Get Ready: Holiday Returns Season Set to Begin
During the holiday season, we focus so much attention on when people buy, how much they spend, and whether it got there on time that we tend to overlook what happens once gifts are purchased. An equal test for retailers — both online and brick-and-click — will be making returns as easy as the purchase itself.
Black Friday Weekend’s Unreported Story: The Rise of ‘Bricks and Clicks’
The mostly unreported story of Black Friday weekend is that much of the ecommerce growth came from “bricks-and-clicks” retailers, not pure-play e-tailers. The reason: Physical stores offer a critical customer experience and serve as a “brand anchor,” both of which support ecommerce for traditional retailers. Stores drive online sales because they instill a sense of confidence and trust in the consumer.
Mobile-mentum Continues into Cyber Monday
Cyber Monday was one for the record books. U.S. shoppers spent nearly $3 billion through digital channels, making it the single largest online sales day in history, according to Adobe, and continuing a string of firsts this holiday season. Mobile continued to display strong momentum from the holiday weekend in driving website traffic and sales.
Holiday Weekend a Big Win for Mobile
If U.S. consumers proved reluctant to spend their Thanksgiving holiday in stores, they demonstrated few qualms about shopping online. Digital commerce was up significantly from 2014 levels. The momentum continued into Black Friday, which also saw brick-and-mortar spending reach its highest totals since 2012. The biggest winner over the holiday weekend was mobile: Its share of website traffic and online sales reached record highs.
Holiday Shopping Data Roundup: $39 Billion to Be Spent Locally This Year
The holiday season isn’t just a big time of year for retail spending; it’s also a big time of year for retail spending data. The stats indicate one common trend: Purchasing is going to be more omnichannel than ever. Here’s a rundown on some key data points for this holiday shopping season.
Beacons to Shine a Light on Consumers’ Murky Path to Purchase
Retail activity this holiday season promises to be more omnichannel than ever, courtesy of the ever-present smartphone. That raises the stakes for retailers in terms of their preparedness and complicates their attribution metrics. With online-to-offline shopping dynamics in focus, this may be the long-awaited breakout year for beacon technology.
RetailMeNot’s Hoyt: This Will Be the Most Personalized Holiday Season We’ve Ever Had
Today marks the beginning of a crucial week and month for retailers, as shoppers clamor for deals and steals on presents for family, friends, and coworkers. Whether in-store, online, or a mobile device, an astounding amount of retail business will be transacted in the next five weeks. RetailMeNot vice president of communications Brian Hoyt said to expect a more personalized, more omnichannel holiday shopping season this year, courtesy of the ever-present smartphone.
Targeting Consumers on the Holiday Purchase Path Means Reducing Friction
Around the holidays, consumers tend to spend a lot more time on multiple devices, altering standard shopping habits and behaviors. This means brands and businesses need to ensure they are accurately and competitively represented in search, social, and mobile channels, and that social engagement and advertising efforts are properly targeted to the right consumers at the right times.
Webinar Recap: Marketing and Customer Engagement Tactics for the Holiday Season
Black Friday is a week away. Is there anything brands and merchants can do before then to make their local marketing stand out amid the holiday crush? Yesterday’s Street Fight webinar, “Real-Time Location-Based Marketing Strategies for the Holidays,” in conjunction with Brandify, indicated there’s still time to implement some practical tactics that can make a difference.
Report: Executive Survey on Hyperlocal Tech and Tactics
What’s on the mind of technology and marketing suppliers targeting the connected local economy? They’re keen on mobile — perhaps too keen — but struggling with their own companies’ brand awareness. The dichotomy between small businesses and national chains that sell locally is profound, and presents difficult challenges in scaling to support either, let alone both, according to Street Fight Insights analysis.
Street Fight Daily: Google Partners with HomeAdvisor, New Groupon CEO’s Vision
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Gets Deeper into Home Services (CNBC)… New Groupon CEO Says the Local Deals Pioneer Is Undervalued, Underestimated (GeekWire)… Foursquare Has Figured Out the Hottest Restaurants Around America Right Now (Tech Insider)…
Webinar: Location-Based Marketing Strategies to Lure Holiday Shoppers
The busiest retail season of the year is upon us, and it’s shaping up to be a good one. An upcoming free Street Fight Insights webinar, presented in conjunction with Brandify and featuring immr founder Dr. Phil Hendrix, can help local business owners and their marketing and technology partners get ready for the tide of online and foot traffic. Don’t miss out on key insights that can help make your holiday season a success.
#SFSNYC VIDEO: Smartphones Will Make the Connected Store a Reality
Implementing technology in retail environments as means of “saving” brick-and-mortar stores has been a consistent theme in recent years. But consumers have sent a clear message that the connected store can’t be about technology for technology’s sake. Smartphones’ increasingly central role in the shopping process, from research to purchase, makes them the logical link between connected shoppers and connected stores.
The Path to Purchase Is More Mobile than Ever: xAd Study
xAd’s fourth annual Mobile Path to Purchase study indicates the customer journey is more smartphone-dependent than ever, even for big-ticket, high-consideration purchases like cars. “Location is much more than a targeting tactic; it’s a powerful indicator of consumers’ intent and immediacy of needs,” said xAd senior director of global research Sarah Ohle.
Q3 Earnings Roundup: Shift to Mobile Presents Commerce Challenge for Yelp, Angie’s List, Groupon
Consumers are spending more time on their mobile devices than ever, a shift that is affecting both traditional and digital businesses. Recent earnings reports from Yelp, Angie’s List, and Groupon indicate that some of these publicly traded local mainstays are handling the transition better than others, particularly the rising challenge to effectively combine content, commerce, and services.
#SFSNYC VIDEO: Booker CEO on the Tricky Process of Expanding into New Local Verticals
Booker CEO Josh McCarter opened his Street Fight Summit keynote address with a question that’s on the minds of many small business solutions providers: “How do you take a system that’s designed for one vertical and take it across more categories?” Factoring in the differing needs of various service-based businesses makes that question even more complex. But given the size of what McCarter termed the “local service commerce” opportunity, answering it could be tremendously lucrative.
Street Fight Daily: Facebook’s Location-Centric Notifications Update, Etsy’s Same-Day Delivery
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… With Updated Notifications, Facebook Pulls People Down the Rabbit Hole (GigaOm)… Etsy ASAP Brings Same-Day Delivery to NYC (The Next Web)… Square Reports Another Loss as IPO Roadshow Approaches (Wall Street Journal)…
Street Fight Daily: Postmates’ Super-Speedy Food Delivery, Apple Approves Native Ad Blocker
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Postmates Takes on Uber and Sprig with Quick Food Delivery Service Pop (Recode)… Apple Approves an App That Blocks Ads in Native Apps (TechCrunch)… Amazon Commands Almost Half of All Product Searches, and Marketers Are Ignoring Omnichannel (VentureBeat)…
For Brick and Mortar to Beat Ecommerce, It Takes Mind, Body, and Spirit
While many onlookers think that increased comparison shopping, faster and cheaper delivery options like drones, and the convenience of shopping at home equal doom for physical stores, the reality is that the economy (like the people behind it) is largely driven by the irrational.