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Storenvy Founder Jon Crawford Talks E-Commerce and Real Impact

Learn how Jon Crawford bounced back from multiple business setbacks and why he believes the ability to learn is one of the greatest traits an entrepreneur can possess.

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by Contributing Writer, Olivia Campbell

Ask most seasoned entrepreneurs and they’ll tell you that “ideas are in large supply.” But as entrepreneur Jon Crawford suggests, after you develop a business idea you must ask yourself “does it really improve people’s lives in any way? Or is it just a neat idea?”

Crawford, the founder and CEO of Storenvy, a social marketplace for creative merchants, soon realized how important “real impact” would be to drive his idea forward, especially in the wake of multiple business challenges.

Today, Storenvy, the lightweight, powerful social store builder powers over 40,000 stores and has expanded the reach and sales opportunities for small businesses across the globe. Crawford’s quest for a simple e-commerce solution led him to create the Storenvy platform, where anyone can open an online store and sell anything, from handmade tea cozies to original artwork.

While most e-commerce platforms simply provide a way to sell, they leave small businesses to figure out marketing and customer acquisition on their own. Storenvy aims to fill this gap. “We created the Storenvy shopping experience to actually drive more sales to small businesses,” he says. “[Storenvy’s] main mission in life is to bring good design, good UX [user experience] and good taste to commerce.”

Crawford’s quest to make a dent in the e-commerce world has not come without its challenges. Crawford explains, “As an entrepreneur, your best skill is your ability to learn. You end up being an expert on things you thought you were never even going to touch. So everyday has been a huge challenge.”

Learn how Crawford bounced back from multiple business setbacks and why he believes the ability to learn is one of the greatest traits an entrepreneur can possess.

Company: Storenvy
Founders: Jon Crawford
Location: San Francisco, CA
Industry: E-Commerce
Startup Year: 2010
Startup Costs: Undisclosed

How I Got Started

I used to build a lot of websites for small businesses and through that period of time I interacted with a lot of small business [owners] who wanted online stores. It sort of annoyed me that there wasn’t some sort of product that everyone could use.

As a product-oriented person, it bothered me that there wasn’t something that everyone could immediately setup without having to watch a webinar, read a how-to guide, or hire someone to set it up for them; because I’ve seen how blogging has evolved where anyone can setup everything. From Blogger to WordPress and Tumblr, these are platforms that everybody can figure out how to use, but there wasn’t a similar solution in the e-commerce space. I knew that there was a big opportunity to solve a big problem.

Immediately after I started building the Store Builder component I realized the biggest problem that small businesses face when trying to sell stuff on the Internet is not the ability to actually setup a store, but [instead] getting customers to that store. So we created the Storenvy shopping experience to actually drive more sales to small businesses.

Today the Storenvy platform offers a new way to shop the world’s most creative businesses & the easiest way to open your own online store.

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