ChowNow Builds Ordering Apps for Restaurants
Numerous startups seek to take advantage of the popularity of the online food ordering space. One such startup is ChowNow, an online ordering platform optimized for mobile and Facebook. It looks to provide restaurants with an easy way to offer online ordering to customers via either their social media, branded mobile apps, or their existing web site. Unlike the largest companies in the food ordering market, which offer one site where you can find local restaurants and order ChowNow allows restaurants to individually customize and brand their ordering apps. It utilizes social media as a destination for consumers to order food through the startup’s Facebook Ordering App, letting restaurants take orders directly through their Facebook page. It also lets restaurants create branded mobile apps, even offering restaurants a wireless tablet to receive orders and communicate back to the customer when it will be ready. Read more »
Many businesses struggle with knowing how best to reach the most customers, particularly key consumers in their local area. aDealio is a marketing super-center for small and mid-sized businesses as well as national brands that want to reach local consumers. It currently offers five services to help companies with the most comprehensive approach: business listings, coupons, limited-time promotions (such as “Daily Deals”), email marketing, and loyalty programs. aDealio provides a way to send a featured promotion, announcement, offer, or coupon via email to select consumers that live or work near your business. Two key features the startup offers are daily deal offers for significant one-time discounts and everyday deals, which will offer ongoing, long-term coupons and discounts just for members. 
Internet business is not just for big retailers or even limited to small companies, and many sites have been allowing people to sell and buy items as personal business ventures for years. Sites like Etsy and Fab even allow people to sell their own handcrafted items, and this is where BRIKA fits in. It combines the elements of personal craftsmanship and good design that are unique to each of those sites and others like it to help its vendors reach a larger, more discerning audience. What BRIKA does is provide the background for artisan goods. Like Etsy, it sources its wares from handicrafts makers and independent creators, but it emphasizes the story so that you know who made what you buy and why they want to do so in the first place. You know where the materials came from and how someone made them, meaning you connect more personally to the goods you purchase and their creators. 