Google Continues Getting Local Businesses Online; eBay, Bigcommerce Partner to Sync Your Inventory

Whether you run a retail business in your local community or online, you can benefit from the use of certain online tools. For instance, Google is offering free workshops for local businesses to show they how to benefit from Google’s online business tools. And eBay and BigCommerce just announced a joint sales platform to increase reach for ecommerce businesses.

Read on for these headlines and more in this week’s Small Business Trends news and information roundup.

Retail Trends
Free Google Workshops Offered To Show 63% of Local Business Owners What They’re Missing

Free Google workshops will be offered across the United States during the first week of May in an ambitious effort to help small businesses improve their online presence. Why? Because only 37 percent of small businesses claim or update their local listings on search engines — and Google wants to change that.
eBay and Bigcommerce Open Joint Sales Platform with Bigger Reach for Your Inventory

Bigcommerce, an Australian-based ecommerce startup that provides storefront software to help you get your products online and start selling, has announced it is entering into partnership with eBay to provide a scalable solution for efficiently managing of inventory and orders on both marketplaces.

10 Tips for Better Internal and External Business Communication

Communication is an essential part of running a business. You need to be able to communicate effectively with members of your own team and those outside of your business. Members of the small business community have plenty of knowledge to share about effective communication. Check out some of their top tips below.

Learn How to Talk About Competitors and Gain Credibility

When discussing your competition, you need to be able to do so in a way that still makes you look credible. This post by Martin Zwilling of the Startup Professionals Musings blog includes tips for doing just that. BizSugar members share thoughts on the post too.

Community Tips for Improving Your Online Reputation

Want your business to make a great impression with online consumers? There are many different ways you can work to get your business in front of people online. And members of our small business community have experience in all of them. Read on for the list of tips below.

Get More Positive Reviews for Your Business

Online reviews can have a big potential impact on how people view your business. People are more likely to invest in products or services if they know that other people have been satisfied with them. So how do you get those positive reviews? Anita Campbell shares some tips in a post for the SBA’s official site.