Yiftee’s Gifting App Supports Local Businesses for Free

Yiftee’s Gifting App Supports Local Businesses for Free
Denis Pombriant of Beagle Research: The Subscription Economy
Always Landing On Your Feet
Wal-Mart Pledges to Hire Veterans, Buy American

Posted: 18 Jan 2013 11:00 AM PST

Yiftee, which just announced $850,000 in seed funding, is an app that allows users to send gifts from local merchants, such as a meal, a cup of coffee, or a spa treatment.

To send a gift, users simply open the Yiftee app or website, select a friend to send a gift to along with their city, and then they can browse the selection of featured local businesses offering gifts. Users can view a description of the businesses and gifts available, along with photos and pricing information.

Once a gift is selected, users can add a personal note and then send the gift to their friend with a notification on Facebook, email, or text message.

The photos above show a selection of featured gifts, which users can narrow down by geographic location and gift category, along with personalization options and what the recipient might see after being sent a Yiftee gift from a friend.

It's free for businesses to be featured on Yiftee. You simply need to sign up on the website by providing some basic business information and up to three "microgifts" costing under $100 to be sold on Yiftee. At least one of the gifts must be $20 or less.

For local businesses, this type of app could be similar to gift card services in terms of driving business, but Yiftee makes it even easier for mobile consumers to patronize local businesses for gifts. And while there isn't necessarily proof that this service can convert gifts into returning customers, the fact that it's easy to use and costs nothing for businesses to use eliminates any potential risk, while still enticing customers to walk through the door.

This latest funding announcement could mean improved product development for the app, which was first launched publicly in December. The company was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.

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Denis Pombriant of Beagle Research: The Subscription Economy

Posted: 18 Jan 2013 08:00 AM PST

There’s a new trend in purchasing and that trend is renting, also known as subscribing. In a big city, why buy a car when you can rent one for a few hours? Why purchase a Blu-ray movie when you can rent it instead? Tune in as Denis Pombriant of Beagle Research and author of, “The Subscription Economy: How Subscriptions Improve Business,” joins Brent Leary for an in-depth look at this concept and how it can benefit your business.

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subscription business Small Business Trends: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background?

Denis Pombriant: I've been an industry analyst for about a dozen years. I started at the Aberdeen Group in Boston, and was there for four years. During that time I had just about every job in CRM including managing director of the practice.

At the end of 2003 I left Aberdeen and started Beagle Research.

Small Business Trends: As the author of, “The Subscription Economy: How Subscriptions Improve Business,” what is your definition of “The Subscription Economy?”

Denis Pombriant: Instead of buying something like a car, or even clothing it has become a lot more feasible to rent it instead.

For example, if you live in a city and need access to a car once in a while, you probably don't want to pay the high tax rate, or find a place to park the thing, so you might use a service like Zip Car. A subscription is, I think, $50/year for membership. When you need a car, you can access one that's pre-positioned around a city, drive it for a couple of hours, bring it back and get charged for a couple of hours of use.

Small Business Trends: How has the billing management platform Zuora advanced The Subscription Economy?

Denis Pombriant: Billing, invoicing and collecting for subscriptions is a big deal. It is a very different kind of business process than generating invoices for products, for the simple reason that subscription customers can go to the vendor and say:

“You know, I was buying six of these last month but this month, I want to buy 12.”

All of a sudden, the configurations of what the customer is buying has changed. That has to be reflected in an accurate bill. Because if the bill is inaccurate, the customer is not going to pay it, or the company is going to lose money. Conventional accounting systems aren't real good at allowing a company to do that on a scale of hundreds or thousands of customers at a time.

Zuora found that sweet spot for supporting businesses with very dynamic requirements for their billing.

Small Business Trends: When I think of “The Subscription Economy” I think the poster child is Amazon.

Denis Pombriant: In some ways they are. You go to Amazon when you want to buy a book for example. Back in the old days, I can remember being a member of something like Book of the Month Club (BMC).

The difference between BMC and Amazon is, if I didn't want the selection that BMC sent me, I would have to turn around and send it back to them. With Amazon, I only go to Amazon when I want something. I find what I want and these days, I just download it to my Kindle.

Small Business Trends: With Amazon Prime it seems like having a membership allows them to stay connected on an ongoing basis with a customer.

Denis Pombriant: I don't know the statistics on it but I would say you're probably right. Ideally, this all goes towards customer loyalty. Amazon is the first place you think of going when you want to buy a book and others things too.

Whether or not you spend more money per unit with somebody like Amazon because you are a member, or you just spend the same amount, Amazon – by making you members – is taking a little of the variability out of the relationship.

Small Business Trends: What do “Grow, Flow and Know” mean in terms of The Subscription Economy. Start with “Grow”.

Denis Pombriant: Well, if you think about the life cycle of being a customer in a typical situation, you might engage with a company to buy something. Then once you have bought it and paid for it, you’re sort of on your own again. Maybe they remember who you are, maybe they send you a Christmas card.

With The Subscription Economy though, it is very important for the vendor to keep you in the fold and keep you happy. Because you can leave at any time. Ideally, if you're happy, you won’t just stick with the original purchase. You will add other products or extend the use of the products that you bought. That is the “Grow” part.

Small Business Trends: Let's talk “Flow”, shall we?

Denis Pombriant: When the customer says, ‘I want to change my configuration’, that ripples back through the organization, through the accounting system, and the billing system to product configuration. It may also ripple back to product designers. It may ripple back to marketing people in terms of understanding the customer need.

All of that working in unison to deliver the right product to the right customer at the right price at the right time, etc. is “Flow.”

Small Business Trends: We have gone from “Grow,” to “Flow.” How about “Know?”

Denis Pombriant: To get your best price, you might sign up for a one year/two year contract. Depending on the nature of the relationship, you may pay for one year in advance or two years.

The subscription company might take in 12 months' worth of subscription fees, but they actually only recognize 1/12th of it every time they start a new month. So in subscription terms, the 1/12th they recognize is called recurring revenue. You can look at your database of customers in their agreements with you and calculate both your monthly recurring revenue and your annual recurring revenue.

The other 11/12th that you aren't recognizing is called deferred revenue. Deferred revenue comes in a couple of flavors. There is the deferred revenue that you collected and you know very logically there is the uncollected, or the unbilled deferred revenue.

If you are a subscription company with subscription accounting, you can go into your system and see how much money is in my future that is already pledged. How much money is there in the future that is pledged, but not collected? How many of my customers are churning? How many renewals are up this month, and next month, and the month after?

With that kind of information, you can know a heck of a lot about the health of your business and how it is running. That is the “Know” part.

Small Business Trends: Where can people check out your eBook ,”The Subscription Economy: How Subscriptions Improve Business?”

Denis Pombriant: Yours and my favorite book seller, Amazon, has it.

This interview is part of our One on One series of conversations with some of the most thought-provoking entrepreneurs, authors and experts in business today. This interview has been edited for publication. To hear audio of the full interview, click the right arrow on the gray player below. You can also see more interviews in our interview series.

The post Denis Pombriant of Beagle Research: The Subscription Economy appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Always Landing On Your Feet

Posted: 18 Jan 2013 05:00 AM PST

Back in the pre-cartoonist days, I was a pretty good interview. I’m fairly well spoken. I can clean up when I need to. And I always had good material for the portion:

“So, do you have any special talents?”

I spent a few years on cruise ships as a musician. I draw cartoons. I build cool stuff with Legos – there’s some unique stuff there.

Still, something like:

“I always land on my feet.”

Or:

“I can turn my head all the way around.”

“I have to keep swimming to live.”

Naturally, would be even better.

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Wal-Mart Pledges to Hire Veterans, Buy American

Posted: 18 Jan 2013 02:30 AM PST

Not all business decisions are made based on the bottom line. Some help build your brand and your company’s reputation too. These resources and tips are for every entrepreneur who has ever looked at decisions that go beyond dollars and cents…and also for those who have earnestly been trying to change their story for the better.

How to Rewrite the Headline

Wal-Mart saves America. The mega-retailer with the occasional image problem (the company has been accused of destroying local mom and pop retail, proliferating a culture of low paying jobs, and forcing the off-shoring of American manufacturing) has announced a plan to stimulate the U.S. economy. The plan includes hiring 100,000 veterans, spending $50 billion to buy more American made products, and helping its part-timers move to full-time positions within the company. The Associated Press

Truth in advertising. Some might reasonably doubt Wal-Mart’s recent altruistic move. For example, business reporter Christopher Matthews points out that the numbers Wal-Mart is promising in terms of additional hires and manufacturing purchases may not be very far off from what the mega retailer might have planned to do anyway. It always helps to have a convincing story to tell when promoting your brand’s value beyond increasing profits. Then again, remember that sometimes it’s the gesture that’s important when going above and beyond the call of duty. Time

In Search of Inspiration

Shaping the story. Whether trying to change an existing perception or creating an impression where none currently exists, arguably every PR effort starts with the press release. And the press release is not what it used to be in a world of multimedia communication via the Internet, writes digital content developer Janelle Vreeland. Here Vreeland shares five steps every entrepreneur should know about controlling a company’s story one press release at a time.
Lonely Brand Blog

The new PR. The Internet, it turns out, is changing PR just as it has changed every other industry it has touched. Rather than focusing on writing headlines for your audience, this new digital hybrid has become about conversing with customers, says Gini Dietrich, founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich, a Chicago-based communications and marketing firm. This shouldn’t be surprising to anyone already using social media marketing. The new tools aren’t about pushing a message. They are about building relationships. Wood Street Inc.

The search is on. Search engines, which have displaced news agencies and other similar organizations as the gatekeepers of what the public does and does not learn about your company, have also been a major part of how the Web has reshaped PR. If social media is about relationships, then search engines are about authority. Fortunately, for business owners and entrepreneurs who already create their own content for the Web, there is an easy way to benefit. SEO manager Brian Jensen has more. SEO.com

Uneasy Way Out

Speak now. Another way to build authority while marketing your business has nothing to do with the Internet…at least not for the most part. Obtaining speaking engagements in your area of expertise can be a great way to boost visibility for your business, and it may be easier than you think. This post from business coach Lori Nash Byron looks at how to snag those choice speaking engagements that will let your expertise shine. Famous in Your Field

The hard sell. There may be times when you lack the confidence to effectively communicate your company’s story, when you feel that no one is listening or interested, and when you don’t know how to demonstrate who you are and what your brand represents. When this happens, just remember there are people who have it even harder than you. Check out this list of the hardest sells in the PR industry in 2013 and try to imagine how you might turn these stories around. The exercise will be great practice for creating a compelling story about your business or brand. The PR Verdict

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