Street Fight Daily: Mobile Payment Transactions to Reach $27B by 2016, How to Sell on Social Media
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…
Holiday Weekend a Big Win for Mobile (Street Fight)
U.S. consumers proved reluctant to spend their Thanksgiving holiday in stores, but demonstrated few qualms about shopping online. Digital commerce was up significantly from 2014 levels, and Black Friday saw brick-and-mortar spending reach its highest totals since 2012. The biggest winner over the weekend was mobile.
U.S. Proximity Mobile Payment Transactions to Reach $8.71 Billion in 2015, $27.05 Billion in 2016 (eMarketer)
After several years of fits and starts, as well as new players continuing to enter the market, the use of proximity mobile payments in the U.S. is expected to ramp up aggressively. Transaction value will triple in 2016 due to a growing user base, broader merchant acceptance, and the greater frequency of consumers using their phones to make point-of-sale payments.
The New Wave of Selling on Mobile and Social (TechCrunch)
Dan Leberman: We’re seeing the emergence of “shoppable social,” whereby consumers can easily make a purchase or claim an offer directly from Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram’s mobile apps. This brand of commerce is an obvious win for merchants, who will be able to leverage the data to target the best customers at the most appropriate moment. It’s also great for consumers, who won’t need to waste time with irrelevant ads and content.
Raise Report: Deliveroo, Placester, Shiftgig Rake in Fresh Funding (Street Fight)
Every two weeks we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. In this edition, new investments include rounds for Deliveroo, Placester, Shiftgig, Salido, TinyRx, UrbanClap, and Le Tote.
Amazon Books Should Be the Future of Brick-and-Mortar Retail Chains (Gigaom)
Nathaniel Mott: Why aren’t there more retail stores like Amazon’s bookstore experiment — a store with a variety of goods on physical shelves with prices that fluctuate to stay in sync with the online version? There’s potential here to merge the online and offline shopping experience.
On Cyber Monday, Friendly Robots Are Helping Smaller Stores Chase Amazon (Wired)
What most people don’t realize in the age of push-button shopping is the “shopping” part doesn’t disappear. You the consumer are no longer at the store doing the physical work of tracking down the thing you want, but somebody still has to do it. For ecommerce, that task typically falls to a worker at a distribution center who must locate the product and send it off to be packed and shipped. Enter Locus Robotics.
Mobify Buys Dónde to Better Reach Mobile Shoppers (Fortune)
Just in time for the Cyber Monday shopping onslaught: Mobify, which helps companies run mobile-friendly ecommerce sites, is buying Dónde, a specialist in location-based services. The aim is to reach shoppers using smartphones, whether online or in stores.
Trouble in the Checkout Line: Which Way to Pay? (Wall Street Journal)
The holiday shopping season is shifting into top gear at a moment when the U.S. payments industry is in an unprecedented state of flux because of new technology. For consumers, it can all be pretty confusing. (Subscription required)
LBMA Podcast: Western Union and WeChat Partner for Money Transfers, Carvana to Sell Cars in Vending Machines (Street Fight)
On the show: Western Union partners with WeChat for money transfers; Carvana to sell cars through vending machines; Millennial Media is working with Rentrak to match TV ad viewing with mobile; National Geographic launches “Find Your Park, Love Your Park.” Plus, news from SenionLab, Gravy and ROIchecker, RoamingAround, Google and Virgin America, and Oxfam America and xAd.
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