Street Fight Daily: How Ad Blocking Affects Ecommerce, Is Food Delivery the New Gold Rush?
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…
Ecommerce Links Become the Latest Unlikely Casualty of Ad Blocking (Digiday)
The irony of ecommerce suffering the effects of ad blocking is that publishers are using commerce to lessen their reliance on advertising, in part because of ad blockers. Some publishers have made commerce a central part of their business.
Report: Beacon Use Growing, Industry on Track to Deploy 660 Million by 2020 (Street Fight)
“The number of sensors is increasing quarter by quarter,” said Unacast co-founder and CEO Thomas Walle. “A lot of companies are still in testing and trialing, but we’re moving out of that phase and into full commercial deployments.”
The Food Delivery Wars: A Little Bit of History Repeating? (PYMNTS.com)
In the 19th century, prospecting offered the opportunity for anyone to make their big strike as long as they came to the table with a pick, a pan, a mining claim, and some gumption. This line of thought was actually pretty disastrous for many. But are we more like our forebears than we might want to take credit for? Let’s consider on-demand food delivery.
Basket President: App’s Crowdsourced Price Information Empowers Shoppers (Street Fight)
“The difference in prices between stores in a five-mile radius can be as much as 50 percent, based on in-store unadvertised specials, advertised specials, and variance in list price,” said Andy Ellwood, whose company, Basket, has built “a massive database” displaying that varying price information back to consumers.
FiveStars Gets $50M to Help Small Retailers Run Loyalty Programs Like Their Bigger Rivals (TechCrunch)
FiveStars, a startup that has built a platform and app to run loyalty programs and shopping analytics for small brick-and-mortar retailers, has received a reward of its own: a round of $50 million, funding that it plans to use to continue its focus on mom and pop shops and building its brand and business across the U.S.
Ecommerce Waits Out the Age of Amazon (MediaPost)
While stores struggle to reconcile slower growth in physical outlets with continued strength in online shopping, Forrester is predicting that this year, foot traffic in stores will continue to fall. But since customers are more likely to be walking into malls primed with preferences gleaned online, “conversion rates and average order values will increase,” a balance it says has become “the new normal.” Here, Forrester’s Sucharita Mulpuru gives more insight.
Playbill Passport Taps Gimbal, Urban Airship to Geo-Target Broadway Theatergoers (GeoMarketing)
Proximity platform Gimbal and its frequent app-based marketing partner Urban Airship are taking their act to New York, sending mobile messages to theater patrons as they take their seats at on- or off-Broadway shows. Playbill Passport, the companion app to the 130-year-old Playbill magazine of shows, related info, and listings, will get those targeted notifications.
Why Small Businesses Are Getting LinkedIn Wrong (Wall Street Journal)
Alexandra Samuel: Much of the advice on how to leverage LinkedIn is targeted at big names. Over and over, I see small businesses making mistakes on LinkedIn because they are patterning their strategies after approaches that work for larger companies with huge budgets, lots of brand awareness, and extensive social-media systems.
Coors Light Is Offering Neighborhood-Specific Mobile Music to New Yorkers (Adweek)
New York is a metropolis where residents take pleasure in walking from neighborhood to neighborhood, exploring the plethora of sights and sounds the city has to offer. In the coming weeks, New Yorkers can add music to their adventures, courtesy of Coors Light, which is testing interactive ads via tech-enhanced kiosks in several Manhattan sidewalk locations.
The End of the Big Venture Formula (TechCrunch)
Danny Crichton: We need a sustainable approach to startup growth and venture capital. That means more heads-down quality thinking to build products that customers actually want and will eventually pay for. We need a new disruptive capitalism that is designed for a much more mature internet market.
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