Big Apple and its Booming Online Businesses

Around the world, since the pandemic started, many people were at risk of losing their jobs and even quitting due to the strenuous mental toll of being quarantined. It affected family incomes as well as personal enjoyment. However, when individuals say online business is booming they don’t know to what extent for those who recently started their business. Sales are high in New York City due to the level of connections people have in the city as well as social media connections like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

In New York City, people have been building online businesses from different crafts they enjoy and creating income from them. One woman named Monique Harris, a Southern Connecticut State University student in her second year realized that tuition was getting too expensive for her parents to be able to provide for her and to help she needed to find a way to make an income to support them financially reducing the stress off of them. She decided to combine two things she loved; baking and money said, Harris.

She started her business early in 2019 and started selling cookies, and cupcakes and eventually advanced her business into making decorated cakes for birthday parties or traditional holidays.

She used Instagram to connect her followers to her business and her close friends were her first original supporters. Due to her being from New York and growing up in Queens, her business was not hard to access for those who knew her and lived blocks away said, Harris.

They began posting it on their Instagram stories to shed light on Monique’s Treats. Harris uses Instagram to run her business smoothly. She has an online menu in her highlight reels– which are a feature on Instagram– where customers can order what they want. Once that is established individuals will direct-message her and she will then send them an address to pick up their order. She does not yet have a storefront but her next goal is looking toward making this business mobile as well as charging for delivery. It is eventually becoming more successful and Monique now has a steady income as well as savings to pay off her tuition later on in life.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated e-commerce growth years into the future. Other pandemic-caused shifts also have boosted e-commerce sales, such as inflation. Consumers paid $32 billion more online for the same amount of goods during the past two years, data from Adobe finds.

March 2022 marks roughly two years since the coronavirus pandemic spurred many U.S. consumers to go into lockdown mode as COVID-19 spread rapidly throughout the country. Many consumers went online to buy their essential items Jessica Young, Digital Commerce Journalist writes on digitalcommerce.org which is a website based on e-commerce writing.

E-commerce was growing fast before COVID-19 hit. But the pandemic pushed even more U.S. consumers online and pushed more consumers to spend more online and more frequently. Digital Commerce 360 estimates the pandemic contributed an extra $218.53 billion to the e-commerce bottom line over the past two years. In 2020, the coronavirus added $102.08 billion in U.S. e-commerce, and it added $116.45 billion in 2021, according to Digital Commerce 360 estimates. Jessica Young wrote her article on the statistics of the increase in e-commerce before and after the pandemic.

According to Pew Research Center’s online website roughly six-in-ten U.S., workers who say their jobs can mainly be done from home (59%) are working from home all or most of the time. The vast majority of these workers (83%) say they were working from home even before the omicron variant started to spread in the United States, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

However, Roughly one-in-five workers who are not working exclusively at home (22%) say their employer has required employees to get a COVID-19 vaccine written by Kim Parker, a research center writer. People have decided to take the time and build their income on social media platforms creating online businesses considering how e-commerce sales were going since people were not able to leave their homes during COVID-19. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development which is a policy response to coronavirus believes that shifts brought about by COVID-19 such as e-commerce sales rising will be a long-term change to adapt to, written on their website oecd.org.

Antonio Paulino Taylor was born and raised in New York during his whole adolescent years and then in Massachusetts in his teenage years, after building the online business through his New York followers – as his demographics show on Instagram– he now resides in Los Angeles hoping to become an aspiring artist. He has an impressive amount of followers of 102k and an annual 8,000 views for each video post. His stage name is Antonio Breez and his supporters from around the world listen to his music. His following began in New York City with some friends and supporters in residing neighborhoods, and it then increased through Massachusetts and Boston. Eventually, he built his following up to par to increase support and make a name for himself.

He recently answered some questions and gave intel on why he started a business selling caps with his brand design on them. Antonio Taylor graduated from Curry College in 2016, his major was Graphic Design, therefore, he used his skills to make the logo for Faith and Dreams by himself said, Taylor.

Taylor already had the support in New York and Massachusetts to launch his business. Growing up in New York gives a big advantage to those who have already marketed themselves. He created his website for Faith and Dreams using Instagram’s shop feature as well as his college degree in Graphic Design. Once the website was ready he made a quick post and his Faith and Dreams business page has almost 1,000 followers now.

Taylor said it hasn’t been a smooth ride, he used Shopify manufacturing company to get an appropriate shipment of hats which costs more money than he has been making a profit. However, considering the online business is fairly new, profit change will come eventually and he is excited about it.

Online business has prevailed and taken over during the pandemic and it will only grow exponentially larger, Monique Harris and Antonio Taylor are only a few of these young online business starters in New York. It shows how social media and online manufacturing can go further to succeed.