Street Fight Daily: Salesforce Launches Retail Platform, 55% of Online Shoppers Start on Amazon

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…

Salesforce Announces Cloud-Based Retail Platform for In-Store, Online (MediaPost)
As part of the Customer Success Platform, retail brands on the Salesforce Commerce Cloud can transform how they connect with their customers at every step in the journey: from discovery, engagement, and transaction to analytics, community and service,” wrote Jeff Barnett, CEO of the Salesforce Commerce Cloud.

More Shoppers Are Starting Their Online Search on Amazon (CNBC)
Roughly 55 percent of consumers begin their online shopping searches on Amazon’s site, according to a new study by BloomReach. Meanwhile, 28 percent of people said they start their hunt on a traditional search engine, down from 34 percent last year.

Burbio Creates Smarter Community Calendars for Local Events (Street Fight)
Tom Grubisich: Calendar and event sites in surburban towns have a “massive pain point,” according to hyperlocal entrepreneurs Dennis and Julie Roche. Their company, Burbio, tailors calendar information for consumers so that they can more easily keep up with everything that’s going on in their communities.

Why Publishers’ Revenue From Branded Content Posts on Facebook May Drop (AdExchanger)
When publishers post branded content stories, Facebook will notify the advertiser and grant them access to the post’s high-level insights like reach and engagement metrics, along with total spend and CPM data.

5 Tools for Buying Local Ads in National Publications (Street Fight)
By placing localized ads in national publications, smaller businesses and national chains with physical locations can cut down on wasted spending and ensure their ads are only being seen by consumers in the markets they serve. At the same time, these businesses are getting access to high-quality publications for a tiny fraction of the typical cost.

Biz Stone on the Future of Search (TechCrunch)
Chatbots and SMS are becoming the preferred method of how people and businesses communicate with one another, and it’s time that search engines follow suit. Greylock’s Josh Elman sits down with serial entrepreneur Biz Stone to discuss the future of search and key lessons learned for entrepreneurs looking to build the next big thing.

Is Uber the Next Big Thing That Goes Kaput? This Guy Thinks So (Washington Post)
To get as far as it’s gotten, Steven Hill argues in his book, Uber has evaded livery laws; flooded the street with nonprofessional, unregulated and under-insured drivers; misled customers on the adequacy of background checks; overstated the pay that drivers could earn; and avoided paying local taxes.

AppLovin, a 115-Employee, Profitable Startup That Never Raised from VCs, Acquired for $1.4B (Business Insider)
A hot mobile ad startup based in Palo Alto called AppLovin has confirmed that it sold a majority interest in itself to a Chinese private equity firm, Orient Hontai Capital, for $1.4 billion.

Email Continues to Get More Mobile (eMarketer)
US email marketers are having increasing success with mobile devices compared to the desktop. According to August research, mobile devices were driving more email clicks, orders and revenues in Q2 2016 than a year earlier.

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