It’s a Twister

A proper tornado—rather 3 tornados—touched down in Lynchburg last night.  We lost power, as did about 20,000 others, and we are still without. I’m writing this on my battery-pack-connected phone.

The bulk of the damage seems to have been consolidated to Timberlake, Boonsboro and Elon, trees down, cars flipped and homes trashed.

Those without power are sheltering together, and it’s always a comfort to see that resources can really be shared so readily.

It’s state of emergency, and I want to help somehow.  After all is done and all accounted for, maybe a new t-shirt design could help raise some funds for those who suffered losses?  Anything could help, yeah?

New Commerce

Driving past the downtown market today, it's clear that community-based, face-to-face sales are alive and well. But when I talk to the farmers, craftspeople and entrepreneurs selling their wares from simply festooned stalls, handing out samples of their latest creations, I see all of them are accepting some form of digital payment.  

Shopify Retail Hardware

Shopify, Square, PayPal, Apple Pay and others are making human transactions possible, while keeping digital experiences a core feature of any sale. It's remarkable, and truly inspiring to see part-timers and octogenarians wielding pocket technology that not only keeps them and their contributions relevant, but helps them thrive.

These little markets have and will forever be a touchstone for commerce all over the world. Not just locally, though.  The marketers, themselves, are now selling in multiple online channels, as well. The most progressive among them have diversified offerings across online marketplaces, direct sales, leaving the bulk of their sales effort to web ads and Facebook. 

Want to sell anywhere? Try a 14-day Free Trial of Shopify

http://bit.ly/1fWhnuw

This new commerce may have formed out of need — probably that, and opportunity. But, it seems to have started from a place of hopefulness. Sellers who have confidence in their products and themselves absolutely should sell wherever they can.