By Carrington Williams

In the past 30 years, independent retail has lost $1 trillion of market share to mass merchants. The first decade of eCommerce made it look like the story wouldn’t be much different online, as behemoths like Amazon have maintained a dominant position. But in a recent article about the future of eCommerce, famed technology entrepreneur and investor Chris Dixon predicted, “The fat head (large incumbents) and the long tail (artisanal shops) will thrive.” Most eCommerce businesses are heavily dependent on the support of a global shipping network they can trust. You can find out more about why this is so important at Fulfillment.com.

We started Lumiary to serve this long tail-the millions of creative businesses rising online-to help them tell their stories and compete online.

We sit at the crossroads of a major shift in retail. The long rise of mass market offline stores has stopped, and the only unstoppable force is eCommerce. But it is the fragmentation of eCommerce that is so fascinating to watch. In the long tail segment of the market, Etsy, Kickstarter, and easy-to-setup online stores have been revitalizing the role of independent retail. Software is now more commonly distributed online than as physical copies using platforms like FastSpring to get the product to customers. But it’s a crowded, noisy marketplace online and no matter how unique and well-made a new store’s products are, you have to be found and be heard. Many owners of eCommerce businesses investigate the benefits of eCommerce seo to get their products a much-needed marketing boost so that they can be seen by their customers ahead of the competition. And those seeking a revamp of their current eCommerce platforms to keep up with the constant changes in the industry often work with Cefar or similar B2B companies to ensure they work towards providing the best user-experience.

We started the company because we felt these independent eCommerce companies were underserved, and, in a sense, starved for help with their online marketing. After spending four years working for Etsy myself, I understood just how technical and complicated marketing online could be. So with two co-founders, Matt Knight and Charles Valentine, I felt compelled to lend a helping hand. We started Lumiary in June 2013, also building software and launching the initial product last year. We had a successful “beta” throughout the fall, learning what was good and what needed work. After raising capital from local sources, 80Amps and New Richmond Ventures, we launched the service in March of this year. Since then, we’ve been adding customers at a good clip, and learning how to improve Lumiary every day.

In short, we’re building a powerful, data-driven insights engine so our customers don’t have to. The technology platform is complex, but the Lumiary user experience is quite simple. Small businesses are in a constant race against the clock. They have a task list a mile long. Our ambition is to provide simple solutions that help our customers save time and increase sales. We serve up daily recommendations, provide easy-to-use tools, and report simple analytics to make our customers better marketers in just a few minutes a day.

But it’s not just about technology. We believe independent brands can tap their unique strengths to compete in the larger eCommerce landscape. Independents outshine the competition with their authenticity and passionate supporters, not to mention their unique stories and products. These attributes have been the recipe for most of the fastest growing businesses, ideas, and movements in history because they tap into the power of word-of-mouth marketing. And the potential is even greater today, because, as Seth Godin likes to say, “The Internet takes word-of-mouth and leverages it by a factor of 1,000 … every single day.” There’s something satisfying about discovering a brand or product that your friends don’t know. Those are the things we share on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. So smaller retailers have an amazing and unique opportunity to reach customers who are in fact itching to share unique things.

Sharing of products and brand stories is the best marketing a small business can get -and it’s free. So we encourage our customers to think of marketing as a network. They can turn their core customers and fans into a vibrant network of evangelists who spread the word about their brand. But it takes organized communication to keep customers engaged and to turn them into evangelists. And that’s why we do what we do.

Lumiary is a Richmond company, through and through. We’re benefitting every day from the cultural and creative environment around us, as well as the growing technology ecosystem. The startup process has been hard at times, but it has been incredibly rewarding. In many ways, we’re striving every day to do exactly what we coach our customers to do. Share the mission, build a community around the brand, and open up the lines of communication with customers to keep improving our products and customer experience.