E-commerce marketing and insights platform MikMak has raised $10 million in Series A funding, which it plans to use to expand the company across the U.S. and beyond. It has sights set on international territory as it looks to capitalize on the exponential growth it has seen during the coronavirus pandemic, Rachel Tipograph, founder and CEO, told Cheddar.
"COVID has accelerated e-commerce demand by five years. So, where we all thought the industry was going to be in the year 2025, it arrived on the week of March 9th," she said.
MikMak works with brands like Nestle and L'Oreal to create captivating digital ad campaigns and links them to retailers with major online presences, including Target, Walmart, and Sephora.
While many businesses have failed to keep their online operations up to speed, Tipograph said it is necessary in order to run a thriving business today.
"E-commerce has become the way these Fortune 1000 consumer brands have to go to market. Brick-and-mortar is now secondary," she noted.
The retail industry has suffered tremendously amid the coronavirus pandemic, but for MikMak and Tipograph, selling essentials has allowed shops to keep their doors open.
"We don't focus on apparel and footwear. Our clients are personal care, home care, beauty, food, beverage, alcohol. They're actually the pantry staple items," she explained.
While traditionally major brands tended to target everyday Americans on a broad scale, hoping to reach a large group and find a few potential customers within it, Tipograph said success in online sales is due to carefully curated marketing for a specific target consumer.
"You actually have to go really narrow and really niche," she said. "Let's find people online who suffer from acne or rosacea and live in the Chicago metro area."
With research, according to Tipograph, companies may find that target groups they least expect to consume their products, particularly amid the pandemic, are actually driving sales.
"Brands want more data and we've got it," she said. "The fastest growing demographic in terms of shift during COVID has actually been people that are over 60 years old," noting that older people turned to online shopping during the pandemic and speculating that they will continue to use it once the health crisis has subsided.
Tipograph provided a nugget of advice for companies currently figuring out their marketing strategies, saying a "shift in mindset" and abandoning old approaches to selling an item is how they will see success in their businesses.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Low-value imports are losing their duty-free status in the U.S. this week as part of President Donald Trump's agenda for making the nation less dependent on foreign goods. A widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less is set to end starting on Friday. Trump already ended the “de minimis” rule for inexpensive items sent from China and Hong Kong, but having to pay import taxes on small parcels from everywhere else likely will be a big change for some small businesses and online shoppers. Purchases that previously entered the U.S. without needing to clear customs will be subject to the origin country’s tariff rate, which can range from 10% to 50%.
Southwest Airlines will soon require plus-size travelers to pay for an extra seat in advance if they can't fit within the armrests of one seat. This change is part of several updates the airline is making. The new rule starts on Jan. 27, the same day Southwest begins assigning seats. Currently, plus-size passengers can pay for an extra seat in advance and later get a refund, or request a free extra seat at the airport. Under the new policy, refunds are still possible but not guaranteed. Southwest said in a statement it is updating policies to prepare for assigned seating next year.
Cracker Barrel is sticking with its new logo. For now. But the chain is also apologizing to fans who were angered when the change was announced last week.
Elon Musk on Monday targeted Apple and OpenAI in an antitrust lawsuit alleging that the iPhone maker and the ChatGPT maker are teaming up to thwart competition in artificial intelligence.
