Postmates CEO: Online and Offline Commerce Will ‘Melt Into One’
“We give our consumers what can be seen as a remote control that allows them to browse the inventory of a city, buy an item, and have that item delivered in under an hour,” says CEO Bastian Lehmann. “Whatever Fedex does on the global level, we want to be able to do that on a micro-urban level.”
Street Fight Poll: Word-of-Mouth Is Primary Driver of Local Business
A new Street Fight poll finds that even with a slew of new locally targeted marketing platforms at local merchants’ disposal, word-of-mouth is still a primary driver of local consumer behavior. The poll of 500 U.S. consumers found that 43% of consumers are most likely to shop or dine at a local business after a recommendation from a friend or colleague…
PODCAST: This Week in Location-Based Marketing — Placecast, Expion
In this week’s episode, hosts Rob Woodbridge and Asif Khan reflect on the first 100 shows. Innovation finally strikes with ByteLight; the Green Giant makes his augmented reality debut; stories from Placecast, Klash and Facedeals; and a ton of acquisitions, our resource of the week from Shopify, and special guest Erica McClenney of Expion…
Hyperlocal Retail Directories Go After ‘Shop Local’ Consumers
Two key reasons why consumers shop local is immediacy of purchase and physical confirmation of product, (i.e. making sure a shoe fits). Fab and Etsy can’t ship their products to you for delivery this afternoon — and it’s tedious for a consumer to filter product offerings based on retail location. That leaves room for hyperlocal retail directories like GatherLA.com , which curates designers in Los Angeles for discovery by local consumers…
Angie’s List Revenue Up 75%; Partners With Square to Integrate Payments
Angie’s List narrowly beat market expectations announcing stronger than expected earnings in Q3, bringing in $42 million in revenue on a $18.5 million loss. That’s a 75% jump in revenue year-over-year. While losses ticked up 6%, the reviews firm showed strong growth among its service provider segment with revenues nearly doubling on a quarter-over-quarter basis…
Yahoo Shouldn’t Be So Quick to Turn Away From Local
Local offers Yahoo one of the few great markets where no obvious winner has emerged. Yes, Google owns Maps, Android and local search. Meanwhile Apple is moving to lock up the mobile local search segment (including voice recognition with Siri). But neither has really owns local content yet…
Why a Renaissance in Local Delivery Points to a Resurgent Main Street
We’re seeing an explosion of activity in the logistics space with a handful of key startups expanding; Walmart piloting a same-day delivery option; and eBay opening its own delivery service, eBay Now. What’s driving the resurgence however, is not the e-commerce framework that sunk Kozmo and continues to hinder Amazon’s efforts. It’s a new push to improve connectivity, and transparency, within existing local marketplaces — not build new ones…
Street Fight Daily: Yelp Buys Qype, SMBs Warm to Facebook
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Yelp Buys Website Qype for $50 Million to Grow in Europe (Bloomberg Businessweek)… Local Businesses Start Warming Up To Facebook Ads: 300K Tried Promoted Posts, 75K Were New Advertisers (TechCrunch)… Brick-and-Mortar Retailers Preparing for an Online Christmas (AllThingsD)…
Shining a Light: ByteLight Goes After ‘Holy Grail’ of Indoor LBS
Forget about the “last mile,” this Cambridge, Mass.-based company plans to close the last meter, with light-based technology to target shoppers within a a few feet. Street Fight sat down with CEO Aaron Ganick after the dust had settled on their recent funding announcement to find out whether his product could change hyperlocal commerce — or if it was just technology searching for a problem…
Topix Expands Emphasis on Local Races in Runup to Election
With just a couple of weeks remaining until the election, hyperlocal news aggregator Topix is going all in — covering the smaller elections that don’t get national press or, for that matter, any press at all. In July, the company recruited David Marks from Politico to be editor-in-chief of its local politics coverage. Last week, the company launched a new offering that gives a granular look at local races. Street Fight recently caught up with Topix CEO Chris Tolles to talk about his site’s deepening focus on local politics…
Sense CEO: SMBs Must Reach Consumers at Decision-Making Points
“The mobile experience is a very personal interaction with the consumer.” says Sense Networks CEO David Petersen. “It’s one that you can interact with consumers and lots of times, when they’re on the go. I think it’s less formal than online. I think it’s a great medium for connecting with consumers and I think today it’s also exceptionally cheap.”
SFD: DNAinfo.com Heads to Chicago, Slow Adoption of Mobile Payments
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology...
Hyperlocal News Site DNAinfo.com Readies November Launch in Chicago (Crain’s Chicago Business)…
Mobile Payments: A Solution in Search of a Problem? (CNET)…
Google’s Woes Show Mobile Isn’t Just a Facebook Problem (Wired)…
Broadcastr’s Lindenbaum on ‘Putting the Web Back Into the World’
“The expectation for discovery of content is one that continues to rise,” says the company’s co-founder. “At a certain point people are expecting content that is perfect for them to just already be there for them. So, the more factors we can take into consideration in order to deliver on those expectations, the better we’re going to be. Location is one of those things”
Openings & New Hires at Constant Contact, Facebook, Groupon & More
Ever more personnel changes at Groupon, a new hire at Constant Contact, plus shifts across the industry in business development, sales and product management. On the move this week: Dalip Tyagi, Shagun Vatsa, Joshua Scherman, Sean Smyth, and more. Openings at Yext, Yahoo, Ebay, LinkedIn, Manta and more…
Village Soup Today: The Pot Is Full and Bubbling Again
Counting all his revenue streams — online and print subscriptions, paid business and nonprofit briefs, display ads and licensing for publishing software — Reade Brower says he has achieved, in a few months’ time, the sustainability that eluded former Village Soup owner Richard Anderson in 14 years. “Everything is very steady,” Brower said. “The money is good.”