Street Fight Daily: HomeAdvisor Growing Fast, Mcommerce’s Customer Service Impact
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…
Diller’s Home Services Bet Could Hit $1 Billion in a Few Years (Bloomberg)
HomeAdvisor, the online home services marketplace owned by Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp, may reach $1 billion in revenue in the next three to five years. IAC increased its investment in HomeAdvisor last year, focusing on accelerating technology and product development, marketing, and sales. HomeAdvisor is IAC’s fastest-growing segment and is seeking more capital.
On-Demand Is Tricky to Build, but ‘Very Much a Net Positive for Everybody’ (Street Fight)
“On-demand is much harder than people think. It’s supply and demand — you have to make sure companies can grow, and that this growth can be matched,” says interim.team’s Rorie Devine. Both sides must be in sync, which makes it “twice as hard.”
How Mobile Commerce Is Changing Customer Service (VentureBeat)
Many people use smartphones to contact customer support, and more businesses are moving to offer in-app mobile experiences. Right now, a gap exists between a company’s product and their ability to provide a great mobile customer experience. To keep users engaged, businesses need to understand what makes mobile commerce tick.
5 Platforms for Cross-Promotions Between Local Businesses (Street Fight)
In communities around the country, small business owners are considered local influencers. And rather than go it alone with their local marketing campaigns, some of these merchants are finding success by partnering with peers and implementing new cross-promotional marketing strategies.
Second Measure Is the New Secret Weapon Investors Are Using to Outsmart Each Other (Business Insider)
Investors are turning to a startup called Second Measure, which takes billions of anonymized credit card transactions and analyzes them to see where consumers are going, for an information edge. Clients can dig into the retention rates of customers, average customer order spend, and wallet share, and then break it down further by geography.
How Startup Thanx Builds Loyalty Apps for Brands (Forbes)
Zach Goldstein built his startup, Thanx, around the idea that many smartphone users feel they have too many apps. Thanx’s premise: that an app tracking all your loyalty programs can run in the background, saving you money when you buy something without ever needing to be opened. But now, Thanx has gotten into the business of building brands like restaurant chains their very own apps to try to get customers to download.
What Uber’s App Update Means for Brands (GeoMarketing)
In its latest update, Uber is promising faster load times and improved GPS that could help promote its brand partners. Whether consumers notice the improvement will be known soon enough. But companies like Hilton and American Express could be the ones to feel the benefits most perceptibly.
Mobile Food Coupon Users More Likely to Try New Brands (MediaPost)
Among the findings in the latest release from GfK MRI’s “Survey of the American Consumer”: Consumers who use mobile coupons while food shopping are significantly more likely to try new brands — and young adults and affluent consumers are key users of these coupons.
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