Today's news for the franchise & small biz owner

When the days get longer and kids' activities heat up, it can be challenging to keep on-the-go snacks nutritious and fun.

A U.S. payment card processor was attacked in February as part of a $40 million cyberheist, federal prosecutors said last Thursday (May 9)—but they didn't identify who the processor was. That left retailers no way of knowing whether their processor was the one that thieves breached to gain essentially unlimited access to the processor's systems, potentially including merchant card data.

It wasn't until Sunday that the mystery breach victim was revealed to be EnStage, a processor that's headquartered in Silicon Valley but outsources its processing to a site in India. And it's still not certain whether any merchant card data was actually stolen in the breach.

One of the most challenging retail sales issues is trying to market products to children. The pitch made to sell a cereal, game, toy or piece of clothing to a child will be different than the one aimed at a parent or guardian. That's tricky when the two are often standing next to each other. A child pitch might focus on a cereal's taste, with an adult pitch focusing on nutrition and price. Or a toy message to a younger customer might emphasize fun, while the adult pitch speaks of education. What if digital signage and in-aisle displays could simultaneously make different sales pitches to children and adults?

Through the use of lenticular technology, it's quite possible. Indeed, it's being used today for something of a much more serious nature. A Spanish operation called the Aid To Children and Adolescents At Risk Foundation has created a series of street signage that was designed to send a message to a potentially abused child, understanding that the abuser could very well be standing right him to the child.

The new Mercedes-Benz S class made its world premiere today in Hamburg, Germany, but Shanghai might have been more appropriate. Why? China accounted for nearly half of all S-class sales from 2010-2012.

The new Mercedes-Benz S class makes its world premier today in Hamburg, Germany, but Shanghai might have been more appropriate. Why? China accounted for nearly half of all S-class sales from 2010-2012.

A federal judge has thrown out most of a lawsuit, including Truth in Lending and racketeering claims, against a Maryland dealership in a dispute based on the financing of a new Chevrolet Equinox.

Tom Hudson, a veteran attorney whose firm serves dealers and auto lenders, says some illegal FandI practices never seem to go away completely despite the best efforts of attorneys, lenders, FandI trainers, government regulators and dealership management...

GM Financial will begin making prime-risk loans for General Motors dealers early next year. "The last remaining hole in our product set is retail financing for prime borrowers, the largest segment of the lending market," CEO Dan Berce says.

Dealer principals with overseas reinsurance companies take heed. You could get caught in the fallout of IRS rule changes aimed at cracking down on U.S. taxpayers with foreign accounts intending to evade U.S. taxes.

In a recent blog, I referred to GM Financial as a 'lender of last resort' for parent company General Motors. I meant simply that GM regards GM Financial as a lender GM can count on, no matter what.

Some restaurants, including White Castle, are scaling back expansion plans because of uncertainty about the expense of insuring employees under the Affordable Care Act.

Congratulations for your new online store. As you now have an eCommerce website with a finely tuned check out process, you may want to know how to make your eCommerce platform more powerful. More importantly, how to make your customers trust your eCommerce store.

Well, it really depends on your hard work and the resources available. There are a plethora of tips online that can be used to generate buzz in the community about your products and services and it is possible to boost your website sales with customer service strategies.

Electronic Commerce: Make Your eCommerce Platform More Powerful Fulfilment Structure Should Never Be An Afterthought

For most eCommerce merchants, fulfillment is an afterthought. This is a huge mistake.  A well-structured fulfillment process is important. In a nutshell, if you invest time and money into optimizing the fulfillment process, it will generate more profit. Some of the key fulfillment metrics that all eCommerce merchants should track include:

• Error rates on product shipped.
• Error rates on orders pulled.
• Total time for orders from the time of receipt to shipment.
• The cost of shipping and the rate charged.
• The total time taken to fill an average order.

The following flowchart shows the fulfillment workflow:

Ask your employees for input about where they think the challenging areas are and how to improve them. Measure the overall quality and performance of the fulfillment process to make your business run more smoothly and to provide better customer service.

Concentrate on Filtered Navigation

Filtered or faceted navigation is a combative point for every eCommerce platform. The most convenient, modern approach to filtered navigation is through using AJAX. However, you need to ensure that there is an HTML crawl path to all of the filtered products. Also make sure that you are not hiding any good organic landing pages within the AJAX navigation.

The following are a few rules for a search engine friendly filtered navigation:

• Do not hide an organic landing page from the crawlers.
• Let the crawlers crawl endlessly through filters.
• Robots.txt should be handled carefully while using it as a solution.

Integrate a Sitemap

Site maps help search engines to index your site’s page and augment search engine ranking of your site.  Indexing is a process through which search engines such as Google, process and categorize the pages of your website. Getting your page indexed ensures that your site will show up in the results of internet searches.

To put it simply, a sitemap is a list of your pages in a single page layout. It contains particular information about the different pages that make up your website. With a sitemap, the shopper can click on a product to find the right pages relevant to the topic. This allows them quick and easy navigation of your site. The site map is also beneficial for the search engines. They permit search engines such as Google to check how many pages are on your site.

Get Rid of Distracting Clutter

The majority of online shoppers have a short attention span. Surveys indicate that most Web surfers will not read beyond 200 words of text. The simpler and more streamlined your site looks and functions, the better it works for your shoppers. Web pages stuffed with animation, graphics and links makes the shopper immediately leave and move on to your competitor.

Simplify the Shopping Cart

It is important to consider the crucial elements of your eCommerce site and ensure that they are clear and visible. The “Add to shopping cart” button should be easy to navigate and most importantly, should be displayed prominently on your site.

Shopping Comparison Sites Can Work Wonders

According to research, approximately 68% of online shopping starts at a shopping comparison site. Shopping comparison sites offer an exceedingly cost-effective marketing mechanism as they are the best choice for every eCommerce vendor who has a limited budget.

With shopping comparison sites, you can enjoy prompt access to a larger volume of potential clients. In addition to this, your customers will be presented with your products whenever they are in a position to buy. Most importantly, comparison sites allow exposure and reinforcement of your brand identity.

Various comparison sites ask consumers for a post-sale survey to measure areas like customer service, product quality or ease of shopping. These reviews are displayed to potential customers and help boost the company’s credibility and provide you with an edge over your competitors.

Using the strategies above will ensure a strong eCommerce platform.

eCommerce Photo via Shutterstock

The post Six Secrets to Make an eCommerce Platform More Powerful appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Small business owners in states that did not establish healthcare exchanges in advance of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act will be harshly impacted by a recent rule enacted by the Internal Revenue Service. Some small business owners have filed a lawsuit in Federal court over it.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) reports on a lawsuit filed by six small business owners and several individuals against the U.S. government, challenging the IRS rule.   The IRS rule seeks to provide tax credits to people in states that did not opt to create state healthcare exchanges under Obamacare.

CEI noted in a prepared statement last week:

“The Affordable Care Act authorizes health insurance subsidies to qualifying individuals in states that created their own healthcare exchanges. Those subsidies trigger the employer mandate (a $2,000/employee penalty) and expose more people to the individual mandate.  But last spring, without authorization from Congress, the IRS vastly expanded those subsidies to cover states that refused to set up such exchanges.  Under the Act, businesses in these nonparticipating states should be free of the employer mandate, and the scope of the individual mandate should be reduced as well.  But because of the IRS rule, both mandates will be greatly enlarged in scope, depriving states of the power to protect their residents.”

One effect of the lawsuit is to make sole proprietors subject to consequences they otherwise would not be subject to. For instance, Jacqueline Halbig, one of the plaintiffs, is a sole proprietor who says that under the IRS rule she would be subject to paying a penalty for her own coverage.  In the lawsuit she asserts she “will be forced to either pay a penalty or purchase more insurance than she wants.”

Chuck Willey, an MD who also is a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said in a statement through CEI: “Contrary to the clear language in the Affordable Care Act, government is directly impeding my ability to design a quality affordable health plan for my employees. The IRS will extra-legislatively extend this onerous benefit requirement (which will increase premiums and costs of care) and impose the employer penalty in states with federally-run exchanges. I maintain the right to choose my own employees’ health plan without government intervention into its benefit design and without penalty.”

Thirty-three states have opted not to establish state healthcare exchanges.  Those states that have not established their own exchanges include Wyoming, Wisconsin, Virginia, West Virginia, Texas, Tennessee, South Dakota, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Ohio, North Dakota, North Carolina, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Nebraska, Montana, Missouri, Mississippi, Michigan, Maine, Louisiana, Kansas, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Georgia, Florida, Delaware, Arkansas, Arizona, Alaska, and Alabama.

The lawsuit is complex, but can be viewed here in its entirety.

The post Small Business Owners File Lawsuit Against IRS Over Obamacare “Power Grab” appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Greg Nathan, Chairman, Franchise Relationships Institute, highlights some common challenges associated with multi-unit franchising.

For 51 years, Ben's Chili Bowl has been a family-owned greasy spoon. Now it is on the verge of becoming a franchise. WaPo

PEMAdAge/EM A href="http://adage.com/article?article_id=143359" target=_hplinkreports/A that the chain formerly known as Kentucky Fried Chicken isn't seeing much payoff after a series of highly-publicized stunts./P

Toyota Motor Corp. has agreed to pay a record $16.4 million fine for allegedly failing to notify the Department of Transportation (DOT) of a "sticky pedal" defect in its cars for at least four months after learning of the problem.IMG src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/rss/money_topstories/~4/tnfj7-1eW0Q" width=1 height=1

Franchisors at the IFE franchise show in Washington, D.C. say the credit crunch is making it more difficult for potential franchisees.

DIV class=feedflareCompanies looking for high-quality franchisees seenbsp;the high unemployment ratenbsp;as an opportunity.BR/DIV