Best Crypto Exchanges and Apps of 2026

A cryptocurrency exchange account is a good place to begin if you want to purchase or sell cryptocurrencies. You may purchase and sell cryptocurrencies as well as tokens such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin on crypto exchanges, which operate similarly to online brokerage platforms.

Considerations such as the types of assets that may be used, the costs involved, the accepted forms of payment, and the safety measures in place should be taken into account while selecting a cryptocurrency exchange. When compiling this list of the top cryptocurrency exchanges, we took into account the aforementioned criteria to better assist you in making an informed decision.

List Of Best Crypto Exсhаngеѕ and Apps оf 2026

Crурtо.соm

Since its 2016 inception, Crypto.com has grown to become one of the most prominent cryptocurrency trading platforms worldwide. Over 250 different cryptos are supported, and it’s presently available in 90 countries.

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Crypto.com offers a wide range of digital asset goods, including cryptocurrency-yielding crypto items, a crypto visa card, and its own blockchain, Crypto.org Chain.

However, the Crypto.com mobile app sticks out the most. While most cryptocurrency exchanges’ mobile applications only mirror the cryptocurrency trading website, Crypto.com’s app was designed to provide customers with access to the whole ecosystem of this exchange while they’re on the move. Customers may use the app to purchase, trade, and pay using cryptocurrency, as well as earn interest on their holdings.

Even though Crypto.com has a ton of items and services, their customer service leaves a lot to be desired. In addition, trading costs of up to 0.075% may be incurred until larger quantities of trades are executed.

Crypto.com’s variety of goods and services, as well as its vast number of supported assets, make it a strong contender for the best mobile crypto trading experience.

Gemini

Gemini, introduced in 2014 by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, is notable for its commitment to stringent security measures and regulatory oversight. The New York-based exchange provides users with hot wallet insurance to protect their assets in the event of a hack. To further lessen the possibility of fraud, it also requires users to go through an identity verification procedure.

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Gemini also offers the choice to evaluate and authorize trading account login devices, and it strongly recommends that its users implement two-factor authentication for further account security. Gemini’s SOC 2 certification is another noteworthy security aspect. This certification confirms that independent auditors have examined and confirmed the organization’s security and regulation compliance systems.

Gemini was designed with experienced traders in mind; it offers a top-notch trading dashboard and accepts more than seventy-five different cryptos and tokens. Gemini not only accepts cryptocurrencies as payment but also provides its customers with a cryptocurrency reward card.

There are distinct pricing systems for Gemini’s primary platform and its active trader platform. Trades over $200 cost a staggering 1.49% in commission on the major platform. Making and taking orders platform for active trading might cost up to 0.4% in fees. However, those costs will go down with more volume. The prices here are likewise quite steep. Gemini’s security features are among the best in the industry; thus, the somewhat hefty charge may be worth it.

Traders and investors who value safety in their transactions will find a lot to like in Gemini.

BitMart

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BitMart was launched in 2017, and it is currently accessible in over 180 different countries across the world. Over a thousand different cryptos and tokens may be bought, sold, and stored there.

BitMart, a cryptocurrency exchange headquartered in the Cayman Islands, has quickly become a major market for lesser-known digital currencies. For investors seeking to diversify their portfolios with freshly launched or obscure crypto assets, BitMart may be the best option because it provides a wider variety of assets and trading pairings than its market-leading competitors.

Customers of BitMart may also utilize the Earn function of the exchange to get interested on cryptocurrency reserves. When users have the exchange’s native token, BMX, they are eligible for discounted trading fees.

Despite BitMart’s extensive features for seasoned crypto traders, the exchange has been met with mixed reviews from customers. There were multiple reports of withdrawal problems, inadequate customer service, and a lack of disclosure as examples of user concerns. Still, some praise may be found within the criticism.

Kraken

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Kraken is one of the most trusted cryptocurrency exchanges since it has been around since 2011 and is accessible to users all over the globe. Kraken Pro is a high-quality trading platform offered by the San Francisco-based exchange, Kraken. Investors may buy, trade, and store over 120 cryptocurrencies on the site, and the costs are quite cheap.

In the earliest stages of the cryptocurrency industry, this feature-rich exchange quickly rose to prominence as the platform of choice for institutional investors. This reputation has been maintained.

Kraken provides not one but two platforms for its users: the primary trading platform and the more advanced Kraken Pro. The Pro interface of the exchange includes 13 different types of orders and lightning-fast execution, in addition to highly customized chart analysis tools and deep visibility into the order books. Kraken facilitates margin trading for cryptocurrencies and the execution of crypto derivatives trading methods in addition to traditional spot trading.

Cash App

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Introduced in 2013 by Block, Inc. (formerly known as Square, Inc.), Cash App enables users in the US and UK to send, spend, deposit, and invest money. A mobile banking app that facilitates P2P payments and includes an investing component. Cash App users may put their money into stocks, ETFs, and even Bitcoin. Cash App stands out from its competitors because it allows users to transfer their Bitcoins to a different wallet service, something that neither Robinhood nor Venmo does.

Cash App Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey said in early 2022 that the business has begun pushing out features for the Bitcoin Lightning Network, which would allow for quick, nearly cost-free Bitcoin transfers.

Cash App’s custodial in-app wallet is the biggest negative of using the app to purchase and keep Bitcoin, as the corporation is responsible for safeguarding your digital assets. Although custodial wallets have many advantages, they are generally considered less safe than other types of wallets. However, given that Bitcoin may be removed from Cash App, cryptocurrency can be transferred to a private wallet for which you have the private keys.

Bisq

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Bisq, which debuted in 2014, is a piece of open-source software that facilitates the decentralized trading of a variety of cryptocurrencies and tokens between users located anywhere in the world. At the moment, it can handle more than a hundred different types of digital content.

Users of this decentralized exchange are not subject to a mandatory “Know Your Customer” (KYC) authentication procedure, nor is the trading program restricted to users in any particular geographical region. Users of Bisq have the option of using bank wire transfers, ACH transactions, and even cash deposits for buying and selling Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Bisq is well-liked among Bitcoin purists because it upholds the principles upon which Bitcoin was founded—among them, decentralization, privacy, and sovereignty—but it is not an easy exchange for newcomers to use. New users may find the escrow method employed in peer-to-peer trading confusing, and both infrequent and frequent traders may be put off by the relatively delayed deal execution. Since trading volumes are less than those seen on consolidated worldwide exchanges, the marketplace is geared toward making smaller deals.

Bisq provides everything you need to purchase and sell Bitcoin on a decentralized, KYC-free platform, making it ideal for experienced crypto investors.

Conclusion

Choosing the right cryptocurrency exchange is crucial if you want to start trading or making an investment in cryptocurrencies. The greatest digital asset trading platform may be found regardless of whether you prioritize a wide variety of digital assets, reasonable costs, or a convenient mobile interface.

To get in on the action in the rapidly growing mobile trading market, we recommend Crypto.com. For the most privacy, Bisq is the greatest decentralized exchange, while Gemini has the highest security. Kraken is a great option for seasoned traders and those concerned about costs. Cash App serves the needs of Bitcoin traders, while Bitmart is our top pick for those interested in trading a wider variety of altcoins. Think about what you hope to achieve and what you need from this transaction.

What is Ravencoin (RVN)? A P2P Blockchain with Decentralized Mining

Bitcoin is the biggest blockchain network that enables users to transfer money without the involvement of a third party. However, its transaction fee is getting high with time and the average block time has also significantly increased.

Moreover, it doesn’t support the creation of other crypto assets on its network. On the other hand, blockchain networks like Ethereum, Cardano, and Solana are giving multiple opportunities to users to take advantage of the blockchain industry.

Ravencoin is a similar kind of network that enables users to create a new class of crypto assets. But it’s an open-source fork of Bitcoin’s codebase.

What is Ravencoin (RVN)?

Ravencoin is an open-source network that enables users to create new crypto tokens that can either represent NFTs or real-world assets like securities, commodities, collectibles, and more. The companies can also use this network to transfer loyalty rewards to their subscribers.

Unlike Bitcoin, it has an average block time of 1 minute only. It offers 5,000 RVN tokens as a reward to the validators who help with creating a block. Furthermore, it has a maximum supply of 21 billion RVN tokens.

The best thing about Ravencoin is that it enables everyone to participate in the block creation process.

KawPow

Ravencoin uses a modified version of the proof-of-work consensus protocol known as KawPow. It involves a network of computers that help with validating transactions while ensuring the platform’s security. It provides an opportunity for everyone who is interested in mining but can’t afford to install expansive and expensive hardware.

Unique Tokens

Companies and small businesses can reward their community members by distributing RVN tokens. They can define the fungibility of the token by adding special characteristics like the token’s name, the number of tokens, and more. Everyone is allowed to create a new token within the network.

And the first person who creates a new token is considered to be the owner of that particular token. However, they need to burn an equal amount of RVN tokens when creating a new unique token.

Rewards

The network participants can use RVN tokens to pay dividends or send rewards to the community members. For example, small businesses can create new tokens to raise funds for their business. They can set a price according to their preferences.

So, if a business has issued 20,000 tokens at a price of $0.10, it can easily raise $2,000 to run its operations. Later on, they can distribute rewards among users who contributed to their growth.

Messaging Stakeholders

The lack of communication is a common issue in the blockchain industry. Ravencoin is dedicated to fixing this ongoing communication problem through its advanced features. Ravencoin enables token issuers to communicate with the tokenholders whenever they want to send new proposals.

The token issuers no longer need to use third-party resources to interact with the community members.

Privacy

Although Ravencoin builds communication between the token issuers and token holders, it doesn’t hinder the user’s identity at all. It separates public addresses from user identities to ensure safe and secure transactions.

Voting

In the traditional financial system, companies need to spend hundreds of dollars to collect the email addresses of their shareholders. And they face problems with ensuring the transparency of the voting procedure. On the contrary, Ravencoin distributes voting power among its community members.

RVN token holders can vote for several proposals depending on the number of tokens they hold. They can also send their tokens to different addresses when casting a vote for a particular position.

Mining Mechanism

Unlike Bitcoin, Ravencoin uses the X16R mining algorithm to provide a higher level of network decentralization. It eliminates the need for using expensive computer hardware while allowing everyone to participate in the mining process.

Ravencoin Brief History

Ravencoin was launched on the ninth anniversary of Bitcoin in 2018. Ravencoin tried to mimic Bitcoin’s launch by refraining from private token sales. Furthermore, the team didn’t add any master nodes to the network. The team was dedicated to maintaining a democratized token supply.

The team didn’t allocate any RVN tokens for the developers to avoid all kinds of controversies. The network appreciates the contribution of everyone through its open-source nature.

How Does Ravencoin Work?

As it’s mentioned, Ravencoin modified Bitcoin’s codebase to provide a better experience to the users. It uses a modified version of the Proof-of-work consensus protocol to provide everyone with the opportunity to participate in the block creation process.

The community members can connect their CPUs to the network to become a validator. The network creates an equation when a new transaction is requested. These equations can be solved with a normal CPU. RVN tokens have an essential role in this platform because businesses need to burn their RVN tokens to create new unique tokens.

RVN Tokenomics

RVN is the native token of Ravencoin that is used for the transfer of value. The users can also burn RVN tokens to create unique tokens for real-life assets. With a circulating supply of 10.5 billion tokens, RVN has a market cap of $425 million. It ranks among the 100 best cryptocurrencies in terms of market cap.

It has a maximum supply of 21 billion tokens that will be released over time.

Conclusion

Ravencoin is a fork of Bitcoin designed to enhance the adoption of blockchain. It incorporates a modified version of the proof-of-work consensus protocol to support the participation of all community members. Feel free to get in touch with us if you need more information about how Ravencoin works.

How Digital Technology is Improving Restaurant Employee Retention

Many restaurants struggle to keep up when it comes to employee retention. People tend to abruptly leave jobs, forcing management to scramble to hire replacements. Due to this, other workers are required to put in long hours while a new hire is being scouted out and trained. However, there are ways to solve these problems and decrease the gaps in your labor force. Digital technology can be an important tool. Let us understand how digital technology is improving restaurant employee retention.

Your restaurant can increase the hiring process and employee retention of staff by investing in specialized digital solutions. Additionally, you can maximize productivity and streamline your operations by utilizing the full capacity of your current team.

This article will detail how these digital technologies can increase employee retention in your restaurant.

Face the reality – Use Digital Technology For Restaurant Employee Retention

Workplace satisfaction is one of the main goals technology adoption attempts to accomplish, as restaurants undergo digital transformation and integrate technology into their operations and business models. Technology can automate many typically time-consuming and repetitive processes that result in stress and burnout in the restaurant industry.

This extra labor available for use reduces workload, boosts output for other activities, and enhances general workplace satisfaction. Thus, digital technology is improving restaurant employee retention by reducing the overall workload on the team.

Technology is becoming increasingly necessary to maintain your company. Implementing tech typically has a low barrier to entry and produces a positive return on investment. It is important to work with a seasoned technology provider who will take the time to understand the specifics of your business.

Employee Turnover is a Significant Issue for Restaurants

You should be relieved to learn that you’re not the only one if you believed staff turnover was a problem specific to your restaurant. The hospitality sector’s turnover rate has reached a post-recession high of 74.9%. According to a 7shifts survey, a server typically works for one month and 26 days. However, not all staff members depart within this window of time.

What should a manager do with staff turnover rates reaching all-time highs and employees quitting soon after starting?

Most people have heard much about customer-facing digital technology but not as much about apps and software created to enhance restaurant employee operations. Technology can lower labor costs, lower employee turnover, and improve the working environment. It can improve the productivity of a staff member and reduce work frustration.

Easy management of employee turnover is an integral part of restaurant employee retention.

Custom Restaurant Employee Apps for Businesses

modern apps for restaurant staff retention

The target for any employer is to increase productivity. The goal for restaurant employees is to have a better internal working environment. Giving employees access to digital app technologies that improve business operations will help them achieve this goal.

Here are some digital technologies you can use now that you know why they can significantly impact your brand and restaurant employee retention

Restaurant employee portals

Administrators, personnel, and other external stakeholders can use an employee portal to access company resources as a contact management system and communications platform.

retain your employees with a good portal

A closed system for corporate communication is known as a brand intranet. An employee portal enables broader, external contact with brand information, suppliers, and services that help staff members carry out their everyday tasks. An employee portal helps all the stakeholders have transparent and self-assessing access to their productivity.

Remember, a transparent and efficient system can help in restaurant employee retention successfully and digital technology can do that easily.

These are some attributes of an employee portal:

Integrate with current employee development and user progress programs or brand data collection platforms.
Customize brand operations with improved accessibility and a unique user experience.
Manage operations while providing users and staff with the best possible experience.

A portal offers a wide range of service options. Similarly, it serves as a mediator to provide content sources compiled in an easy-to-use interface.

Intranets

Companies use intranets as a private network to communicate with only their workers to promote learning and development. Because brand intranets are internal, staff members can utilize them for information searching, internal communication, workflow, ordering, scheduling, etc. It makes life easier for employees who need to communicate quickly and easily with appropriate parties through the proper channels to do everyday responsibilities.

The following are the main factors to take into account:

A cooperative process with employees increases productivity, fosters trust, and facilitates communication.
One point of contact between management and staff can help ensure everyone is on the same page.
Intranets offer a storehouse for branded goods, training, and other initiatives that improve culture and the working environment.
Interactive restaurant intranets unlock the potential of staff, which boosts revenue.

Intranets establish dependable channels within brands that support policies and control procedures as a participation tool. This tool promotes consistency and a better working environment for employees. Brands with intranets that provide structure and communication for every aspect of the organization consistently receive positive employee feedback.

Dashboards and business intelligence

One significant improvement is making all the data that supports your restaurant accessible with ease via dashboards and business intelligence. Employees benefit from data measurement technology solutions that offer analytical insight through the tracking resources provided by an interactive dashboard.

This solution maintains an even playing field for all team members. You can store all hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly data necessary to make decisions on dashboards. Dashboards make procedures possible at every level. Everyone needs to have their finger on the restaurant’s pulse.

An even playing field gives hardworking and smart employees to perform better and at the same time motivates the nonperforming staff to do better. A healthy competitive atmosphere can help in restaurant employee retention in a much better way. Digital technology can create that balance and healthy atmosphere in your restaurant.

For the personnel, who now feel empowered, this is freeing. Employees can contribute to deciding what business intelligence is crucial, how data should be presented, and how to act on it to get desired results.

Dashboards that simplify understanding data links and purchase interactions also assist employees. In other words, dashboards offer source analysis to track customer satisfaction and performance KPIs.

Restaurant employee retention and gamification apps

Restaurants are under more pressure than ever to keep their good employees. Providing your business with custom retention and gamification software is an employee investment that strengthens the bonds between all team members.

You probably don’t consider applications and software when considering staff retention, but you should. Apps for human resources can help increase employee confidence and departmental cooperation among the restaurant staff.

What are these apps used for?

Utilize a retention app created for anonymous feedback to understand your business’s work environment better. This tool gives information about all employee levels and positions and the conversations between managers, supervisors, and staff.
Establish a staff resource section where employees can advance their growth or assist in collaboration with others, observing their progress as the task progresses.
When combined with feedback and suggestion boxes, this tool helps track employee morale and mood to report how workers feel at work and can assist lower attrition.
Offering surveys to gauge employee engagement can improve company culture, and supervisor reviews can help keep your best restaurant employees on board immediately.
Make it simple and convenient for workers to view their hourly, daily, and weekly schedules, request time off, and provide other thorough feedback regarding staffing needs and other required resources.

Retaining employees is crucial to the success of any organization. Enhancing your restaurant staff’s well-being is vital in a similar vein. Your employees are an investment, and retention tools can assist you in better comprehending your restaurant’s work culture from your staff’s perspective.

Kitchen display system (KDS)

Tools that make their daily lives easier are appreciated by restaurant workers, most especially for impending orders and preparations. A kitchen display system (KDS) should be a vital component of every location for a particular brand.

Kitchen staff and front-of-house staff may communicate easily with the help of kitchen display apps. They combine all orders from third-party channels, websites, kiosks, and mobile devices. With its simple user interface, straightforward menus, and connectivity with payment processors, KDS offers visibility and organization.

Mobile POS (mPOS)

The introduction of mobile POS apps streamlines daily operations for restaurant staff. A portable device that mimics a typical POS system is a mobile POS system. As a result, it serves as a register or card reader to complete transactions. Mobile POS uses the brand’s data connection on digital devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.) to accept payments through the app, interacting and converting customers from anywhere at any time.

How does mPOS improve the employee experience? This tool expedites the check-out procedure and frees restaurant workers to help customers or handle other necessary tasks. Because of this, guests are served more swiftly and efficiently. This solution undoubtedly makes the server’s job more accessible and painless.

Are You Ready to Use Digital Technology to Boost Employee Retention at Your Restaurant?

Employee turnover in the hospitality sector is at an all-time high, with most servers resigning within two months of starting their jobs. However, with the help of digital technologies, you may beat the statistics and boost employee retention in your restaurant. Implementing technology such as employee portals, kitchen display systems (KDS), and mobile point of sale (mPOS), among others, can improve employee working conditions at your restaurant and increase staff retention. Digital technologies have helped increase operations in various other sectors, like healthcare, banking, and many others; there’s no reason why they can’t help you retain your best employees.

10 Best Property Management Systems

In the United States, the property management industry is in continuous growth and generates 16% of the country’s GDP. While this is a field that’s ripe with profitable opportunities, it can be difficult for a property manager to fulfill the multiple duties required of them, especially as their list of properties grows.

national property management market size

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That’s where property management systems come in. These software solutions allow landlords, investors, and property managers to stay organized, communicate with their tenants, and generally manage all the properties they have. If you are looking to learn which one works best for your real estate business, you’ve come to the right place.

In this article, you’ll learn about the ten best property management systems available now, what makes them great, and what their drawbacks are.

10 Top Property Management Systems

From mobile oriented solutions to software that can fit both small- and large-scale property managers, here are the best property management systems available today:

Buildium

The Buildium property management software solution is one of the most comprehensive options on the market today. No matter what you need, this software can handle it all.

The software offers a wide range of options for managing rental properties in all their aspects. The interface lets you manage vacancies, maintenance, and accounting, while the accounting package offers automatic rent reminders, a full ledger, and the option to generate reports on demand. Rent can even be paid online through a tenant portal.

Buildium’s basic bundle covers up to 150 units for $50 per month, and there are larger packages available with maximum support for 5,000 units. The best value will be found in the higher tiers, since the unit prices are lower. However, $50 per month for 150 units works out to $0.33 per unit, making it an affordable expense. You can also try Buildium for 15 days for free before purchasing a subscription to see if it is right for your company.

One downside to this software is that the company uses a ticket-based customer service system, and responses can take several hours. It is important to note, however, that the team is highly knowledgeable and can easily guide you through the majority of common issues.

As well as its native functionality, Buildium is compatible with many well-known third-party systems. Among them are Apartment List, Apartments.com, Zillow, HappyCo, Forte, Happy Inspector, MSI, HotPads, Lovely, Nelco, RevSpring, PayNearMe, TransUnion, Tenant Turner, Trulia, and Zumper.

Pros

Built by property managers.
Rent is automatically collected via a tenant portal.
Online ticket help is available during business hours.
There are numerous training materials available.
Easy to use.

Cons

Long response times on customer service tickets
Not suitable for sole property managers

TurboTenant

There are plenty of rental property management software platforms offering free trials, but they are usually limited to a few units or for a short period of time. However, unlike other rental management software, TurboTenant is completely free regardless of how many units you manage. Its easy-to-use interface and straightforward setup make TurboTenant an excellent free option for rental property management software.

TuroTenant provides landlords with a number of features aimed at making tenant administration easier, such as handling applications online, screening tenants, and sending bulk tenant messages.

Some optional services are available for a one-time fee, such as state-specific lease agreements for $39, unlimited electronic signatures for $9, and 32 landlord forms for $145.

Using rental listing sites like Realtor.com, Apartment List, Rent.com, or even Facebook Marketplace, landlords can market vacant homes across several platforms with a single click. A tenant’s credit report can be checked using TransUnion, any documents can be sent and signed online, and maintenance requests can be made. Payments by ACH are free, but payments by credit card have a fee of 3.49%.

However, Turbotenant is only free for landlords because it passes the costs to the tenants. Tenants must pay an application and screening fee ($55) and a fee for rent payments made with credit cards (3.49%). There’s also renter’s insurance at $8 per month.

Pros

Fully free property management solution.
Excellent for DIY landlords.
Customer service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week via phone and online.

Cons

Tenants bear the burden of the software costs.
Limited features.

AppFolio

AppFolio is primarily designed for landlords with a large number of properties, but it can also be used by landlords seeking to expand their business. A variety of units can be accommodated, including single-family homes as well as large apartment complexes, and the services can be customized. Instead of paying an all-in-one fee, you pay a predetermined fee per unit. Manage as many units as you like with no tiered pricing or other restrictions. In addition, you pay separately for advanced features, so you only pay for what you use.

In order to sign up, you must first pay a $400 onboarding fee. In addition, the following unit fees apply on a per-unit basis:

Residential rentals: $1.40 per month
Commercial rates: $1.50 per month
Student accommodation: $1.40 per month
HOAs: $0.80 per month

There is also a minimum monthly cost of $280 for residential landlords, and to receive the greatest price on residential units, you’ll need at least 200 units.

The software includes a number of useful property management features, such as the ability to build professional-looking websites for your properties, purchase sales leads, screen tenants, and purchase renters’ and landlord’s insurance. The software also allows you to track maintenance requests, pay invoices, collect debts, and accept online payments. As previously mentioned, some of these services are extra-cost, but you only pay for what you use.

Pros

Multiple plan options including residential landlord plans, community association plans, and commercial real estate landlord plans
Supports all unit types
Mobile app available

Cons

Monthly minimum fees make it ill-suited for property managers with a small number of units

Propertyware

In general, Propertyware is intended for landlords of single-family homes. Although it lacks some features other software suites have, this is a feature, not a defect. Due to the fact that there are no commercial renting capabilities, the user interface is significantly simpler than most comparable applications. Whether you rent out a single property or hundreds, it works equally well regardless of how many units you have.

This software comes in three price tiers: Basic, Plus, and Premium, which cost $1, $1.50, and $2.00 per unit, respectively. A minimum payment is also required for each tier, which is $250 per month for Basic, $350 for Plus, and $450 for Premium.

With the Basic package, you can generate financial reports, market vacant homes, schedule maintenance, collect rent payments, and screen prospective renters. In addition to these features, the Plus plan offers two-way text messaging, digital signatures, and inspection scheduling. In addition to the previously mentioned features, there is a maintenance management portal and a supply vendor portal included in the Premium plan.

One limitation of Propertyware is its lack of third-party support. Other than Mail Merge and DocuSign, third-party support is not available. You won’t need to worry about this if you’re searching for a complete management solution. However, using products or services such as Apartments.com is not possible if you with this software.

Pros

Great option for large portfolio management
Mobile app available
Simple interface

Cons

Limited features
Pricing is more suitable for large portfolios
Intended for single family property management

SimplifyEm

SimplifyEm was created by real estate professionals for real estate professionals. Although it can support up to 2,000 units, it is best suited to landlords with fewer units. In the case of fewer than ten units, your monthly payment will be only $20. The price increases by $10 per month for every additional 10 units purchased, so your monthly fee would be $60 if you have 50 units. Billing is then done in 25-unit increments, but the base rate remains at $1 per unit. A 15-day free trial is also available to see how it works before committing.

SimplifyEm’s key selling point is its simplicity, hence the name. This tool is designed to be simple for even first-time landlords to use, and the company offers live phone and email support for that purpose.

Renters can purchase renters’ insurance through the tenant site, and the software tracks income and expenses. Landlords can generate financial reports, log maintenance requests, screen tenants, and perform other critical tasks. Also available are integrations with Zillow, TransUnion, Fidelity, ACH.com, NARPM, and Trulia.

Pros

One to 2,000 units are supported.
Real estate professionals created it.
Has sophisticated features
Great option for first-time landlords with a small portfolio

Cons

The platform can limit your growth as it doesn’t support more than 2,000 units

MRI Software

Commercial properties such as large apartment buildings typically use MRI software. Many of these properties are held by groups of investors rather than by a single landlord, which means you need a system with features suited for multi-landlord properties. Thus, this program offers a variety of features that are not found in similar products. Aside from basic rental management, it offers a multitude of planning capabilities. Asset management, space management, strategic planning, and compliance with public housing regulations are all made easier with MRI Software. Additionally, it is available as a cloud-based service or as an installed program.

One downside of MRI Software is that the pricing for this service is a bit more ambiguous than for other property management services. MRI Software does not offer a free trial, and the price can only be obtained by contacting them directly. In spite of that, it has received generally positive reviews on various landlord websites, with investors praising its value. For you to know whether they are a good match for you, you will need to receive a quote.

Pros

Several advanced features are included.
Reliable business with a long history
Simple to use

Cons

Pricing is not available online, and you’ll need to contact the company for a quote.

Yardi Breeze

The Yardi Breeze cloud-based property management system is among the earliest of its kind, and it continues to be a top-notch service. The company has been in the industry for a long time, even before the cloud came along.

Pricing for Yardi Breeze is transparent, which is a plus. The company charges a monthly fee of $1 per property instead of tiers. The cost of the program is very low, and it makes it very competitive in the current market. There is however a $100 minimum charge per month for residential homes and $200 for commercial properties, which means you will have to pay more to maintain properties with fewer than 100 units. A Breeze Plus upgrade package is also available. It costs $2 per unit, with a minimum monthly charge of $400, for both residential and commercial establishments. The first 30 days of training are free, and customer support is available 24/7.

With Yardi Breeze you can manage applications, automate marketing, and collect rent online. However, a feature that’s unique to Yardi Breeze is the ability for tenants to submit repair requests along with smartphone images.

Pros

Characteristics that are unique, such as the ability for tenants to upload pictures for repair requests
Customer service and training are provided at no cost.

Cons

Lack of a mobile app

Rent Manager

A versatile property management platform, Rent Manager can handle any number of units. Additionally, it’s convenient to use on the go. Through the cloud, you can access it from any computer, but you can also download an app for your smartphone. Receive payments, enter work orders, schedule maintenance, and enter work orders from your phone’s screen. In addition, you can snap images and save them to the cloud, which is important for maintenance.

On the portal, you can generate financial reports, manage work orders, and rent unoccupied units. You can also create a very professional-looking website for your property with Rent Manager’s website-building tool. Furthermore, maintenance requests can be tracked from beginning to end.

While pricing is only available as a quote that must be requested by phone, there is a free trial version if you want to give it a try.

Tenants also benefit from using Rent Manager. Online lease signing eliminates the need for mail and postage, and rent can be paid online from any device and payment history can be viewed. As a result, landlords and tenants are on the same page.

Pros

Simple to set up
Built-in website builder
Gets tenants and landlords on the same page with online contract signing and payments.

Cons

Pricing is only available upon request.

Re-Leased

Whether it’s a commercial property, residential property, or an office or industrial space, Re-Leased is designed for all types of properties. The customer service department is available 24/7 and there is no limit to the number of units you can have. You won’t have to worry about switching providers as your company grows.

Various monotonous tasks can be automated with the software. Using it, you can send out automatic rent reminders and automate your property listings. Repair projects are greatly simplified with an integrated communications center that links you, your maintenance workers, and your tenants. Additionally, Google Calendar, Outlook, and Microsoft 365 can be connected to sync all of your calendars.

However, pricing information is not publicly available. To find out how much the software will cost, you’ll need to contact the company and request a quote for your property.

Pros

Appropriate for a variety of properties
Microsoft 365 integration
Xero support
Enterprise-level protection

Cons

You need to contact the company to get a price quote.

Avail

Avail is one of the most popular property management programs in the world. Because it’s aimed primarily at small landlords and DIYers, it lacks several capabilities that you’d expect from more robust commercial hardware. However, it does have the advantages of making the software easier to use and understand. As a result, it’s a convenient way to supplement your income by renting out one or two apartments.

It does, however, have a number of beneficial features. You can use it to screen tenants and to create digital leasing contracts that your tenants can sign online. The software generates state-specific leases that comply with local laws and regulations. Online rent payments can be made from any device, but a small fee will apply.

Avail’s biggest advantage is its low cost: it’s totally free. It can be used for an unlimited number of units without cost. However, the paid edition offers additional features such as personalized leases, no-fee rent payments, and next-day payments. The price is not competitive for larger properties, but it’s an excellent value for small landlords.

Pros

Simpleness of use
Excellent customer service
Great pricing for small time landlords

Cons

Limited tutorials
The reporting module is not particularly reliable.
Pricing is not competitive for landlords with larger portfolios

Final Word

The best property management system for your real estate business will largely depend on the size of your portfolio, and the features you need. For instance, options like Avail and SimplifyEm are great for landlords with a small number of units, while Buildium and AppFolio are a better fit for those that manage a large number of properties.

If you are looking for free software, Avail and TurboTenant are completely free, but their features are more limited compared to other options on the list. Before you decide on one option over the other, make sure you take the time to consider your needs and what the companies offer.

Top 5 Hacks for Restaurants to Increase Profitability

The restaurant industry can be brutal due to a combination of constant competition and tight profit margins. As such, finding new ways to stand out from the pack while boosting your bottom line becomes a never-ending quest for restaurant owners.

While there are always new tools and complex strategies you can try, you’d be surprised with how much you can help your restaurant business by following simple tips.

Last week, we sat down with local Newark, DE restaurant owner Ryan German of Caffè Gelato to discuss how he has been able to grow such a reputable eatery over the last 20 years while continuously increasing his margins and running a lean business.

The following information are the most important factors that Ryan has said to have significantly contributed to his success as a restaurateur.

Top 5 Profitability Hacks for Restaurants

From rethinking your approach to expense management, exploring new revenue stream opportunities, and partnering with a provider that can help you bring out the best out of your restaurant, these are the hacks that you need to pay attention to.

Keep a Close Eye on Your Expenses

One sure-fire way to increase your profit margin is properly managing your expenses and finding ways to cut costs without affecting the quality of your services.

One of the best places to start is by reviewing your existing relationship with your merchant service provider. Since your choice of provider dictates your payment processing fees and rates, it has a direct impact on your money-making potential.

Look for providers that offer specialized pricing for restaurants, and make sure that their fee structure is beneficial for your business size. Some merchant service providers are a great fit for smaller businesses, while others make more sense for restaurants with higher volumes or chain locations.

It’s also crucial that you are familiar with your merchant statement, and that you understand every single fee on it. Knowing what you are paying for will help you organize your finances better and look for opportunities to cut costs. Furthermore, frequent reviews of your statement will help you ensure you are not being overcharged and can even let you identify potential fraud from customers in the form of chargebacks.

With proper knowledge and understanding of your statement, you’ll be in a better position to negotiate for lower rates with your provider.

Last but not least, you should pay attention to the third-party delivery services that you integrate and work with. Delivery platforms such as Uber Eats, GrubHub, and DoorDash use different fee structures and processing rates based on where your restaurant is listed on the app or website. Being at the top of the app’s list usually comes with higher fees, but it won’t necessarily mean increased sales volumes. On some apps, you might find that even at the bottom of the page you get the same number of orders as at the top. In some cases, your choice of app could be hurting your margins without really boosting your sales, in which case it might make more sense to switch to a different delivery partner.

Develop Better Employee Controls

Another important aspect of restaurants that you need to keep in mind when looking to increase your profits is your employees.

Your employees are the forefront of your restaurant, and as such, they have a direct impact on your sales. It’s important to have a granular understanding of their performance, but it’s more than just productivity.

For instance, you should make sure that everybody is clocking out properly at the end of the day and implement a system that prevents one employee from clocking out from others, such as using secure location logins. This helps reduce situations where you pay an employee more than you are supposed to. Reviewing your payroll details before submitting them is another way to help catch mistakes and anomalies with your employee’s payments.

Your choice of POS system is an excellent way to help you keep track of your employees, both in terms of performance and what you are paying them. For instance, Bonsai POS offers employee time tracking with overtime alerts, letting you know exactly where each of your employees stands in terms of hours, while Clover can allow you to manage employee payroll through third-party apps on their marketplace.

You can also use tools to help you identify servers that have lower average ticket sales, or fewer sales for specific items, and find ways to help them boost their numbers. These are also the type of metrics that you can keep track of through the use of a feature-rich POS, like Bonsai.

Tracking these metrics can also help you identify servers that have exponentially higher performance, or receive significantly higher than the rest, to see if there’s an underlying situation you should be handling. While a server getting more tips isn’t a bad thing on its own, it could potentially indicate they are following practices that you are not in agreement with.

Identify Multiple Revenue Streams

One of the best ways to boost your profits is to expand the ways you make money. You don’t necessarily need to change up your menu or create new products, as finding new ways to sell your existing product is a strong strategy on its own.

Some alternate revenue ideas you can try include:

Offering Catering: One classic revenue stream opportunity is offering catering for events like weddings, parties, and the like. You could even create special menus for a personalized catering experience.
Restaurant Wholesale: If your recipes are very popular in the city, consider selling them at supermarkets or grocery stores.
Online business: If you are not offering online ordering these days, you are usually leaving money on the table.
Ghost Kitchens: An interesting take on an online business. Ghost kitchens allow you to act as a restaurant without needing to have an actual physical location for patrons to dine in. You could have a second restaurant using your existing kitchen as a ghost kitchen.
Opening Sister/Cafe Locations: If you’ve created a popular restaurant that is always packed, consider expanding to a new location.
Sell subscription Boxes: Subscription boxes have gained a lot of popularity in recent years. Create personalized kits for your customers so they can recreate your recipes from the comfort of their homes.
Create special events: You could turn your restaurant into a unique thematic experience with “cook your own meal” events or offering cooking classes.

But improving profit isn’t all about expanding your revenue streams. Sometimes it can be the opposite. You should constantly review your current sales options and channels to make sure that they are achieving your desired results. While it can take time for some revenue streams to take off and be adopted by the public, there comes a point when you know that something is not working out. If one of your ideas to grow your revenue is causing you to bleed money instead, you should consider cutting your losses, continue to do what is working, and try a new idea.

Get Started with SMS Marketing

The dining world is turning to personalized messages as a way to reach the mobile-focused audience of today, and SMS has quickly changed from a decent marketing channel to a must-have.

According to Gartner.com, the click-through rates for SMS are staggeringly high, shifting between 45-95%. Compare those numbers to the much more conservative 6-20% CTR of emails, and the reason for the increased use of text messaging by marketers becomes obvious.

All this to say, your restaurant needs to start embracing SMS marketing right away.

Not only does SMS marketing significantly increase the reach of your marketing efforts, but it also helps create a stronger relationship with your clients, build loyalty, and even reduce no-shows for reservations.

For instance, you can run flash specials and use SMS to drive customer traffic during off-peak times. Thanks to the ability to save client profiles and new comprehensive analytic systems, you can now get detailed reports which can break down which of your customers are coming through the door the most often, and the least. This allows you to customize your outreach to re-engage patrons who haven’t come to your location in a while.

If your restaurant uses a loyalty program, you can significantly increase its effectiveness by implementing SMS marketing in the process. You can use segmented client lists and personalized messages to inform your loyal customers of new deals, menu items, or promotions that you know they’ll love. To that end, you should use a POS system that includes SMS marketing from the get-go, such as Bonsai POS and ValorPaytech. Both of these systems have customer engagement and marketing platforms that include SMS.

A system such as Bonsai POS, which uses SMS technology creatively, will allow restaurant owners to see what customers like and to manage their marketing and promotions efforts based on those preferences, and not based on pricing.

Partner with the Right Merchant Service Provider

There’s only so much you can do in terms of increasing your profit potential with a limited tool set, which makes finding the right merchant service provider incredibly important for any restaurant.

Your choice of merchant service provider doesn’t only dictate the kind of payment processing fees you’ll see. It often extends to the type of POS and hardware you can use, which in turn affects the features you get access to and the way you provide your services.

While pricing is at the forefront of the choice equation, it’s not the only thing you should look for. You want an MSP that has great pricing on both hardware and software, but also provides top-notch support and enables your business to grow.

Finding an MSP that can suit all your needs can drastically help you save on the costs restaurants incur, like using a catering service such as ezCater. Custom online ordering or catering software can drastically help you capitalize on existing clients, keep customers over the long run and prevent them from going somewhere else.

You need to look for reasonable and straightforward pricing for hardware and software, as well as the best pricing possible for processing fees, as these will have a direct impact on your bottom line. You also need to try to identify merchant service providers who are trying to hide extra fees, additional percentage points, or other elements that could increase your processing costs. Industry margins are typically slim for restaurants, and every dollar counts.

At the end of the day, you want to work with an MSP that will help you expand as your company grows. The right MSP will not only help you save costs on additional hardware and software, but also take the stress off of your expansion process when your processing volume starts to increase.

Final Word

There’s a lot that you can do to help increase your profit margin that’s not specifically tied to your services or expanding your menu. Taking a look at your current expenses and the performance of your employees can help you identify areas where you can, or need to make changes that can reduce costs or just improve your bottom line. Your choice of a merchant service provider will also have a direct impact on your profit margins, so you should take the time to explore the market before choosing your provider or review your current relationship to see if it fits your needs.

As far as expanding your business, you can cause significant growth through implementing new revenue streams. Offering catering, subscription boxes, and adopting SMS marketing strategies are just a few of the ways to do this. There is no one size fits all, and no “plug-and-play” formula. Mix and match some of the tips that Ryan shared to increase the profitability of your restaurant!

Amazon Prime Day vs. Walmart+ Weekend: Recent Updates

Summer “Prime Day”–style events remain marquee dates in retail. Amazon’s official data and third-party analyses show Prime Day 2024 was the largest ever, about $14.2 billion in U.S. e‑commerce sales (up 11% YoY). According to a recent report, 60% of Amazon Prime Day households placed multiple orders, driving an average household spend of $152.

By contrast, Walmart’s member‑only June 2024 Walmart+ Week drew far fewer shoppers but higher per‑shopper spending. Surveys find 40% of consumers shopped on Prime Day versus 20% for Walmart+ Week. However, Walmart+ members who did shop spent roughly 45% more per shopper ($473 vs. $326 on Prime Day).

Key Takeaways

Amazon’s Prime Day continues to attract broad consumer awareness and volume of sales, while Walmart is building out its member events with new perks.
Both retailers note inflation-sensitive shoppers: about 60% said rising prices influenced their decision to participate.
Amazon’s strategy includes multiple Prime Day events (July and October) and deep discounts (average 22% off), while Walmart has offered perks like half-priced memberships for low-income consumers, free Paramount+ trials, and a Burger King benefit.
These tactics aim to grow Walmart+ subscribers (forecast to reach 31.8 M by end-2024) and close the gap with Amazon Prime’s 180M U.S. members (200 M+ globally).

Amazon Prime Day vs. Walmart+: Sales Performance & Volume

Amazon Prime Day 2024 emerged as a record-breaking event, marking the company’s biggest sales day ever. U.S. online spending surged to approximately $14.2 billion during the event, reflecting an 11% increase from the $12.7 billion recorded in 2023. Electronics and Back-to-School categories were standout performers, with electronics sales soaring by 61% and tablet sales climbing a staggering 117%. On July 16 alone, consumers across all retailers spent $7.2 billion online, setting a new single-day spending record according to Adobe Analytics.

In comparison, Walmart+ Week 2023, held from July 10 to 13, drew a smaller audience, with consumer spending estimated at $10.5 billion, still trailing Prime Day’s $12.7 billion from the same year. A notable portion of this spending was directed toward groceries, which made up 52% of total shopper expenditures. While total sales figures for Walmart+ Week 2024 remain undisclosed, surveys indicate that although participation was limited to about 20% of consumers (compared to nearly 40% for Prime Day), individual shopper spending was significantly higher. Moreover, spending during Walmart+ Week 2023 had already doubled compared to its 2022 iteration, signaling growing consumer interest in alternative sales events.

Consumer Engagement and Digital Reach

Amazon Prime Day vs. Walmart+ - Consumer Engagement

Consumer awareness around major retail events shows a clear disparity, particularly between Amazon Prime Day and Walmart+ Week. In July 2023, around 40% of U.S. consumers reported shopping during Prime Day, while only about 20% did so during Walmart+ Week. Strikingly, nearly half of the surveyed consumers admitted they weren’t even aware that Walmart+ Week was taking place. In sharp contrast, nearly all Prime Day participants—about 98%—were aware of the event beforehand. This pattern persisted into 2024, with participation rates remaining relatively unchanged, highlighting Walmart’s ongoing challenge in boosting event visibility.

In terms of digital engagement, while detailed traffic data is limited, insights suggest Amazon significantly outpaces Walmart. The Amazon Commerce blog noted that nearly half of Prime Day purchases occurred on mobile devices, with a strong push from social media referrals. Although Walmart holds the #2 spot in U.S. online retail and typically experiences traffic surges during promotional events, specific figures for Walmart+ Week remain undisclosed. Anecdotal trends, however, consistently show that Amazon Prime Day drives far higher levels of web and app traffic compared to Walmart’s member-based events.

Consumer behavior during major retail events reveals distinct patterns between Amazon Prime Day and Walmart+ Week, particularly in order frequency, spending levels, and product categories. Prime Day continues to drive multiple small-to-midsize purchases. In 2023, 57% of Prime Day orders came from households placing two or more orders, with 11% making five or more. The average order value rose from $53.14 in 2022 to $56.64 in 2023, while average household spend climbed to approximately $134. By 2024, around 60% of Prime Day households placed multiple orders, pushing average household spend to about $152 and the typical order value to $58.

In contrast, Walmart+ Week shoppers displayed more concentrated, higher-value behavior. In 2023, the average Walmart+ shopper spent $200, significantly higher than Amazon’s $126 average. By 2024, that number soared to $473 per Walmart+ shopper, compared to $326 for Prime Day participants. Walmart+ Week buyers also purchased more items per trip, averaging 20 items per transaction versus just 11 for Amazon shoppers, reflecting bulk-buying behavior often centered on essentials.

Product category preferences further distinguish the events. Grocery dominated Walmart+ Week, accounting for 52% of spend in 2023 and purchased by over half of shoppers, twice the rate of Amazon’s grocery buyers. Prime Day, on the other hand, leaned heavily into electronics, apparel, beauty, and Amazon-branded devices. Notably, both events saw strong Health & Beauty category performance in 2024, with 62% of Walmart+ shoppers and 44% of Prime Day shoppers purchasing in that segment.

Despite the perception of deep discounts, a sizable portion of purchases were made at full price—41% during Prime Day and 44% during Walmart+ Week in 2024—indicating that shoppers use these events to stock up on necessities as much as to find deals. Amazon’s average discount was around 22% off list price. Inflation played a noticeable role in consumer behavior, with 62% of Prime Day and 55% of Walmart+ Week shoppers citing it as a factor in their purchase decisions. While Prime Day 2024 sales technically grew year-over-year, the modest 1.4% increase was largely attributed to a 6.4% rise in average ticket prices, suggesting that inflation, rather than higher unit volumes, drove the growth.

Subscribers & Strategic Shifts

Amazon Prime Day vs. Walmart+ - Subscribers

Amazon and Walmart continue to chart divergent paths in membership scale and strategic positioning, though both are actively refining their subscription offerings and promotional approaches. As of March 2024, Amazon Prime boasted an estimated 180 million U.S. members—an 8% increase year-over-year—while its global paid membership surpassed 200 million. In contrast, Walmart+ remains significantly smaller but is gaining momentum, with an estimated 31.8 million members projected by the end of 2024, up from around 29 million in 2023. Despite its smaller scale, Walmart+ has achieved impressive year-over-year growth, particularly among younger and middle-income consumers.

When it comes to event participation, both Amazon and Walmart see about half of their members actively shop during their flagship sales, roughly a 56% participation rate. However, Amazon’s much larger subscriber base translates to twice as many shoppers overall during Prime Day compared to Walmart+ Week. This participation gap underscores the strategic importance for Walmart to grow its subscriber base, as increasing conversions from regular Walmart shoppers to Walmart+ members could significantly boost event performance and close the sales gap.

Both companies have also leaned into evolving their value propositions. Walmart has expanded Walmart+ benefits to include gas savings, free shipping, and exclusive perks through new partnerships. Notable additions include six months of free Paramount+ streaming and periodic Burger King discounts. Walmart also rolled out a 50% membership discount for low-income families, aligning more closely with Amazon’s long-standing Prime discount for SNAP recipients.

Amazon, meanwhile, has broadened its Prime Day strategy, adding a second event in October and sharpening its focus on innovation and small business support. The company continues to promote its latest devices and is increasingly integrating AI features, such as personalized shopping assistants, into the experience. Additionally, the broader retail landscape is now syncing with Prime Day’s calendar, competitors like Target, Best Buy, and TikTok launched parallel promotions, some seeing notable results. For instance, Walmart reported a 23% lift in sales during its July 2024 “Walmart Deals” event, reflecting the ripple effect of Amazon’s influence on the broader retail calendar.

Consumer Trends & Industry Context

Amazon Prime Day vs. Walmart+ Consumer Trends

Consumer trends surrounding major retail events like Amazon Prime Day and Walmart+ Week reveal evolving behaviors shaped by economic pressures, demographic shifts, and new payment habits. One notable shift is the rising use of buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services. In 2024, approximately 7–7.6% of Prime Day orders were financed through BNPL, representing a 16% increase from the previous year. This trend is especially pronounced among lower-income shoppers and Gen Z consumers, who increasingly use flexible financing options to manage spending during high-volume sales events.

Demographic profiles also differ markedly between the two events. Prime Day tends to attract a more affluent, suburban, and female-skewing customer base. In contrast, Walmart+ Week resonates more with larger, value-driven households that prioritize grocery and bulk buying. About 40% of Walmart+ households have four or more members, compared to 32% among Amazon Prime households. Gen Z shoppers played a particularly active role during Walmart+ Week 2024, purchasing an average of 22 items per order, more than any other age group, further highlighting the generation’s appetite for bulk deals and practical essentials.

Against the backdrop of ongoing inflation and tightened household budgets, these summer sales events have become essential tools for driving volume and maintaining engagement. Retailers are increasingly positioning them not just as mid-year promotions, but as the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season. Deals on everyday goods and early gift purchases help shape consumer expectations, providing an early glimpse into spending patterns that are likely to extend into Q4. Walmart leadership has stressed the importance of making Walmart+ appeal to all income levels, reinforcing the brand’s broader ambition to serve as a value leader in a strained economic environment.

Conclusion

While Amazon Prime Day continues to dominate in scale and visibility, Walmart+ Week is gaining ground through deeper per-shopper engagement and targeted member incentives. Amazon leverages its massive subscriber base, strong mobile presence, and established brand awareness to drive high-volume sales, particularly in electronics and branded merchandise.

Walmart, meanwhile, is focusing on value-driven households with higher transaction sizes, especially in essential categories like groceries. Both retailers are adapting to inflation-conscious consumers and shifting payment habits, with flexible financing options and discount membership strategies. As mid-year sales events increasingly signal the start of the holiday shopping season, the competition between Amazon and Walmart reflects broader changes in consumer behavior and retail strategy.

Data Brief: Amazon’s Prime Day Traffic Held Up While Walmart+ Weekend Fell 24%

It can be difficult to identify the struggles that retail giants face, however, the data from large-scale, member only, annual sales events give great insight into the health of these retailers. In a year like 2022 where things are all over the place, when analyzing data from the global retail market, nothing should be a surprise.

New data shines light on the overall performance of the membership-only sales even that was held by Walmart. After an analysis of the data, we can compare the differences between Amazon’s “Amazon Prime Day” and Walmart + Weekend. After Walmart finished their first ever annual event, there are some mixed results.

Understanding the Results for Walmart + Weekend

Walmart turns out to be the only organization with ample resources and a massive size to compete with the warehouse-to-door e-commerce pipeline of Amazon. However, Walmart is now gradually catching up with Amazon, who has dominated the e-commerce retail space for more than two decades.

Amazon organized its first-ever Amazon Prime Day in July 2015, and in June 2022, Walmart also organized its version of an annual sales event. It has been a turbulent time for Walmart in the past few months -especially after they minimized their overall projected earnings for the entire year as inventory issues and inflationary costs have been eating away their bottom line.

For the fiscal year 2023, Walmart has estimations of its earnings falling by around one percent. Before these reports, they had expected an earnings increase of around 5 to 6 percent.

Reasons for the Fall of Earnings

Doug McMillon -CEO of Walmart, explains that the ongoing inflation levels across the United States of America -especially in sectors like fuel and food, have created drastic changes on overall margins, along with the total projected operating costs expected by the retail giant.

On the other hand, Amazon continues dealing with profitability issues of its own. The company has cautiously stated that the combined overall costs with respect to supply chain disruptions, hiring, and effective warehouse management are around a whopping $4 billion in the ongoing fiscal quarter.

The prediction is made following the surprise-filled first quarter loss of around $3.8 billion by Amazon and the slowest year-on-year revenue-based growth in over a decade.

Therefore, it most likely that both organizations are thoroughly scrutinizing the results of Walmart + Weekend quite closely. An in-depth analysis by Numerator -a leading market research data company, has shed some light on the results

Walmart Weekend Suffering from Poor Awareness

Only a small portion of shoppers from Walmart.com were even aware of the annual sales event which took place from 2^nd June through 5^th June.

Based on data obtained by observing purchase behavior of the end consumers, along with analyzing surveys of shoppers of Walmart + Weekend for verified buyers, Numerator estimates that only 33 percent of online shoppers of Walmart were aware of the annual sales event.

The number is miniscule when compared with 94 percent of Amazon buyers who were aware of the Amazon Prime Day in 2021.

Even with this disadvantage, the average spend for Walmart + Weekend on a per order basis was $69.75. This average turns out to be more than the subsequent average for Walmart.com and its average order size of $64.99. In 2021, the average order size for Amazon Prime Day was $54.17.

Shoppers of Walmart + Weekend have an average of around 3 or fewer orders for every household (1.2 orders), in comparison to that of Amazon Prime Day shoppers during last year, which was 2.9 per household. Walmart + Weekend buyers also made fewer average numbers of orders, which over a 4-day weighted average was 1.6 orders.

Most shoppers made use of the sale to shop for groceries because at the moment inflation is expected to remain stagnant throughout the remainder of the year. Additionally, 7% of shoppers purchased health and beauty products, and around 65% purchased household products. Consumers who spent on home, garden, & electronics was around 5-6%. These spend averages were significantly low at the time of Walmart + Weekend.

Is Walmart Capable of Taking on Prime?

Launched during September 2020, Walmart + Weekend had around 32 million subscribers after just a period of one year. Amazon continues having the leading head start as they project, they have 152 million prime subscribers as of 2022. Still, after considering how long Amazon Prime has been around, Walmart indeed had a great start -particularly for how little time Walmart + has been promoting and advertising the subscription and annual sale.

However, subscriptions for Prime continue to grow every year. Therefore, if Walmart is aiming to compete with Amazon, they have some serious work to do. Recently, Walmart made news when it went ahead with hiring ex-PayPal CFO or Chief Financial Officer -John Rainey. Rainey is esteemed for his strength in the field of digital marketing. This move is expected to significantly help Walmart as the retail giant continues building out its wide range of services.

An Insight into Walmart +

The concept of Walmart + was unveiled in 2020 and it has rapidly become the second-largest membership program in the retail industry, following Amazon Prime. The members of Walmart + are known to spend around 44 percent more annually at Walmart than the average shopper of Walmart -especially in baby and grocery sectors. While Amazon Prime is still the giant who has the most membership subscriptions, Walmart’s global footprint has helped them to capitalize on gaining market share in the space and will continue to compete in the years to come.

FTC Imposes Fine of $3M on Credit Karma for False Pre-Approvals

The FTC or Federal Trade Commission has released information that they have ordered Credit Karma (a personal finance company) a pay a fine of $3 million. This penalty has been imposed on Credit Karma as the company was telling its customers that they had been pre-approved for certain credit cards for which they were not qualified at all.

As per a recent news, the funds collected through the fine that Credit Karma has paid will be eventually given out to the customers who were led awry as they applied for the subsequent credit cards. In addition to the fine, Credit Karma was also given orders to stop advertising with these deceptive claims to their customers. These deceptive claims, according to the FTC, resulted in their customers undergoing unnecessary credit checks.

Allegations on Credit Karma

According to the allegations put forth by FTC on Credit Karma, they are claiming Credit Karma had falsely conveyed to several customers the message that they had been pre-approved for specific credit cards. These false approvals took place between the period of February 2018 and April 2021. Due to such false claims, the consumers ended up applying for credit cards. These applications led to major inquiries on the credit reports of these consumers while damaging their overall credit scores.

In the release, the FTC revealed the statement that Credit Karma was aware of the fact that this strategy was being used. The false ‘pre-approval’ claims made by Credit Karma delivered false certainty to the end consumers. The claims were put forth based on the results of a series of A/B testing. The results of the tests revealed to the customers that they were more likely to click on the offers stating ‘pre-approved’ instead of the ones stating that they had “excellent odds.”

Statements Put Forth by Credit Karma

Susannah Wright -the Chief Legal Officer at Credit Karma, revealed that the company will dispute the allegations put forth by the FTC. However, Credit Karma has also reached an agreement with the FTC that is aiding to help avoid disruption in the company’s business practices while aiming to maintain the overall focus of helping their customers find the financial products that are most beneficial to them.

Further, Credit Karma put forth the argument that the allegations made by the FTC focus on the past utilization of the ‘pre-approved’ term by the company. It was, however, applicable only on a smaller number of offers without challenging the approval language of the organization since the time of April 2021.

In August 2022, the FTC went ahead with issuing over $9.7 million in the form of payments to the end consumers in another similar case that involved LendingClub. In 2018, the FTC sued LendingClub over claims that they had made false promises to the applicants that they will be receiving a specific amount of money without any hidden fees. The company ended up deducting hundreds and even thousands of dollars in the form of hidden upfront fees out loans they were offering people.

Additionally, the FTC revealed that LendingClub had told its consumers that they had been approved for loans, however in reality, they were not approved. This kept the consumers from seeking loans from other providers. Allegedly, LendingClub also withdrew money from the accounts of customers without even asking their permission.

FTC Sending $9.7 Million as Free Refunds to LendingClub Customers

The FTC aims at sending more than $9.7 million in the form of payments to around 61,990 customers who had been charged hidden fees by the company.

In July 2021, LendingClub had agreed to a settlement that required them to handle all misinterpretations to the respective loan applicants. The company was expected to disclose the payments in the form of fees along with total funds that borrowers would receive.

This is the second instance where funds have been reimbursed to customer regarding LendingClub. Another fine in 2022 had been released, which was around $17.6 million, and had been given out to customers. Customers who were affected by LendingTree have the option to accept their payment within 30 days via PayPal. Those who did not accept their payment within 30 days received a check.

Understanding FTC Violation

According to the complaint against Credit Karma, a leading personal finance company, the organization had violated Section 5 of the FTC Act. Under the FTC Act, the Federal Trade Commission exercises its right to take relevant action against organizations that engage in deceptive and unfair practices or acts. The proposed order of the FTC against Credit Karma will require the company to:

Put a Stop on Deceiving Customers: The order by FTC prohibits Credit Karma from further deceiving its customers about whether they are pre-approved or approved for a proper credit offer. Moreover, Credit Karma is also expected to stop deceiving its customers regarding the likelihoods or odds that they will be approved for a specific credit offer.

Pay a fine of $3 Million in Consumer Redress: According to the FTC order, Credit Karma is expected to pay $3 million. Eventually, this amount will be sent to the consumers who had been negatively affected by the actions of the company.

Preserve Proper Records: To prevent further use of dark patterns leading to deception, the FTC orders expects Credit Karma to preserve vital records of any behavioral, market, or psychological research, along with customer, user, or usability testing -like A/B testing or multivariate testing, surveys, copy testing, interviews, focus groups, mouse or eye tracking studies, clickstream analysis, session replays, recordings, or heat maps.

Conclusion

The FTC continues to urge businesses and organizations to adopt a consumer-centric approach. They explain that organizations that aim at bringing people under false pretenses will arouse customer frustration while attracting new attention towards law enforcement. Due to this, advertisers should review the websites, marketing materials, and statements about their products and services through the eyes of their potential customers.

Meta Exploring Paid Facebook, Instagram Features

With Twitter already implementing paid features and Snapchat continuing to push the envelope by adding paid add-on features, now Meta is aiming to explore paid features to its platforms. Meta is continuing investigating the overall potential of paid subscription-like services, like Twitter Blue, for Meta’s family of apps. They are looking for a way to increase an all-new revenue pathway being the leading social media platform.

According to a recent report, Meta has come up with an all-new internal group that will be responsible for investigating the overall potential of add-on paid features for WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook.

An Insight into the New Feature

This new division is the first-ever serious attempt by Meta into the development of paid features across their major social apps, which boast billions of users across the world. This is being set up after the Ad Revenue business of Meta has been significantly hurt by the ad tracking changes of Apple on iOS devices. It is also the result of a major pullback in overall digital ad spending by business owners and marketers.

The group at Meta has been named New Monetization Experiences. The group is expected to be led by Pratiti Ray Choudhary, previously the Head of Research at Meta.

There has been no clear indication on what the team will be focusing on -with respect to direct subscriptions for add-on features (like Twitter Blue) or the expansion of monetization tools for creators. From this instance, Meta can also take relevant hints. However, all of these appear to be available options on the table and this is due to the fact that Meta continues to look for new ways to maximize the overall revenue intake.

Add-on Subscription Tools for Instagram

Due to the tech companies innovating in these ways can result in add-on subscription tools to Instagram. For instance, you can expect the addition of new, advanced NFT features for delivering improved functionality to the app. Facebook will also be adding a permanent chronological timeline setting – with an added fee.

Some people might observe that Meta could see a potential engagement loss. This could be the result of not revealing posts according to the likely interest of the users. According to Meta, the aspect that is still not in consideration is the ad-free option. Ads tend to be the core money-generator for Meta. Therefore, the platform is not looking towards allowing people to avoid seeing advertisements though a paid subscription -at least not currently.

Meta is currently going through all possible options as it aims at making up for billions that might be either investing into the metaverse or losing it all out due to minimal ad spend.

It is expected that only a portion of Meta will cost more than $20 billion this year itself. This has created some havoc amongst investors. Investors are nowadays getting increasingly anxious about the future vision of Mark Zuckerberg. As a response to this, Meta has already minimized multiple projects towards rationalizing costs while reducing staff headcount.

Recently, Meta has minimized:

The planned SmartWatch projects
Unique content partnerships with writers and publishers for the Bulletin newsletter project
Sales of the Portal-based home speaker device as a consumer-based product
Its planned social audio and podcast tools

The company has also delayed the production of its AR or Augmented Reality glasses. Additionally, Meta also made the announcement that it will be putting a stop on the test of Facebook Neighborhoods -the Nextdoor clone.

These are some of the leading projects over which Meta has decided to put a pause on. This is because the company aims at redefining its overall focus on the Metaverse. Also, there is an improved focus on the underlying technology that will make it the ultimate platform to ensure online interactions in the future.

Addition of Revenue Streams by Meta

It is estimated that the addition of potential revenue streams to the platform can help in backfilling some of the major concerns of the social media giant. It will also ensure that the process of metaverse development can continue at a rapid rate. It is expected to take place away from the increasing concerns of the shareholders who wish to know more about where the social media giant is heading precisely.

It might also result in some important considerations for Instagram and Facebook users. Undoubtedly, it will lure in at least some of the users of the respective platforms. Being close to around 3 billion users across the world (much more than Instagram and Facebook combined), Meta only requires a small portion of their audience to test a paid product in order to make their testing efforts of new software worth-trying.

For instance, Snapchat currently has over one million users who are now paying up for Snapchat+. It is an add-on subscription service that feeds extra revenues of around $4 million every month directly to Snapchat.

Would You be Paying for Instagram or Facebook?

As per the reports of an internal employee from Facebook, Meta has officially started its investigation into the potential of including paid features to the respective platforms -including WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook.

No one will accuse Meta -formerly Facebook, of keeping touch with the respective average users. However, the overall concept that an ideal user will be paying for using the social media remains slightly disturbing. Still, the overall concept of paid features on different social media platforms is not entirely new.

Paid Social Media Platforms -Are They the Future?

Meta is not the first-ever company to come forth with the idea of paid features on the respective platform. The overall willingness of Meta to explore advanced paid features implies that it could be the new normal. While paying for the use of social media management platforms will make ample sense, still the overall notion of paying to use social media merely appears abnormal -especially for generations who are used to getting access to these services readily.

Best Crypto Exchanges and Apps of 2022

Cryptocurrencies in the modern era have become far more accessible after the late rise in overall popularity. Nowadays, a number of brokerage firms allow investors to go ahead with buying as well as selling cryptocurrencies along with mutual funds, stocks, and other types of investments. Some of the best crypto exchanges have made the entire process more user-friendly -especially the ones who have created some of the most renowned crypto trading apps.

Investing in cryptocurrencies might not be everyone’s cup of tea. This is because they are still looked at as a type of speculative investment. Whether or not you are able to make profits out of them in the future, investors can experience both ups & downs in the journey. If you believe in long-term returns, when you invest in crypto on one of the top places to exchange crypto, you can continue to hold your digital currency in the form of long-term investment.

What is a Cryptocurrency Exchange?

A crypto exchange can be regarded as a platform facilitating cryptocurrency-based transactions. Customers on crypto exchanges can decide between buying as well as selling multiple digital currencies. They can also execute the following through the platform of the cryptocurrency exchange:

Exchanging a single type of cryptocurrency for another at relevant exchange rates.
Exchanging cryptocurrency for fiat currency (including US dollars) or for cryptocurrencies that are linked to fiat currencies.
Spending cryptocurrencies -like using a debit card
Accessing educational resources to know more about digital currencies

Most of the top places to exchange cryptocurrencies also feature dedicated cryptocurrency apps. These deliver an overwhelming convenience if you have plans of consistently trading digital assets through the platform.

Top Crypto Exchanges and Apps

Kraken

This is one of the oldest forms of crypto exchanges that has been in operation since 2011. The platform offers the ability to exchange over 160 types of cryptocurrencies. Additoinally, there is also the presence of a useful buy/sell guide for its users to help in the assessment of the ongoing market prices, latest changes in the respective prices, and the overall market cap.

The overall strength of the crypto exchange platform lies in the fact that it can conduct futures trading and margin trading along with limit orders. Kraken offers access to a dedicated guide for the installation of its Android and iOS apps.

eToro

It is regarded as one of the largest social investing platforms out there. The platform boasts the presence of as many as 25 million users. The company was founded in 2007. The platform offers access to fewer cryptocurrencies than Kraken. Still, the buy/sell guide of the platform has been updated in real-time for delivering access to uptime pricing information. Moreover, eToro also offers the ability to invest in exchange-traded funds and stocks.

The only limitation of using eToro is that it is only available across 45 states of the USA. Currently, users in Hawaii, Tennessee, New York, Nevada, and Minnesota do not have access to eToro. The guide delivered by the platform for the installation of mobile apps is also made available. eToro offers access to around $100,000 in the form of fake ‘play money’ to practice trading using the platform.

Crypto.com

It is a relatively newer platform as the exchange came into existence in 2016. The platform is capable of supporting a wide number of cryptocurrencies from almost all crypto exchanges -with support for more than 180 cryptocurrencies. Still, all of them might not appear in the buy/sell guide of the platform. Non-fungible tokens (NFT’s) are a great offering through this exchange.

One restriction of the platform is that there is the absence of features in crypto-to-crypto trading. Due to this, users are not allowed to directly exchange a single type of cryptocurrency for another. Therefore, users are expected to sell one type of cryptocurrency at a time through a single dedicated transaction. Then, they can engage in another type of transaction to purchase another type of cryptocurrency.

Binance.US

Binance has about 60 cryptocurrencies listed on the respective buy/sell guide on their platform. The company was launched in 2017, however, in 2019, the company ended up shutting down temporarily for users in the United States due to some regulatory issues. Due to this, Binance.US came into existence.

One downfall of the platform is that it follows a difficult identity verification process. Regardless of that point, the major trade-off is that Binance.US comes forth with some of the lowest trading fees for the investors. Just like eToro, the exchange platform of Binance.US is not made available across all the states of the United States, however, some states still don’t have access, such as Idaho, Louisiana, Connecticut, Vermont, Texas, Hawaii, and New York.

Coinbase

Coinbase is an extremely popular and well-regulated cryptocurrency exchange platform that offers users for more than 150 cryptocurrencies. The platform has more than 98 million users across the world and was created in 2012 and is not operational is more than 100 nations. This makes the platform a highly robust and diverse crypto exchange while enhancing the overall ease of use.

As a matter of fact, it is important to note that Coinbase has been regarded as one of the best cryptocurrency exchange platforms. Coinbase is available via mobile app on both Android and iOS. With Coinbase, you can get access to comprehensive tutorials on the features of their platform. Additionally, the mobile app provides insight into relevant videos and news about different crypto tokens supported by the platform.

Conclusion

All different types of cryptocurrency exchange platforms and apps have something unique to offer to users. The process of exchanging cryptocurrency is extremely safe and reliable when utilizing one of these platforms. When trading digital currency, your experience ultimately depends on the platform that you are using. When deciding on which platform to trade on, your decision should be centered around the cryptocurrencies that the platform supports and the functionality that you require on your crypto exchange platform.