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Last Crumb sells $120 boxes of a dozen cookies that once sold out in seconds—no paid ads required. Founder Derek Jaeger manufactured that demand by borrowing a playbook from streetwear: weekly drops, fixed inventory, and the simple thrill of having something other people couldn’t get. Before the cookies, Derek spent years running a paid-ads agency, where he watched product after product disappear the moment the spend stopped. He wanted the opposite—a brand people would talk about on their own.

This post is for information only. You are responsible for reviewing and using this information appropriately. This content doesn’t contain and isn’t meant to provide legal, tax, or business advice. Requirements are updated frequently and you should make sure to do your own research and reach out to professional legal, tax, and business advisers, as needed.

Profitability is one of the strongest indicators of a company’s long-term sustainability and success. Learning how to increase business profitability lets businesses expand, develop new products, attract capital, and, most importantly, survive. Rising fuel and shipping costs place increasing pressure on small businesses. Two-thirds of small businesses report increasing expenses and half say profit is falling, according to a June 2026 report by Small Business Majority.

This post is for information only. You are responsible for reviewing and using this information appropriately. This content doesn’t contain and isn’t meant to provide legal, tax, or business advice. Requirements are updated frequently and you should make sure to do your own research and reach out to professional legal, tax, and business advisers, as needed.

Email open rate measures how many subscribers actually open your messages—and it directly affects how much revenue your email campaigns generate. If you’re an ecommerce business owner, boosting your email open rate can pay off. Navid Jilow, director of technology at legacy apparel brand Belstaff, says that his company uses customer data to design campaigns that drive engagement. “Over 30% of our customers come from email,” he says on an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast.

Automated market research helps businesses learn about their customers, competition, and commercial environment quickly and with less hands-on work. While this was once an approach reserved for large businesses with multimillion-dollar budgets, automated research workflows are making this increasingly accessible. One reason is the rapidly declining cost of AI, which has become a core feature of many automated market research platforms.

A peer-to-peer marketplace, also known as a P2P marketplace, is an online platform that connects buyers and sellers to trade directly. As a platform operator, you facilitate transactions but don’t own the goods or services. That structure is what makes the model attractive as a business owner: You earn on transactions you don’t have to stock or ship. It’s also backed by surging consumer demand.

Content marketing is a strategic approach to creating and distributing content designed to build trust with your audience. Social media marketing uses social media platforms to distribute content, connect with audiences, and promote products. These are complementary but different approaches, both driven by creating and sharing content. Wallet brand Ridge, for example, regularly posts founder stories and product demonstrations on TikTok as part of their broader content marketing strategy.

Paul Rodriguez has eight X Games medals, 10 signature Nike shoes, and a skateboarding career that’s lasted nearly three decades—far longer than most pros ever get. He also built Primitive, the Nike-exclusive sneaker shop that grew into a full skate and apparel brand now making $20 million a year. The thread connecting both is a mindset he learned on a board, built for fear, uncertainty, and risk—the same forces that make running a business feel overwhelming.

A B2B marketplace is an ecommerce platform where businesses can buy goods or services directly from a variety of businesses. Research from Mordor Intelligence finds that marketplace purchasing accounted for 65% of B2B ecommerce market share in 2025, with the market projected to see a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 14% through 2031. Forrester data also predicts that from 2025 onward, more than half of large B2B purchases will be processed through channels like marketplaces.