Street Fight Daily: Amazon Food Delivery Expanding to More Major Cities, Google Maps Goes Offline
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Amazon Plans to Roll Out Restaurant Delivery in Cities Across the Country (Recode)… Google Maps Is Adding Offline Navigation and Search (The Verge)… Brand Advertising in Programmatic Era Fattens Margins for Big E-tailers (Ad Age)…
Dealmakers: Growth Hacking with Sales Automation Technology
We tend to think of fragmentation as a major hurdle, but it means opportunities as well — to leverage content, data, and analytics to create an efficient, effective lead pipeline. Investors are turning their attention to this opportunity, pouring money into and acquiring companies that facilitate sales and marketing automation. What distinguishes the companies receiving investment dollars this year is that they uniquely embrace the concept of “growth hacking.”
6 Tools Restaurants Can Use to Accept Mobile Orders
The mobile ordering landscape is quickly evolving, with increases in consumer demand fueling the growth. Even independently owned restaurants with just one or two locations are feeling the push to offer their customers mobile ordering. Here are six platforms restaurant owners can use to meet the demand.
Street Fight Daily: Google and Flipkart Partner to Eliminate Apps, Groupon’s Ideel Takes a Hit
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… With a Mobile Website Like An App, Flipkart Takes a Swipe at Apple (New York Times)… Groupon Site Ideel to Pack Up and Ship Out of New York (Crain’s New York Business)… Legacy Retailers Struggle to Ramp Up Mobile Marketing (Ad Age)…
#SFSNYC VIDEO: Smartphones Will Make the Connected Store a Reality
Implementing technology in retail environments as means of “saving” brick-and-mortar stores has been a consistent theme in recent years. But consumers have sent a clear message that the connected store can’t be about technology for technology’s sake. Smartphones’ increasingly central role in the shopping process, from research to purchase, makes them the logical link between connected shoppers and connected stores.
Franchises Make Scale Profitable for TAPinto.net’s Two-State Network
TAPinto.net has taken its New Jersey-centered franchise model for community news to adjacent and competitive Westchester and Putnam Counties in New York State’s heavily suburban Lower Hudson Valley. In this Q&A, founder and CEO Mike Shapiro explains how he’s been able to scale his seven-year-old community network through franchising, and do it largely through self-financing.
Street Fight Daily: A Deep Dive into the Yahoo-Google Partnership, Square’s IPO Struggles
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… What Does Yahoo’s New Google Partnership Mean for SEO’s Future? (Search Engine Land)… Square, Facing a Chilly Market, Persists in Pursuing IPO (New York Times)… Pinterest Sharpens Its Visual-Search Skills (Wall Street Journal)…
Openings and New Hires at Groupon, Rocket Fuel, and Xaxis
Every two weeks, Geoff Michener covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. In this week’s column, Groupon appoints another new CEO, Xaxis spinoff Light Reaction gains a vice president of global operations, and programmatic leader Rocket Fuel adds political veterans in anticipation of new online ad spending for the 2016 election cycle.
DC Startup Fundrise Is Redefining How We Invest in Real Estate
Major real estate development projects like Manhattan’s 3 World Trade Center cost billions, and budget overruns often delay construction. Enter Fundrise: The company’s technology opens doors for individuals who want to invest in local real estate developments, but maybe don’t have millions of dollars lying around. Fundrise has seen 1,500 percent growth in deal volume since May 2014.
LBMA Podcast: Lowe’s Is Opening a Hardware Store in Space, eeGeo Launches Global 3D Mapping Platform
On the show: Lowe’s is opening a hardware store in space; eeGeo launches global 3D mapping platform; MLB used Snapchat Geofilters for World Series; Taggalo blends beacons with facial recognition; Sochat, which allows you to text anyone nearby, just raised $2 million. Plus, news from Sears; IBM + Weather Channel; Thinknear; and Facebook.
Street Fight Daily: Postmates Acquires Local Discovery Startup Sosh, Facebook’s New SMB Ad Products
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Postmates Is Buying Sosh, a Service for Discovering Local Activities (Fortune)… Facebook’s New Tools Let Merchants Tailor Ads for Nearby Consumers (Adweek)… How Handy’s Founder Oisin Hanrahan Is Scaling His Startup into an On-Demand Powerhouse (The Next Web)…
The Path to Purchase Is More Mobile than Ever: xAd Study
xAd’s fourth annual Mobile Path to Purchase study indicates the customer journey is more smartphone-dependent than ever, even for big-ticket, high-consideration purchases like cars. “Location is much more than a targeting tactic; it’s a powerful indicator of consumers’ intent and immediacy of needs,” said xAd senior director of global research Sarah Ohle.
5 Tools Local Merchants Can Use to Segment In-Store Visitors
Loyal customers are incredibly valuable to local merchants. A new class of hyperlocal platforms is helping small business owners pinpoint and engage with repeat visitors using a combination of in-store beacons, geo-location tools, and customer segmentation technology. Here are five platforms that enable merchants to track visit frequency and send highly targeted promotions to maximize sales among their most valuable customers.
Street Fight Daily: Facebook’s Q3 Success Fueled by Mobile, Jet.com’s Emergency Fundraising
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook’s Transformation into a Mobile Company Is Complete (Gigaom)… Facing Cash Crunch, Retailer Jet.com Racing to Complete Funding Round (Wall Street Journal)… Hiku’s New Connected Grocery Scanner Lets You Order Groceries from Walmart and Peapod (TechCrunch)…
Q3 Earnings Roundup: Shift to Mobile Presents Commerce Challenge for Yelp, Angie’s List, Groupon
Consumers are spending more time on their mobile devices than ever, a shift that is affecting both traditional and digital businesses. Recent earnings reports from Yelp, Angie’s List, and Groupon indicate that some of these publicly traded local mainstays are handling the transition better than others, particularly the rising challenge to effectively combine content, commerce, and services.
Zenchef CEO: The Restaurant Tech Sector Is Booming
French company Zenchef, which offers an all-in-one marketing solution for restaurants, has taken on the challenge of uniting thousands of European eateries on one platform. With 2,500 customers in France, Spain, and the UK, and plans to expand to Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Turkey in 2016, co-founder and CEO Xavier Zeitoun said “the key in this market is distribution.”
Case Study: Restaurant Group Takes a Data-Driven Approach to Email Marketing
Data is changing the way large restaurant groups cater to their highest-value customers. Richard Sandoval Restaurants, the upmarket restaurant group with more than 35 locations worldwide, is looking for more strategic ways to use data for customer retention and acquisition. It has started harnessing its email database to make more data-driven decisions using tools like customer analytics and marketing platform Venga.
Constant Contact CEO Touts ‘Distribution Benefits’ After $1.1 Billion Acquisition by Endurance
Endurance International Group, which operates a stable of small business-oriented services, has acquired email marketing giant Constant Contact, in a transaction valued at $1.1. billion. Constant Contact will become the largest brand under the Endurance umbrella. “It’s taking our mission further by getting broader distribution. That’s the number-one rationale for the acquisition,” said Constant Contact CEO Gail Goodman.
Do You Bing? If Not, It’s Time to Start
Microsoft recently announced that Bing turned its first profit since being launched in 2009. The company continues to extend its reach, grow its share of the search market, and add features that make it a stronger commerce tool. The question businesses should be asking is not whether Bing will catch up to Google, but whether they view Bing as a critical publisher to improve the reach of their location data.