laptops with screens that fold, pivot or swivel so you can use the devices like tablets. Either option gives you the ability to choose how you work on the fly: with a keyboard and touchpad, or with an unobstructed touch-screen display. Here are the best hybrids for business users.
HP Spectre 13 X2
BUY HP Spectre 13 X2 >>> Credit: HP
Operating system: Windows 8.1
This hybrid device is a laptop first, since the big, 13-inch (33 centimeters) display is a bit unwieldy when detached from the keyboard dock. Still, the HP Spectre 13 X2 is a good pick for business users who want a solid, versatile work machine. Detach the screen to use it like a tablet, or snap the display onto the heavy-duty hinge to use the device like a standard laptop computer. Hardware highlights include a sharp, vivid 1080p touch screen and a speedy Intel Core i5 processor that delivers good performance. The Spectre also offers pretty good battery life, running for more than seven hours with continuous use between charges. Overall, it's a decent alternative to the Surface Pro 3 for business users who want a slightly bigger display and don't mind a little extra bulk.
4G LTE capable
2-in-1 laptop hybrid
Multitasking friendly
Long battery life
Includes USB port
Includes SD card reader
Surface Pro 3
Microsoft's new Surface Pro 3 is designed for use with a keyboard, even though the accessory is sold separately. BUY Microsoft Surface Pro 3 >>> Credit: Microsoft
Operating system: Windows 8.1
Microsoft's new Surface Pro 3 is designed for use with a keyboard, even though the accessory is sold separately. Still, Microsoft's Type Cover keyboard is one of the better tablet keyboards you'll find, with a super-thin design and a large, responsive touchpad. The tablet's 12-inch (30.5 cm) tablet display is large and beautiful, giving you tons of space for screen-intensive tasks such as editing a spreadsheet from your tablet. But the best feature of the Surface Pro 3 is the redesigned kickstand, which lets you prop up the tablet at any angle you want; the original Surface Pro allowed just a single position, while the Surface Pro 2 let you pick between two different angles. As a bonus, the Surface Pro 3 includes a stylus, so you can take notes right on the touch-sensitive display.
Stylus-equipped
4G LTE capable
Multitasking friendly
Long battery life
Includes kickstand
Keyboard not included
Desktop dock capable
Includes USB port
Includes SD card reader
Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro
BUY Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro >>> Credit: Lenovo
Operating system: Windows 8.1
The Yoga 2 Pro is Lenovo's flagship Ultrabook, featuring top-end processing power, a super-sharp display and a flexible design. The machine lives up to the Yoga name with a display that can fold back a full 180 degrees, transforming the device into a large tablet. Meanwhile, the notebook's 13.3-inch (33.8 cm) display is the right size for mobile users who need a machine that balances portability with productivity. That makes this notebook, which starts at $999, a good pick for serious business users who want a new mobile business companion with quality hardware and plenty of horsepower.
4G LTE capable
2-in-1 laptop hybrid
Multitasking friendly
Desktop dock capable
Includes USB port
Includes SD card reader
ASUS Transformer Book T100
BUY ASUS Transformer Book T100 >>> Credit: ASUS
Operating system: Windows 8.1
The ASUS Transformer Book T100 is a super-versatile tablet, thanks to the included keyboard dock. And at $379, it's a steal for business users looking for a super-affordable laptop/tablet hybrid. The budget-priced device boasts decent specs, and features a beefy hinge, so it can function like a traditional clamshell notebook when the keyboard is attached. You can adjust the display to any viewing angle without the need for a kickstand. And this hybrid runs the full version of Windows 8.1, so it can handle all the programs you already use at work. With great hardware and an affordable price point, the T100 is one of the most productive budget tablets available.
4G LTE capable
Multitasking friendly
Budget friendly
Long battery life
Keyboard included
Desktop dock capable
Includes USB port
Includes SD card reader
BUY ASUS Transformer Book T100 >>
ASUS Transformer Pad TF701T
BUY Asus Transformer Pad tf701t >>> Credit: Asus
Operating system: Android
Not every good tablet/laptop hybrid runs Windows. The 10.1-inch (25.7 cm) ASUS Transformer Pad TF701T is a premium Android tablet that's designed to work like a laptop when its snap-on keyboard accessory (sold separately) is attached. The combination can turn Android into a real productivity platform when coupled with the right apps, such as the Google Drive office suite. When detached from the keyboard, the Transformer Pad TF701T stands alone as a solid tablet with a high-res display and handy software features such as Floating Windows, which lets you run multiple apps on the screen at once.
4G LTE capable
Multitasking friendly
Budget friendly
Keyboard not included
Includes USB port (on keyboard dock)
Includes SD card reader
Dell Venue 11 Pro
BUY Dell Venue 11 Pro >>> Credit: Dell
Operating system: Windows 8.1
Dell's Venue 11 Pro is a powerful, keyboard-ready tablet that's a bit more affordable than Microsoft's Surface Pro 3. Business users can take advantage of the device's sharp, 10.8-inch (27.4 cm) screen and powerful Intel Core i5 processor. But what makes this hybrid really good for work is Dell's keyboard dock, sold separately, which snaps on for use in extended typing sessions. The keyboard even includes an external battery that boosts the Venue 11 Pro's longevity by up to 50 percent, helping you get through the workday. The tablet's ports and connectivity options include one full-size USB 3.0 port for connecting a mouse or external hard drive, and a micro HDMI port that lets you hook up a larger monitor when you're working at your desk. The keyboard dock adds two extra USB ports and a mini DisplayPort, which could come in handy for business presentations.
If you're good about keeping your personal and business finances separate, you may think that the only credit score you have to worry about is your own. While maintaining good personal credit is certainly important if you're applying for business loans, you may not realize that your company has its own credit score — and it's just as essential to monitor.
"Businesses in the eyes of the law are treated like people," said Jeff Stibel, CEO of Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corporation, which provides credit-building and credibility solutions for businesses. "The smallest businesses tend not to incorporate or get a credit file, so they [think they don't] have a credit score. Whether you're proactively trying to get your score or not, it's very likely that you still have one."
Stibel said that there are tens of millions of credit files that closely correlate to most registered businesses in North America. His company sees those credit files, and they're often very thin and ill-suited to a growing business's needs, especially if a company is looking to expand or establish partnerships with other businesses.
"[A business credit score] is different from your personal score in that it only looks at business [transactions]," Stibel said. "It's a critically important thing. You want people to rely on your business credit."
As with your personal finances, there are numerous factors that contribute to your business's credit score. Brian Manson, credit manager at business financing firm Balboa Capital, named late or slow payments, defaulting on a loan, judgments, bankruptcies, identity theft and related fraudulent activity as common factors that can negatively affect your score. Making timely payments to creditors and keeping your debt financing down, on the other hand, will improve your score over time, Manson said.
"Improving your score is aligned with building your business," Stibel added. "[Achieve] consistent, predictable growth by expanding, paying [loans] back, and using credit in a fiscally responsible way."
One critical reason for knowing and managing your business credit score is that it helps you keep your personal and company finances well-separated. Manson advised business owners to structure their companies as a corporation or LLC to actively ensure that your credit profiles remain separate. Relying on personal credit for your business could not only hinder your future options for securing financing, but also leave your personal life in ruins if something goes wrong.
"Relying on personal credit means you're on the hook personally," Stibel said. "You can lose your house and your kids can get pulled out of college if your business fails."
Both Stibel and Manson noted that taking a proactive approach to your business credit is the best way to ensure that it stays strong.
"Business owners should review their credit profiles from time to time to make sure everything is in order," Manson told Business News Daily. "Also, fulfilling the basic business requirements can put them in a better position for credit approval. Having a business phone line, business license and business plan can help a company's credit worthiness."
"Know your credit score, how it's impacted, and what you can do to improve it," Stibel said. "Proactively manage it and make sure the data credit bureaus have is accurate and up to date."
While the number of companies affected by data breaches is on the rise, so, too, is awareness of the problem, new research finds.
Even though major retailers like Target and Home Depot made the most headlines in the past year because of data breaches, companies of all sizes face similar dangers. Overall, 43 percent of U.S. businesses suffered at least one cybersecurity incident this year, up 10 percent from 2013, according to a study from the Ponemon Institute, which conducts independent research on privacy, data protection and information security policy, and Experian Data Breach Resolution.
These incidents have data security in U.S. businesses at an all-time high. Nearly three-quarters of the businesses surveyed now have a data breach response plan in place, up 12 percent from last year. Additionally, 48 percent of organizations have increased their investment in security technologies in the past 12 months.
Since employee errors are a frequent cause of data breaches, more and more businesses provide their staffs with data security training. The study discovered that 54 percent of companies have privacy and data-protection awareness training for employees and other stakeholders, up 10 percentage points from 2013.
Additionally, the number of companies investing in cyberinsurance is also rising. This year, 26 percent of the organizations surveyed purchased data breach insurance this year, which is more than double from a year ago.
"Compared to last year's study results, survey findings show encouraging signs that organizations are beginning to better prioritize data breach prevention, but more needs to be done," Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute, said in a statement.
Despite the number of companies putting response plans in place, executives remain concerned about their ability to handle a major breach. Specifically, 68 percent of the executives surveyed said they feel unprepared to respond to a data breach, with 30 percent saying the data breach plan they have is ineffective.
In addition, nearly 80 percent of company executives said their organization hasn't or doesn't regularly update its response plan to account for changes in threats or in the business's processes.
"Companies should be careful of not becoming complacent because they have a response plan in place or [because they] just completed a security audit," Ponemon said. "Preparedness requires ongoing maintenance and diligence."
Executives want their organizations to take a number of actions in order to strengthen their company's security response plans. The research revealed that 70 percent of executives said they want more oversight and participation from board members, chairman and CEOs for data-breach preparedness, while 69 percent indicated they could use more funding.
Also, 77 percent said more "fire drills" to practice data-breach response would be helpful. Michael Bruemmer, vice president of Experian Data Breach Resolution, said simply having a checklist response plan doesn't by itself prepare a business for a security incident.
"There should be an incident response team in place that practices the plan, and ongoing investment from the [senior executives] to ensure technologies are up to date," Bruemmer said.
The study was based on surveys of 567 executives in the United States. The majority of those surveyed had titles of director, manager or supervisor.
