Street Fight Daily: eBay Acquires Shutl, Tracking Companies Set New Rules
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology
eBay Acquires Shutl, Races Amazon To Your Front Door (ReadWrite)
eBay agreed to acquire start-up Shutl Tuesday to help the e-commerce giant expand its same-day delivery delivery service and compete more with Amazon, the world’s largest Internet retailer. According to Devin Wenig, president of eBay Marketplaces, consumption on the auction network has shifted strongly toward local purchases, probably as a result of eBay Now, a service released last October that lets shoppers order products from local stores and receive them in as little as an hour.
Why Attribution Is the ‘New Black’ in Local Marketing (Street Fight)
Bill Dinan: Advertising performance measurement has never been a simple process, but cross-platform consumer media usage, mobile, and advanced targeting technologies have made the process of linking ad engagement to a consumer purchase action even more challenging. The next generation of proper attribution has become essential for the ad tech industry and marketers looking to make ROI-driven advertising decisions.
Tracking Companies Agree to Notify Shoppers, But Retailers Demur (Wall Street Journal)
Shoppers may soon learn which stores have been watching them as they stroll through the aisles. In response to growing public unease about privacy, on Tuesday a group of companies providing retailers with location tracking services agreed to give consumers notice that they are tracking them — and to encourage retail companies they work with to post instructions explaining how to opt-out of tracking.
Why It’s So Hard to Create Marketplaces for Local Commerce (Street Fight)
Steven Jacobs: Recognizing the success of Uber, startups and incumbents alike rushed to replicate the company’s model in other verticals, developing new products to help business and consumers buy and sell local services like car repair, house cleaning, and haircuts. MyTime, the 9-month old project launched by RedBeacon founder Ethan Anderson, is one of these and is staying the course. When I spoke with Anderson last week, he outlined a few key strategic decisions and clever hacks, which have helped the company get some early traction for its marketplace.
Why Longtime Netflix CFO Barry McCarthy Just Agreed to Work for Clinkle’s 22-Year-Old CEO (AllThingsD)
Clinkle, a stealth startup building a new way for shoppers to pay in stores using just their phone, has gained some early credibility thanks to an impressive roster of investors, which includes Peter Thiel, Andreessen Horowitz and Richard Branson. Now, The ongtime Netflix CFO Barry McCarthy has joined Clinkle full-time on Monday as its first chief operating officer.
Case Study: Cosi Drives In-Store Visits With Mobile Campaign (Street Fight)
Traditional media buys can generate brand awareness, but when it comes to driving foot traffic, it’s all about mobile. “The most important thing for us is to drive traffic to either increase visits from current customers or to bring new customers in,” says Marc Lapides, director of marketing at Cosi, the fast-casual restaurant chain with more than 100 locations in 16 states and the District of Columbia. “We really wanted to find a way to use mobile technologies to drive people into the store.”
Foursquare Revamps Its Website, Highlighting Nearby Hot Spots, Offers and Tips From Friends (TheNextWeb)
After a flurry of recent updates, Foursquare has just gone live with a revamped site, bringing the best of its mobile apps to the desktop. The new Foursquare.com will detect where you are and highlight relevant locations based on time of day as well as gives you highlights of any destination you choose, with tips from your friends if you’re logged in.
Airbnb To New York: ‘You Should Be Thanking Us.’ (PandoDaily)
Last week the state’s top prosecutor subpoenaed the company asking for the personal data of about 15,000 of its New York City residents. Today the company shot back, not in the form of a statement, but with a study. The study exhibited a slew of numbers and graphs elucidating the economic support Airbnb has provided for the city of New York. According to his numbers, the platform was able to drive $632 million in economic activity, and helped support over 4,500 jobs.
Caterina Fake’s Findery Launches Mobile App for Stories About Places (AllThingsD)
Findery, which Fake describes as a collection of “stories about places,” is releasing an iOS app today — a year and a half after launching its website. The Findery app will help users find stories that have been geotagged to where they’re located, zip themselves around the world to explore another place, and follow favorite writers for their latest posts.
Prism Skylabs Raises $15M Round Led By Intel To Use Surveillance Cameras For In-Store Analytics (TechCrunch)
Video analytics startup Prism Skylabs announced today that it has raised $15 million in Series B funding. The company can use footage from existing security cameras to provide retailers and other businesses with “web-style analytics”.
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