Street Fight Daily: Amazon Gets Creative with Delivery, Dissecting Starbucks’ Mobile Success
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…
Amazon Tested Package Delivery by Newspaper Trucks (Wall Street Journal)
Coffee, bagel, morning paper…and your Amazon boxes? Amazon conducted a test earlier this fall in Chicago using newspaper carriers to make package deliveries along their routes. The experiment enlisted Tribune Publishing Co., and Amazon is reportedly weighing a similar delivery trial with other newspaper companies.
Why Starbucks’ Order and Pay Is More Than Milk Froth (TechCrunch)
Tim Banks: When it comes to mobile, marketers need to shake off the idea of total immersion and focus on making tiny moments matter by designing apps around the context of the user. Starbucks has got the concept of context = time + utility absolutely nailed.
The Price of Free Listings (Street Fight)
Andrew Shotland: When the Yellow Pages directory came out once a year, if your business’ phone number was printed incorrectly, you were in trouble. It was the same with local business listings on the internet, except that instead of one or two books, there were thousands of websites carrying your bad data. Here’s a look at how listings management has evolved.
IAB: First Half 2015 Ad Revenues $27.5 Billion, Search Captures 50 Percent (Search Engine Land)
On Wednesday the IAB released its half-yearly Internet Advertising Revenue Report. Total U.S. digital revenues were $27.5 billion for H1 2015. Mobile ad revenues were $8.2 billion, or just under 30 percent. Search led all other categories, though its share of desktop advertising is declining.
5 Programmatic Ad Buying Platforms for SMBs (Street Fight)
Programmatic buying has a reputation for being expensive, technically complex, and geared toward large-scale advertisers buying high volumes of impressions. But more vendors are developing programmatic solutions aimed directly at the SMB market, giving smaller advertisers the ability to plan, buy, and target digital ads in real-time, with simplified interfaces and few barriers to entry. Here are five of those solutions.
Retailers Question Chip Card Safety (The Hill)
Retailers warned lawmakers on Wednesday that microchip-enabled credit cards don’t go far enough to protect consumer data. The House Small Businesses Committee heard from retail associations and small businesses about how the switch to using chip-enabled, or EMV, cards is affecting them. Although retailers insisted they support the transition, they said they are worried that the technology is insufficient.
Sponsored Content: Hyperlocal Strategy Updates Needed for Two National Drug Store Chains (Street Fight)
This month’s Brand Battle, in conjunction with Brandify, compares the local digital marketing footprint of two of the country’s largest pharmacy chains: CVS and Walgreens.
The IoT Era Has Arrived, But What Does That Mean for Retailers? (GeoMarketing)
An interview with Greg Kahn, CEO of GK Digital Media — an advisory firm focused largely on IoT — on the arrival of the IoT era and why it’s time to move past the experimental phase.
Angie’s List Reports Profitable Third Quarter (USA Today)
Angie’s List has reported its first profitable third quarter in company history and announced two measures to guarantee its customers a fair price and quality of service, promising them that if a service isn’t satisfactory, the company will either make it good or reimburse them up to $100,000. The company also pledged to pay customers the difference on goods purchased within 30 days if they find a better deal.
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