Wishing you and yours a safe and happy New Year Holiday.  May 2019 be your best yet!

From all of us at BEBdata

Wishing you and yours a safe and happy holiday from all of us at BEBdata!

This shift to online buying means that customer expectations have changed, which is why multi-channel marketing is now vital. Nowadays, customers expect a 24-hour real-time response, and 81% of customers will take their business elsewhere if their queries are not answered quickly enough.

Percentage of customers will take their business elsewhere
Percentage of customers will take their business elsewhere if their queries are not answered quickly enough.

The means test determines how much disposable income a person has to pay their creditors. If this number is zero, then there is a good chance you could qualify for chapter 7 bankruptcy. If the number is higher, then you would likely to file chapter 13. In chapter 13 bankruptcy you would then seek to make your available disposable income lower by taking allowed deductions, similar to doing your taxes, on the means test. These deductions are often calculated from your paystubs and include things like your federal taxes, Medicare, social security etc. Therefore, if these amounts are less in the future, then you won’t get as much of a deduction on the means test.
The good news is that a consumer will have more disposable income in which to possibly avoid filing bankruptcy, although for most people, it probably will not make a significant difference. For lower income earners who are already below the median income, the impact from a bankruptcy standpoint will most likely be negligible.

Did you know….

By 2020, the global datasphere will contain more than 163 zettabytes of data. That’s 40,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 data bytes. And most of it will be unstructured.

In the 12-year span from October 1, 2005 to September 30, 2017, about 12.8 million consumer bankruptcy petitions were filed in the federal courts. Of those, 8.7 million–68 percent–were filed under Chapter 7, and 4.1 million– 32 percent–were filed under Chapter 13. Nonbusiness filings (i.e., filings involving mainly consumer debt) constituted 97 percent of all Chapter 7 bankruptcies and 99 percent of all Chapter 13 bankruptcies.

Wishing you and “yours” a safe and happy Thanksgiving Holiday.

It’s official.  The Postage Rate Hike has been approved and will take effect on January 27, 2019.

Prices were approved raising rates approximately 2.5% across the board. Shipping Service price increases vary by product. For example, Priority Mail Express will increase 3.9 percent and Priority Mail will increase 5.9 percent. Although Mailing Services price increases are based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), Shipping Service prices are primarily adjusted according to market conditions.

The new prices include a 5-cent increase in the price of a First-Class Mail Forever stamp, from 50 cents to 55 cents.  Click below to review Price Comparisons by Type of Service.

FIRST CLASS COMPARISON – Postal Rate Comparison First Class 2018-2019

MARKETING MAIL COMPARISON – Postal Rate Comparison Marketing Mail 2018-2019

NON PROFIT MAIL COMPARISON – Postal Rate Comparison NP 2018-2019

2019 POSTAL RATE GUIDE – BEB Postal Rate Guide

Here are some basics to ensure your business is discoverable on searches with local intent:

• Claim your Google My Business Page
• Ensure your NAP details (Name, address, telephone) are the same across different listings and match the ones on your website.
• Build local citations for your business
• Earn reviews

For more information on local search and best practices, check out this checklist by Moz.

According to new statistics provided by Facebook, 48% of mobile first auto buyers are Millennials.  43% of desktop first auto buyers are Baby Boomers.

Mobile first buyers have some additional interesting stats:

• 44% plan to purchase an automobile in less than 90-days
• 50% shop during the day
• 24% request quotes online
• 76% know the exact car they want to buy before walking into the dealership

Mobile buyers are growing in numbers every day.  Savvy brands have developed brand apps allowing buyers to customize their shopping, leveraging smartphone features like 360-degree views. Last year, Chevrolet launched the immersive app for the Camaro that garnered 62,000 downloads in just a couple of months.