AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 8, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- There's an entrepreneurial boom happening all over the country and a few cities in particular are paving the way for small and medium sized business owners looking to start their next self-owned venture. Volusion, the only all-in-one e-commerce platform on the market built specifically for the needs of small businesses, today reveals the top cities where small and medium sized businesses flourish, based on data from more than 30K merchants across the nation who run their online shops using the platform. After adjusting per capita, Volusion found that San Diego, Calif., Tampa, Fla., and Irvine, Calif. hold the top three spots in the nation for volume of SMB merchants during the first half of 2017. Meanwhile, most successful categories by average revenue across the US were electronics, followed by arts & crafts and home & garden.
"City by city, we're here to help entrepreneurs and small business owners across the nation fulfill the American Dream," said Kevin Sproles, CEO and founder of Volusion. "We wanted to recognize and showcase entrepreneurship hotbeds where business owners are turning their passion into profit. While four Southern California cities dominate the top 10, it's great to see other great cities represented on the opposite coast, including Tampa and two North Carolina cities, Raleigh and Charlotte."
Top 10 Enterprising Cities
For all those budding Indianapolis entrepreneurs, if you're looking into selling products for pooches, you're in good company. Indianapolis is the only top 10 city whose top business category is pet products. Minneapolis is the only city touting furniture and non-profit categories, Baltimore cashes in on arts & crafts, and San Diego is the only spot with music/books/DVDs as its top revenue driver. While there are a few outliers on the list, there are also many common threads. The top four cities – San Diego, Tampa, Irvine and Charlotte – show solid revenue coming from a common category – sporting goods.
Volusion's top 10 entrepreneurial cities by volume of merchants and most successful business categories based on average revenue include:
- San Diego, Calif.: music/books/DVDs, sporting goods, and electronics
- Tampa, Fla.: computers, automotive, and sporting goods
- Irvine, Calif.: sporting goods, electronics, and computers
- Charlotte, N.C.: sporting goods, business services, and food & beverage
- Raleigh, N.C.: apparel, food & beverage, and automotive
- Baltimore, Md.: arts & crafts, food & beverage, and sporting goods
- Indianapolis, Ind.: pet products, automotive, and food & beverage
- Anaheim, Calif.: industrial equipment, automotive, and computers
- Santa Ana, Calif.: home & garden, electronics and industrial equipment
- Minneapolis, Minn.: furniture, non-profit, and home & garden
Methods of Money-Making Municipalities
Entrepreneurs from the most enterprising cities shared some of their most helpful tips for running an online business:
- Sell on Instagram, especially in the categories of apparel, beauty, home goods, sporting goods, automotive, food & beverage, which are all industries in the top 10 enterprising cities list. Volusion has seen the greatest success for SMBs on IG when they post high quality videos and photos, focus on telling a story that people can relate to, and feature testimonials or repost photos from satisfied customers.
- More e-commerce products equals more sales. More items in your store leads to more money. If your product needs batteries or would go great with a carrying case, sell those as additional items. An extra few bucks adds up over time. And the larger your selection, the greater the opportunity to reach a wider audience. This is a strategy that has worked for many of Volusion's biggest SMBs on the top 10 enterprising list.
- Know your cart. Every e-commerce business knows the dreaded A-word… abandonment. When someone is in the final stages of checkout and ultimately abandons their shopping cart before clicking purchase, what do you do? Take time to understand how to diagnose abandoned carts, trouble shoot by offering multiple payment options, re-think your shipping options, and use retention e-mails offering deals or promotions to get in touch right away if you've lost a customer.
- Use Google Analytics (if you aren't already!). Successful e-commerce entrepreneurs live and breathe by the data provided by Google Analytics. While audience data includes shopper demographics, lifetime value, and interests, acquisition information highlights which channels are successful at driving website traffic and sales. If applied correctly, these business insights fuel an effective growth strategy, give merchants a leg up on the competition and provide a better user experience for their visitors.
Volusion Top 10 Enterprising Cities Methodology
Volusion analyzed more than 30K SMB merchants across the United States between Jan. 1 to June 30, 2017 to identify top cities in its Enterprising Cities Report. Volusion determined top cities by adjusting per capita with cities of populations more than 200,000. Most successful categories were determined by average revenue.
To learn more or to start creating your business on Volusion, visit www.volusion.com.
About Volusion
Volusion is a leading e-commerce software company based in Austin, TX. With more than 250 employees (we are hiring!) and more than 40,000 online stores, Volusion e-commerce sites have processed over $24 billion in merchant sales worldwide. Volusion proudly puts people before everything else and solves for the customer.
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SOURCE Volusion
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