Street Fight Daily: Amazon Thrives on Last-Minute Shopping, Pubs See Gains in E-Commerce

Share this:

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

Last-Minute Shoppers Boost Amazon As Yearly Usage of Expedited Delivery Services Doubles (Business Insider)
A major expansion in the company’s two-day shipping, one-day shipping, same-day shipping, and two-hour shipping options made the retailer a convenient option for last-minute gifting. TechCrunch: The Echo Dot was Amazon’s best-selling product this season.

For Some Publishers, The Holidays Bring Jumps in E-Commerce Sales (AdWeek)
All the presents have been unwrapped, but that doesn’t mean the season is over for publishers. The “gift guide,” where publishers curate products set to some theme and then get a cut of purchases made through the guide, isn’t just for Christmas.

With Data and Local Guides, Google Maps Stays Ahead of the Rest (Street Fight)
Damian Rollison: Justin O’Beirne marvels that, with the AOI initiative, Google has figured out how to “create data out of data,” meaning that AOIs are a mashup of 3D modeling and data extraction from images. Looked at more broadly, this is not the only example where Google has built features on top of features within the Maps universe.

Search Disruption: How Brands Will Compete with the Duopoly in 2018 (MediaPost)
Massive changes in search advertising and marketing will move the industry forward after years of inertia. On the other hand, users may not like all the changes they design. Some will further erode privacy by creating massive digital footprints. 

The Year in Snapchat Advertising (Digiday)
Snapchat had a tough but busy year. After a disappointing earnings call in November, ad buyers continue to reserve Snapchat campaigns for the “experimental” portions of their budgets, a slim 10 to 20 percent.

MAC Lights Up Programmatic OOH to Drive Traffic In-Store (AdExchanger)
When MAC’s agency, Mindshare, suggested trying programmatic OOH as a more dynamic and measurable solution to drive traffic, the company’s marketing manager was all-in.

Home Depot Has Considered Buying a $9 Billion Logistics Company So Amazon Won’t (Recode)
Home Depot has held internal discussions in recent months about a potential acquisition bid for XPO, a $9 billion publicly traded company that offers transportation, delivery and other logistics services for big retailers and brands.

This Holiday Shopping Season May Be the Best in Over a Decade (Bloomberg)
Americans displayed their buying bona fides in the final run-up to Christmas, turning out in force to produce what may be the best holiday shopping season in years.

Get Street Fight Daily in your inbox! Subscribe to our newsletter.

Tags:
Joe Zappa is the Managing Editor of Street Fight. He has spearheaded the newsroom's editorial operations since 2018. Joe is an ad/martech veteran who has covered the space since 2015. You can contact him at [email protected]