More than 56 million Americans freelanced last year, according to the Freelancers Union.
With the increasing amount of workers turning to part-time, freelance, and contract work for a variety of reasons, a growing number of businesses are now based on the gig economy model.
The E-Commerce Times spoke with several experts familiar with the ins and outs of the gig economy to find out what s evolving and changing in this burgeoning field. The gig economy is characterized by independent workers who perform temporary jobs while on flexible schedules, Will Eadie, chief revenue officer at WorkJam, explained to the E-Commerce Times. Typically, gig work has been made available to workers through apps that have increased demand. Hallmarks of the gig economy are that the work is flexible. Workers set their own hours, and workers are independent contractors, which is the case in most municipalities.
The arts have seen a shift in the last year away from in-person gatherings, but that doesn t mean that performances, showings, and other creative activities have stopped. Rather, they ve been transformed, becoming increasingly virtual and digital. We spoke with experts in the arts, design, and marketing to see how these fields have changed and might continue to evolve.
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//]]>// >By Vivian Wagner
May 25, 2021 4:00 AM PT
Emerging from the pandemic, people are more concerned than ever before about their health and well-being. As a result, increasingly they re turning to digital and e-commerce solutions to address their needs.
In response, e-commerce companies marketing everything from personalized eating plans to immune-boosting supplements to mindfulness practices are emerging; providing consumers with the means to monitor, maintain, and take control of their health in the midst of an ever-changing and uncertain landscape.
The E-Commerce Times talked with health and wellness experts from a variety of sectors for perspective on how e-commerce has been brought into service in this new and newly health-conscious world.
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//]]>// >By Vivian Wagner
May 20, 2021 5:20 AM PT
Important as it is to continually acquire new customers, it s every bit as vital for businesses to nurture existing clientele.
The E-Commerce Times talked with several experts in customer engagement to get their thoughts about why it s critical to cultivate current customers and how to encourage them to stick around. Assuming that a firm has a recurring revenue model SaaS, maintenance, retainers, or repeat sales then customer retention is just as important as new customer acquisition, Candyce Edelen, CEO and founder of PropelGrowth, told the E-Commerce Times. In fact, the cost of customer retention is a small fraction of the cost of customer acquisition. This is particularly true for any model where the CAC isn t recovered in the first couple months of the customer lifecycle, she offered.
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//]]>// >By Vivian Wagner
Mar 29, 2021 5:00 AM PT
Collaboration between employees, teams, and clients is more important than ever before, and there are a variety of new technologies and platforms available to facilitate communication and group work.
The E-Commerce Times spoke with several experts in the field of collaboration software and technologies to get their take on the many ways that people are finding to work together, both remotely and in person. Teams are more dispersed than ever, Oliver Huebler, managing director of the Americas for Meister, a provider of collaborative task management solutions, told the E-Commerce Times. There is a growing trend of hyperproductivity, [and] this started even before the coronavirus crisis. It is a problem of modern work. Companies and the employees working for them are overwhelmed by work coming in from different directions.