News
What Is The FTC Planning for Amazon? Millions of Small Sellers — and Their Customers — Deserve Clear Answers
For millions of small businesses across the country, Amazon’s marketplace has been a game-changer — providing instant access to a massive customer base while offering cutting-edge digital marketing tools and state-of-the-art shipping and logistics services. A small candlemaker can find and efficiently ship to customers nationwide, allowing him to quickly grow his business. A specialty…
California’s Proposed Legislation Would Break Digital Tools — and Hurt Small Businesses
Newly proposed California legislation, the Blocking Anti-Competitive Self-Preferencing by Entrenched Dominant Platforms Act (the BASED Act), would break apart affordable, integrated digital tools that help small businesses grow, compete, and succeed in today’s digital economy. BASED is closely modeled on federal legislation called the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA), which failed twice amid…
The Future of Advertising: How Small Businesses Can Leverage AI to Connect with Customers and Drive Growth
During our recent webinar with expert Komal Singh, founder of 4xDigital AI, we demonstrated practical ways for small-business leaders to integrate AI and automation into their day-to-day work. Komal’s session focused on using AI tools to streamline campaign management, improve targeting, and generate high-performing content without increasing time or cost burdens. Watch the recording |…
AI Empowers us to Compete on a Level Playing Field With Much Bigger Companies
3C: Tell us about Sarah Wells Bags. When and why did you start it, and how has it grown? SW: In 2011, after my first daughter was born, I needed a stylish bag for carrying a breast pump and keeping milk fresh. I spent weeks looking for something, but there just wasn’t anything on the…
OPINION: Social media tax would hurt Nebraska’s small businesses and communities
In 2020, I started a digital marketing firm in Kearney. Over the past six years, I’ve helped nearly 50 small Nebraska businesses grow and compete using data-powered digital ads and marketing.
“The Big Guys’ Technology Helps Little Guys Like Me Punch Above Our Weight”
3C Talks to Neil Abramson, Co-Founder of Leominster, Massachusetts-based ECi Stores, About Digital Tools’ Role In His Business’s Growth and Success 3C: Tell us about your business. What do you do? Neil: My wife and I run a small chain of consignment stores in Leominster, Massachusetts. We sell gently used clothes, furniture, and home decor.…
North Dakota Sisters Bring Better-For-You Pasta to Stores Nationwide
When North Dakota natives Mollie Ficocello and her sisters returned to their family’s Grand Forks-area farm, they helped introduce a new protein- and fiber-packed wheat variety into the farm’s crop rotation — and saw an opportunity to use it to create a better-for-you pasta that delivered the taste and texture of traditional noodles. In 2020,…
New Study Reveals Small-Business Enthusiasm for AI
WASHINGTON (Feb. 11, 2026) — A new study from the Connected Commerce Council (3C) shows that small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are rapidly incorporating AI-powered tools into their business operations and strategies, with 70% of small-business leaders saying they’ve already invested in AI training and adoption or plan to do so. The study, based on…
What Data Privacy Policy Means for America’s Small Businesses in 2026
It’s National Data Privacy Week — a time to focus on how data privacy policy affects not just consumers, but the millions of small businesses that use digital tools to reach and understand their customers, grow, and compete in the digital economy. In the absence of a single national privacy standard, lawmakers across the country…