Starbucks follows Small Biz Owners with Square
Another huge company is following where small business owners have gone by offering Square at their locations! Starbucks is the biggest company yet to offer mobile payments. As you may recall, JcPenney‘s has just joined previously.
Read the entire article here:
Fall Arts and Crafts Fairs are right around the corner. This would be a great opportunity for you to have this as an option for your customers to pay via their preferred credit card without any upfront fee since it’s free. That’s a big help for crafters, hobbyists, and small business owners. To read more facts – such as how the average transaction is higher when using mobile devices, read my blog post here.
Have you tried it? Have you found it helpful?
Clutches in Asia
As promised, below are some snaps of clutches from my travels. The best of the lot is from the shopping mecca of Kuala Lumpur. There was one store devoted entirely to clutches. It was in every conceivable color and style, though leaning toward the evening and special occasion clutches. I managed to snap two pics before being admonished. Almost all stores have a “No Pictures” policy. I don’t know why exactly because I adore their merchandise!
I must apologize for the poor quality of some of these pics. As you might recall, my trusty old camera broke and I was using one of my much older back-ups. It didn’t do well in florescent lighting and I could not get it to stay in focus unless I was absolutely still. Guess a good camera is on my Christmas list! Enjoy and I hope these clutches provide some inspiration!

This clutch is a cake! How lovely are these cupcakes? My 6 year old daughter would be thrilled to have these for her birthday party!

Hand-painted clutches of girls in hanboks at a Seoul, South Korea handbag shop. These were pricey but gorgeous!

Orange is a HOT color in Asia. I’m seeing everywhere, from Tod’s handbags, to Nine West shoulder bags, to this impressive boutique.
If you have any pics of clutches from your travels, contact me at my online shop or Etsy shop. Would love to see them and I can post them!
Mobile checkout is hitting the masses
While on my whirlwind trip to NJ, WI, IN, and IL — all in 2 weeks — visiting family and friends, I ran across an article about mobile point of service devices being adopted by a major retailer.
Following up on my earlier posts on mobile point of service devices, such as Square, I mentioned that you can expect that the adoption of POS devices to ramp up quickly. With fall arts and crafts fairs around the corner, you still have time to try out the free POS devices available for small business owners. More and more customers will understand and have trust in the use of these POS devices. Just this week, there was an article regarding Nordstrom’s and JcPenney’s using mobile POS devices. They will still have registers for cash transactions, but you know that if Penney’s is going with POS devices, in this case the iPad to check out and phasing out most registers by 2014, then you also know that America’s checkout behaviors will change as well.
If you haven’t explored showing your clutches at Arts and Crafts Fairs, please check this post. Check your local and regional listings for Arts and Crafts Fairs now in order to save by pre-registering. Many have had great success showing their clutches at juried and non-juried shows. It’s great exposure and you can use the photos to market your items. One of my favorite recent photos of booths featured these beautiful bright and modern clutches. Linda at Mi Casa Bella had lots of interest and sales at her booth. I love the display and color layout here. Linda has such a singular vision in her creative aesthetics. If you have any photos of your clutches shown at a fair, market or boutique, send them to me and I would be happy to post them.

Mi Casa Bella has also been featured in several magazines. Head over to Linda’s shop and check out her renowned pillows and clutches.
Hope your summer is going great! One more week and my kids are back to school. THANK YOU teachers!!! 🙂