Suburban Nashville ‘Indie’ Thrives Amid Gannett Revamp at Tennessean
Five years after she co-founded an independent community news site in metro Nashville’s most affluent suburb, Kelly Gilfillan is now running — and growing — her company by herself. Gilfillan tells Street Fight how she competes with a $5.4 billion media corporation as she pursues her “indie” entrepreneurial course…
Groupon’s Local Business Bounces Back — But Is It Too Little Too Late?
Groupon beat market expectations in the third quarter, stabilizing a troubled international segment and accelerating the company’s core North American local business after three quarters of decline. But the company’s quickly growing ecommerce business continues to overshadow the small gains of the local segment…
LBMA Podcast: Interviews With Aisle411, GameStop, and Mapquest
On the show: Our wrap from RetailLoco in Chicago, plus top stories of the week — including Vistar Media’s cross-screen ad platform; John Lewis testing the Oculus Rift; The Bluesmart suitcase; AboutPlace going into beta; Whirlpool partnering with Gigwalk; and Prizm’s contextual music device…
At GrubHub, a Delicate Balance Between Search and Commerce
Next Tuesday, Grubhub’s president Jonathan Zabusky will join us for a fireside chat at Street Fight Summit in New York. We caught up with Zabusky, who served as chief executive at Seamless prior to the merger, to talk about the state of the company and the evolving local commerce opportunity…
6 Tools SMBs Can Use to Push Mobile Ads
By streamlining the creative and logistical components typically associated with mobile marketing campaigns, vendors are giving small businesses a way to expand their reach and modernize their advertising practices without increasing costs. Here are six solutions SMBs can use to push ads to mobile users…
Street Fight Daily: Google Lets SMBs Respond, Mobile Investment Booms
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…… “Google My Business” App Now Lets Business Owners Respond To Customer Reviews From Their Smartphone (TechCrunch)… Mobile Internet Investment Hits Record $19.2b — Up 232% In Last 12 Months (VentureBeat)… Maker of Apple Pay Competitor Has Already Been Hacked (Recode)…
Holiday Shoppers Will Move Between Online and Offline More Than Ever Before
In two new studies, the Gannett-owned digital marketing company G/O Digital took a look at the capabilities and offerings that will drive shopper behavior during the holidays for national and smaller retailers respectively. According to one, 84% of online shoppers said they planned to use an online channel to help decide where to shop before purchasing a gift in store at a small business…
With Nomi Deal, Brickstream Kicks Off Consolidation in Store Analytics
Brickstream, an in-store analytics firm, has snapped up the New York-based Nomi, an indoor marketing startup founded by a handful of Salesforce alums, in an all-equity deal. The entire 37-person Nomi team will join Brickstream including CEO Marc Ferrentino who will now serve as chief marketing officer for the Atlanta, Ga.-based company…
Wix Buys Its Way Into Online Ordering
Wix, the Isreali-based website builder, has quietly pushed into the wider small business technology market since going public last year. Now the company has acquired OpenRest, a small Israeli-American startup that provides restaurants with the ability to accept orders through a website or mobile app…
Street Fight Daily: Taco Bell’s New App, Sun-Times’ Network Play
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Taco Bell Unveils Mobile Ordering (USA Today)… The Newsonomics Of The Sun-Times National/Local Network Play (Nieman Journalism Lab)… Groupon’s New Product Boss Leaving After Less Than Two Months (Recode)…
In Frozen Yogurt Wars, A Battle for Digital Domination
In a new regular series, a deep-dive analysis of local presence pits Yogurtland against rival Pinkberry, finding that Yogurtland outperformed its smaller counterpart across Google, Facebook, Foursquare and a number of other local search sites. The study shows that Pinkberry has done slightly better on social media, but still struggles among some of the more fundamental elements of local search and discovery…
5 Geo-Location Tools for Social Media Posts
As social media usage takes off among SMBs, geo-location is an increasingly relevant topic. When businesses listen primarily to the opinions of consumers in their direct marketing areas, they’re better able to streamline their listening strategies and optimize their social media marketing programs. Here are five tools that businesses can use to geo-target their social media strategies…
Street Fight Daily: LivingSocial Losses Grow, Yelp’s European Push
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… LivingSocial Losses Grow To $32M In Third Quarter (Washington Business Journal)… Yelp’s European Push Continues As It Snaps Up French Review Site Cityvox (TechCrunch)… Apple Pay Registered One Million Credit Cards in First 72 Hours (Recode)…
Street Fight Daily: Retailers Disable Apple Pay, Yelp Buys German Competitor
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Apple Pay Is Disabled by Rite Aid and CVS as a Rival Makes Plans (New York Times)… Yelp Buys Restaurant-Kritik To Expand Its Presence In Germany (TechCrunch)… Why NFC In The iPad Air 2 Is A Big Deal For Small Businesses (GigaOm)…
The Power of Visual Appeal in Local Search
Images are more compelling to the average user than any other medium of communication. Though users may visit local search sites and apps with the conscious intent of seeking out text-based information such as phone numbers, hours, and addresses, visual content encountered along the way may have a greater influence than textual information on deciding which businesses to visit…
In New App Marketplace, Signs of the Square’s Future
The company launched its Square App Marketplace yesterday to allow third-parties to develop applications that integrate directly into its point-of-sale product. The move marks an important step in Square’s evolution as it shifts focus from consumer-facing payments to an arguably much larger business software market…
Mobile Payments Still Facing the Same Big Obstacles
This year has been a turning point in mobile payments, as Square, Paypal, along with Apple and others like SoftCard (formerly ISIS) have all made strides in their digital payment offerings. But three years after starting a now-defunct mobile payments company, I’ve identified three big reasons why we will not be paying with our phone in everyday retail stores for a long time to come…