84%
of small businesses are empowered by digital tools
Digitally-Empowered Small Businesses
2,095,194
2,854,262
Digitally-Empowered Small Business Employees
LIFT News
March 23, 2020
COVID-19 Policy Briefings
Stay up to date on the latest COVID-19 related policy updates with these daily briefings from the Connected Commerce Council.
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March 23, 2020
Surviving Coronavirus by the Connected Commerce Council
The spread of coronavirus has understandably left many on edge—and many small business owners wondering what, if anything, they should be doing. What can they do...
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January 9, 2020
Supporting Main Street Through Access to Digital Tools
Starting and running a small business is easier and less expensive than ever before. Digital tools and services have made once expensive business operations like...
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Digitally Empowered Small Businesses in Florida
BirdieBox
At the Top of Luxury Gifting, Tech Tools are Anything but a Luxury
BirdieBox, Miami, FL
Website
As owners of a luxury gifting business, Michael Myers and Pat DePirro know quality when they see it. That’s one of the many reasons BirdieBox uses the digital technology that it does, to get the job done for their prestigious clients in professional and collegiate sports, the entertainment industry, golf, and corporate America, “I often say, ‘we are not lonely, just only.’ We are far from alone in the gifting space; but we are, without question, the only ones who do what we do,” Myers said. “These tools play a big part in allowing us to showcase all that we do in-house.”Headquartered in Miami’s esteemed Design District, BirdieBox bills itself as “the ONLY true, one-stop-shop” for luxury gifting.” Inside a 70,000 sq. ft. distribution center, they: curate luxury products; customize them, with client or recipient detail, with an eye toward style and tact; package them in custom-designed solutions, often BirdieBox luxury gift boxes; and logistically distribute the gifts via the client’s specific needs, including, at times, through internal e-commerce sites accessible by the clients’ employees or agents.“The goal is to elevate the experience while alleviating the stress. There’s no question that would be more difficult, without our technological tools.”The business idea has partial roots in Myers’ inability to easily and effectively showcase artist and client appreciation, at scale, when he worked with concert promoter, Live Nation. “Without over-burdening our staff, or sacrificing quality, there simply was no solution. We have gone well beyond solving that issue.”BirdieBox, as mentioned, has a brick-and-mortar location in Miami, and more than 20 employees, but a substantial portion of its new business is gained via peer-to-peer communication, online. Current clients showcasing online is a central component of BirdieBox’s business strategy, and social media fosters word-of-mouth marketing. The company is active on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter, using Hootsuite to manage the content, and the BirdieBox listing on Google My Business also drives people to the company/site.BirdieBox relies on tools like Dropbox, QuickBooks, Trello and Salesforce, which Myers calls the “central nervous system” of the company. Trello, he says, is also essential for project management. “Digital tools allow us to organize and communicate with one another. It’s difficult, but that’s the nature of a growing business.”BirdieBox counts over 75 professional sports properties, hundreds of elite, private golf courses, 20+ PGA events, a dozen college bowl games, and several fortune 500 companies that Myers admits “were starved for what we bring to them. We didn’t realize that their options were so limiting”, among its global client base.With 3+ years of 100% growth, the next few years will include adding additional brand partners to their already impressive list of TUMI, Lululemon, Herschel, Shinola, Charlotte Lou, Waterford, Corkcicle, JBL, BBTEK, Marc Jacobs and many, many others, as well as continuing to expand their client roster within areas that have expressed a dire need, such as real estate, higher education and wealth management.“There’s no question that digital tools will play a major role in whatever we do,” Myers said.
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