Bonobos, an Ecommerce Darling, Finds an Edge in Brick-and-Mortar
Last year, Bonobos, the upstart apparel brand that exploded selling pants to young professionals online, did something that seemed counterintuitive: it opened a physical store. Street Fight caught up with Erin Ersenkal, VP of Guide Shops and planning at Bonobos, to discuss the thinking behind the move into brick-and-mortar retail, the benefit of a showroom approach, and the value of a physical presence in building a new brand…
LBMA Podcast: VoucherPages and Memoir Co-founder Lee Hoffman
This Week in Location Based Marketing is a weekly video podcast from the Location Based Marketing Association. Top stories of the week include Bird’s Eye, Taggalo, Record Run, American Troubadour, Adtile’s Touch experience, wearables for dogs by Whistle, holograms winning the election in India, the blood charger poster from Brazil and free WiFi through your passport in Japan…
Street Fight Daily: Foursquare Execs Decamp, Apple Mulls Mobile Payments
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Foursquare’s COO, Biz Dev Head Are Leaving (Recode)…
Apple Discussing iPhone Payments Service With High-profile Retail Brands (9to5Mac)… Ad Tech Companies Create Mobile Ad Exchange to Rival Google, Twitter (AdAge)…
6 Strategies for Onboarding Merchants to a New Marketplace
Being unable to attract qualified sellers is one of the biggest obstacles a local marketplace will face. And, as Harvard Business School associate professor Andrei Hagiu described to Street Fight in an interview last summer, it’s an obstacle that many marketplace founders are unprepared to overcome. “If you don’t have buyers, then you’re not going to have sellers, and visa versa. That prevents a lot of marketplaces from getting off the ground,” Hagiu said…
Street Fight Daily: Uber Looks to Driverless Cars, Datalogix Raises $45M
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Uber CEO: Self-Driving Cars Are the Future, Drivers Are Not (Recode)… Datalogix Raises $45M to Help Advertisers Track Offline Purchases (Adage)… Payments Firm Swipely Raises $20M More As Its Processing Tally Crosses The $2B Mark (TechCrunch)…
New Listing Services Will Help Local Data Go Digital
Somewhat unexpectedly, 2014 has seen a profusion of companies entering the listing management arena, many of them veterans of related disciplines. Those of us with long experience in the space are not surprised that others would see the value in helping businesses get found on local search sites and apps. But why the sudden surge of activity?
6 Tools for Gathering Insight from Digital Customer Interactions
A lack of time and knowledge are two factors that explain why business owners don’t take a more active role in monitoring how they’re perceived online. However, a number of hyperlocal platforms are now aiming to streamline that process by giving small businesses access to advanced marketing automation tools and analytics suites that were once reserved for national brands and agencies. Here are six platforms that businesses can use to gather insight from online customer interactions…
Street Fight Daily: Square Adds Loans, Foursquare Declares Search Broken (Again)
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Square Expands into Small Business Loans (Financial Times)… Foursquare Declares Local Search (Yelp And Google) Broken, Vows Fix With Personalization (TechCrunch)… The FTC Condemns the Data Brokerage Industry’s Collection Practices (Pando)…
Why Airbnb Is Interested in Local Search
Over the past few years, Airbnb has quietly pushed to bring the sense of authenticity implicit in apartment sharing beyond the walls of the host’s home. Street Fight recently caught up with Lenny Rachitsky, a product manager at Airbnb and previously the founder of Localmind, to talk about the role of local discovery in Airbnb’s product…
Syndicated Commerce: Bridging the Gap Between Content and Commerce
When done right, ecommerce is one of the most lucrative options for publishers challenged not just with creating compelling content, but also with generating revenue through content-based display advertising. The publishers who adapt to the trends of ecommerce will thrive and become leaders in the new economy. Those who don’t will become unsustainable and disappear…
5 Ways Hyperlocal Technology Can Save Malls from Extinction
Given their position in the marketplace, hyperlocal vendors are uniquely able to help physical stores fight back against the changing tide. By using features like geo-targeting, indoor tracking, and mobile messaging, brick-and-mortar retailers can band together and increase their chances of survival. Here are five ways that hyperlocal technology can potentially save shopping malls from extinction…
Street Fight Daily: Intuit’s Buying Spree Continues, Google Eyes Skybox
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Intuit to Buy Bill-Payment Service Check Inc. for $360 Million (Wall Street Journal)… Google Close To Snapping Up Satellite Startup Skybox Imaging For $1B+, Say Sources (TechCrunch)… Investor Talk on Uber’s Valuation Hits as High as $17 Billion (Wall Street Journal)…
Watch Out Yelp and Foursquare — Facebook Starts Flexing Its Local Muscles Again
During a presentation at Internet Week in New York on Thursday, Justin Moore, an engineering manager at Facebook, offered a full-throated pitch for the company’s local data initiatives. Moore, a former Foursquare engineer who joined Facebook in early 2012, says a team in the company’s New York office has spent the past two years turning the 32 billion pieces of location-tagged content, which have been created on the social network, into a sprawling database of places that spans the globe…
Openings and New Hires at Telmetrics, OPA, Square, and Pro.com
Every two weeks, Search Influence’s Kelly Benish — who knows practically everyone in hyperlocal — covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. In this week’s edition, new hires and jobs at PayPal, Signpost, Search Influence, Angie’s List, LiveIntent, hibu and more …
LBMA Podcast: Indoor Location Tech at Waitrose, Motorola’s New MPact
Top stories of the week include the British Navy & quantum positioning; Freedom Telecare’s PunchPrompt; the Gap’s #summerloves campaign; Square’s shift in focus from Wallet to Order; SinglePoint & Drive Media Network; WhatsAppleBees, an anonymous social network for Applebees patrons; MonkeyParking App; and Starwood Hotels’ Google Glass App…
Street Fight Daily: Uber Eyes $12B Valuation, Facebook Adds Menus
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Uber Discusses Investment at $12 Billion Valuation (Wall Street Journal)… Facebook Lets Restaurants Post Menus to Their Pages (Mashable)… TripAdvisor Begins Using Its Own Restaurant Reservations Tool In Challenge to OpenTable and Yelp (Skift)…
Texas ‘Indie’ Pure Play Is Hog-Tying ‘Legacy’ Competitor
Tired of his four-hour commute between Dallas and San Angelo, Dallas Morning News ad salesman Joe Hyde applied to the San Angelo Standard-Times in 2009. He never heard back. Today, Hyde is the founder-publisher of San Angelo Live, an independent “pure play” that — in its eight months of existence — is already surpassing his Scripps competitor in key traffic metrics, and, since last month, operating in the black…
Consumers Are Using Cash Less — And That’s a Good Sign for Digital Marketers
A report by Javelin Research found that in-store cash sales in the U.S. dropped from $874 billion in 2012 to $788 million last year — a 10% decline. Over the next five years, the report projects that consumers will spend $100 billion less with cash, opting instead to pay using credit and debit cards as well as still-nascent mobile payment systems…
Street Fight Daily: Yelp Adds Video, Verizon Sells Mobile Ads
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Yelp Is Adding A New Video Feature To Its Reviews (BusinessInsider)… Verizon Looks to Target Its Mobile Subscribers With Ads (AdAge)… Google Plans Low-Cost, High Quality Wi-Fi Networks For Small- And Medium-Sized Businesses (TechCrunch)…
Native Ad Revenue May Be One Click Away With ‘Selfies’
Community news publishers everywhere are searching hard for new revenue. But who knew that dollars might be staring them virtually in the face? Broadstreet, which provides ad services to news publishers, is offering a new ad unit called the “Selfie” — short, self-generated messages that businesses and anybody else can place in the middle of an article to catch the eye of searching users. Broadstreet co-founder Kenny Katzgrau says the Selfie aims to lure businesses that want to get their message out, but are resistant to buying more expensive display ads…