Fortune500Designs

The days of cash registers and brick-and-mortar stores may be limited in our increasingly digital world. Consumers are turning to their computers and cellphones to purchase more goods and services, and while that may excite technology enthusiasts, it presents a host of challenges for businesses on Main Street. How do you bring your products and services online? How do you build an effective e-commerce site, how should you market your company, and how should you ship your good...s to customers who no longer live just around the corner? Gallery: States with the highest and lowest sales tax rates There also are security issues to consider. How do you store customer data and protect against cyber crime? The questions are many, as are the opportunities to make a mistake. But so are the potential rewards. In the United States, online sales exceeded a quarter of a trillion dollars in 2011, nearly 50 percent higher than the previous year. A digital store opens the door to customers across the country and around the world. However, handling those transactions could get more complicated. The U.S. Senate recently approved the Marketplace Fairness Act, which would expand each state’s power to charge sales tax on online transactions. The bill would help level the playing field for brick-and-mortar stores, but some warn it could pose challenges for small, online merchants. http://www.washingtonpost.com//3582e0d8-9871-11e2-b68f-dc5

Contest winner from February as well as new prizes and contest for the month of March will be announced tomorrow!

I'm an idiot. Not all of the time, mind you, but every now and then, I'm an idiot. Like the time my friend and co-founder Brian Halligan asked me to read the book Moneyball . This was back when we had first launched our startup, HubSpot. But, I'm not a baseball guy, I said. It's not about baseball. It's about data, he replied. So, I put it on my reading list, bought the book, but still failed to read it. That was a mistake. Years later, I watched the movie when it came ...Continue reading