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In a crowded market, building strong, lasting relationships is one of the biggest differentiators a business can create. And while product-market fit is table stakes, true customer loyalty comes from putting people at the center of the product experience. Overlooking that opportunity can leave growth on the table. The companies that stand out are the ones that design not just for functionality, but for connection, trust, and stickiness. These three overlooked pillars help transform software from a useful tool into an essential partner. 1. Engagement that drives daily value The most successful products give customers reasons to return again and again, not just when they need to solve a problem, but as part of their everyday workflow. Regular, meaningful touchpoints remind users of the value you deliver and strengthen the habit of coming back. Take Shopify. Your online store may run automatically, but Shopify keeps merchants engaged with real-time sales notifications, performance dashboards, and promotional insights. A cha-ching alert for a new order or a traffic spike becomes a small but powerful reason to log in. Over time, these touchpoints transform a back-office necessity into a daily habit, making Shopify central to how merchants run their businesses. When evaluating software, ask yourself: How often are customers logging in? Are they engaging deeply with features, or just skimming the surface? Are you giving them insights and reminders that matter in real time? Companies that build engagement into their productthrough reports, dashboards, notifications, or personalized nudgesensure customers not only see value but experience it consistently. Over time, those moments turn into loyalty. 2. Integration that feels effortless No matter how powerful your product is, it risks being sidelined if it doesnt fit seamlessly into the tools and workflows customers already rely on. People want solutions that just work, eliminating friction rather than creating it. Consider QuickBooks. Beyond bookkeeping, it integrates seamlessly with banks, payroll systems, and payment platforms. These connections remove the manual work of reconciling accounts or entering transactions multiple times. By fitting naturally into the existing workflow, QuickBooks ensures that customers rely on it not just for accounting, but for running the financial side of their business every day. This kind of integration turns a once-in-a-while task into a central part of daily operations, boosting adoption and creating advocates inside the organization. Seamless integration ensures adoption doesnt stall and that your champions inside the business keep their credibility. By offering native integrations, robust APIs, or automation that connects the dots, you reduce the hidden costs of manual workarounds and help your product feel like a natural part of the stack. When your software is easy to adopt, easy to use, and easy to connect, it becomes harder to replace, and more likely to spread organically across teams. 3. Embedded value that makes your product indispensable Customers stay with products that go beyond solving a single problem and become central to how they work and make decisions. The best software identifies the moments when customers would otherwise have to leave your platformand bring those capabilities inside. Uber Eats Manager is a great example here. Its not just an ordering platform; it provides restaurant owners with daily insights into orders, peak hours, menu performance, promotional recommendations, and even merchant financing. By surfacing actionable data directly where owners manage their business, Uber Eats gives them a reason to keep logging in every day. This embedded value reduces the need to track information elsewhere, making the platform indispensable for day-to-day operations. That doesnt mean adding features for the sake of it. It means embedding value where it matters most. Whether its surfacing insights at the right time, streamlining a workflow end-to-end, or offering complementary tools like embedded finance, these touches eliminate the need for external solutions and create deeper reliance on your product. When customers see your platform as the place where multiple needs are met, it stops being optional and becomes essential. THE BOTTOM LINE Customer relationships are the real engine of software growth. Companies that invest in engagement, seamless integration, and embedded value not only reduce churn and reduce the burden of CAC, they also create advocates who expand adoption, share their success stories, and accelerate growth. By focusing on these three overlooked pillars, your software evolves from being another app in the stack to becoming a trusted partner in your customers success. And thats the kind of relationship that lasts. Luke Voiles is the CEO at Pipe.
Category:
E-Commerce
Fans of the Outback Steakhouse chain will be disappointed to learn that its parent company, Bloomin’ Brands, has recently closed a number of locations. The closures are yet another sign that major restaurant chains are facing significant headwinds as costs increase and consumers grow increasingly cautious of how they spend their discretionary dollars. Heres what you need to know. Whats happened? Recently, Bloomin’ Brands, owner of Outback Steakhouse, closed a handful of chains locations. Many of these closures were first reported on social media and by local news outlets. Outback Steakhouse is an Australian-themed casual dining chain that was first founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Tampa, Florida. The casual dining steakhouse is perhaps best known for its Bloomin Onion menu item, a deep-fried whole onion that is served with dipping sauce. According to an August Form 10-Q filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as of June 2025, Bloomin Brands, Inc. operated 557 company-owned Outback Steakhouse locations in the United States. There were also an additional 121 franchise locations. Bloomin’ Brands is in the midst of a turnaround effort. Its stock price (Nasdaq: BLMN) has tumbled more than 42% this year and was trading at under $7 a share as of late Friday. In total, Outback Steakhouse has locations in 44 states, according to the companys store locator tool. The state with the most Outback Steakhouses is Florida, with 96 locations. California and North Carolina offer the next-most locations with 41 and 40 Outback Steakhouses, respectively. List of Outback Steakhouse closures Bloomin Brands has not publicly announced a full list of recent closures, but it confirmed with Fast Company that 10 locations have recently closed. The shuttered restaurants were located in eight states. Some of these closures were reported earlier by USA Today. After a review of Outback Steakhouse’s store locator and listings on Yelp, Fast Company discovered additional closures. After a periodic review, we decided to close some locations,” a spokesperson for Outback Steakhouse said in a statement. “These are business decisions that are part of our ongoing turnaround plan. We considered a variety of factors, including sales and traffic, trade areas, and potential investments to improve performance. We are working to relocate as many of our team members as possible to nearby restaurants. The list of recently closed Outback Steakhouse locations is below. Bloomin’ Brands confirmed these closures with Fast Company: Alabama 20th Street North at 20 Midtown, Birmingham, Alabama Inverness location on U.S. 280, Birmingham, Alabama Arkansas 180 Pakis St, Hot Springs, Arkansas 71913 Florida 3760 South 3rd Street, Jacksonville Beach 4910 U.S. 41 North, Naples Louisiana Jones Creek Boulevard, Baton Rouge Maryland 8661 Colesville Road in Ellsworth Place Mall, Silver Spring New York 2124 Merrick Mall, Merrick Texas 1509 N Central Exwy, Plano, Texas Wisconsin 4520 E. Towne Boulevard, Madison, Wisconsin
Category:
E-Commerce
Imagine this: Youre scrolling online late at night and with just a few clicks, you can order gummies that promise to boost your sex drive, a cream claiming to rebalance your hormones, or even prescription drugs from a telehealth site that spent millions on a Super Bowl ad without any disclaimers or mention of side effects. The solutions seem endless, and like most things that sound too good to be true, they often are. After 25 years in biotech and 10 years spent squarely at the nexus of science and womens health, Ive seen how hype can often race ahead of science. Evidence-based treatments for women remain chronically underfunded and underdeveloped. Its no wonder the wellness industry has rushed to fill the void with promises that sound like medicine but dont measure up. WHEN WELLNESS FILLS THE GAP At best, many wellness products are ineffective, with claims based on anecdotal evidence or poorly designed studies. At worst, they can be outright dangerous. A 2024 analysis found that corporations promoting healthcare interventions that are not supported by evidence, or conceal or downplay evidence, increase the risk of harm to women through inappropriate medicalization, overdiagnosis, and overtreatment. Take the multibillion-dollar supplement industry. Celebrities like Kourtney Kardashian and her Lemme line of wellness supplements are tapping into genuine unmet needswhere women want solutions to problems that the medical establishment has overlooked. But theres a gap between marketing and accountability. The Lemme Purr web page, for instance, tells us that clinically-studied SNZ-1969 probiotics support vaginal health and freshness. While there is some data that the 50+ year old strain supports gut health, a literature search did not identify any strong peer-reviewed evidence that SNZ-1969 supports vaginal health. The reality is that the FDA doesnt have a mandate to review supplements for safety or effectiveness before they hit the market. That means companies can sell products with minimal oversight, leaving consumers to trust claims that are based on marketing, not science. Now compare that to therapies developed through the FDA: Treatments designed to deliver specific outcomes, studied in rigorous clinical trials, and evaluated for safety, quality, and effectiveness. Unlike supplements or untested formulas, they must demonstrate measurable benefit before they can ever reach patients. The process could not be more different. But to the average consumer, the distinction is almost invisible. SEPARATE EVIDENCE FROM EMPTY PROMISES Women shouldnt be left to navigate risk alone. Thats why they need tools to separate evidence from empty promises. And companies providing health products should make it easy for them to find the information. Before trying a new product, women should ask themselves three questions: Was it clinically tested or was it studied in a randomized placebo-controlled trial? Clinically tested could mean almost anythingmaybe five people tried it and said they felt better. Maybe it was a survey given to a few loyal customers who already love the brand. But thats hardly proof. A randomized placebo-controlled trial means that participants are randomly assigned to receive either the treatment or a look-alike placebo, making it the gold standard in medicine to understand if an intervention truly has an effect. Was the whole product testedor just the ingredients? A common loophole in wellness marketing is citing evidence for individual ingredients but not testing the final product formulation. Just because an ingredient has been clinically studied doesnt mean the finished product is safe or effective. Is the product FDA-approved or made in an FDA-regulated facility? Regulation matters. Without it, theres no guarantee of safety or consistency. 503B outsourcing facilities are FDA-regulated and must follow strict manufacturing and safety standards, ensuring consistency, quality, and clinician trust. Women deserve more than quick fixes or empty promises when it comes to their health. As the lines between wellness and healthcare continue to blur, companies that commit to accountability and rigorous science stand to build lasting trust with consumers to unlock massive, underserved markets. Sabrina Martucci Johnson is founder and CEO of Daré Bioscience.
Category:
E-Commerce
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