News and Analysis
Yelp Report Measures Consumer Interest in Regional Brands
Cava, Scooter’s Coffee, LongHorn Steakhouse, The Habit Burger Grill, and Wawa are all regional retail brands that have higher consumer interest in some parts of the country than in others. And they’re gaining traction in those markets. According to the first-ever Yelp Fastest Growing Brands report, these “challenger” brands, while not industry leaders, are disrupting […]
AI and the Drive-Thru
The drive-thru was an innovation when it first appeared in 1921 at a place called The Pig Stand. Fast-forward to 1947, when the two-way speaker box debuted at In-N Out Burger. Car culture has always been popular in the U.S., and the pandemic accelerated the desire for consumers to stay in their cars while picking […]
Peak-a-Boo: Retail Apps See You
Do branded apps usage peak, after holidays, tentpole events, or other special occasions, for you? Airship, which helps brands optimize their mobile app experiences for customers, released research this month that shows the struggle is real for retailers trying to capture and sustain long-term value from app downloads during “peak” times of the year. Airship […]
Commentary
Could Delivery Service Partners Offer Restaurants More Than a Lifeline?
Data and AI enabled the digitization of advertising a decade ago. Now, those same forces that drove innovation and transformation in advertising are changing the dynamics between restaurants and delivery service partners. DSPs are becoming more than a lifeline. They’re helping fundamentally change how restaurants and the industry operate while also helping to create the omnichannel restaurant business of the future.
The Post-App Era: Optimizing Customer Interactions with Personalization
Now is the time to pivot. Shifting the focus to mobile and social messaging channels might seem like a tall order, but optimizing customer interactions through these channels can be easily accomplished if brands increase their social touch points with consumers. After all, a customer journey is only successful if you understand the customer’s needs upfront.
First-Party Data Alone Can’t Satisfy Many Marketing Needs
When it comes to third-party data, the old Mark Twain quote applies: “The report of my death was an exaggeration.” The end of the cookie is not the same as the end of third-party data. There are multiple third-party data options for marketers that are inherently privacy-conscious, regulation-satisfying, and that work with the policies being implemented by big-tech.
Latest Posts
Chatbots Get Faster and Supply Helpful Data
Deploying chatbots effectively will require smarter, faster-learning chatbots. And that’s what Botco.ai is bringing to market with Instachat Builder, “a new product that accelerates AI chat deployment by allowing Botco.ai customers to directly train Botco.ai’s chatbot on any type of text information.”
Retailers Turn to AI to Combat Burnout, Decrease Merchandiser Workloads
As retailers look at getting more done and freeing up their staff to focus on high-value tasks, interest is growing in the use of AI to handle the mundane tasks that take up too much of a merchandiser’s time — like fixing typos on e-commerce websites and researching underperforming product categories. Retailers are also using AI to flag when new products show signs of being more popular than expected, so merchandisers can act quickly and notch strategic wins.
Location-Based Marketing Association: Kalibrate Partners with Near on Location Intelligence
In this episode of Location Weekly, the Location-Based Marketing Association covers Best Buy teaming up with Pokemon Go, Taiwan’s FamilyMart launching a convenience store on wheels, Baidu getting China’s first autonomous robotaxi license, and Kalibrate partnering with Near on location intelligence.
TikTok Jumps into Local Events
For multi-location marketers, TikTok’s foray into events, and its increasing role as a destination for local discovery, portend that the platform is joining Facebook and other forums as a key place to connect online with local shoppers. TikTok can’t be ignored as an online-to-offline marketing channel.
5 Retailers Using Live Shopping to Boost Back-to-School Sales
Meta will reportedly shut down its live shopping feature on Facebook in October, but that doesn’t mean the concept of live shopping is dead. Across the retail marketing space, multi-location retailers are investing in live-stream content as a way to leverage the popularity of social media and engage with Gen Z consumers this back-to-school shopping season.
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