News and Analysis
Opterus Puts the ‘Opps’ in Franchise Operations
If you are a pet owner who resides in California, your pet’s needs will differ to some degree compared to those of a pet owner in the Northeast. For example, the fundamental level of care can change based on local weather differences, explained Gary Stonell, SVP Sales & Operations at Opterus, a SaaS-based company that […]
AtData Launches a New E-mail Marketing Tool
E-mail marketing is not dead. It’s on the upswing. A whopping 362 billion (yes, billion) e-mails are expected to be sent EVERY DAY in 2024. But how do brands ensure the health of their e-mail marketing campaigns and ensure that their budgets are going toward those people not likely to simply dump your precious message […]
MULO Grows Up
What the heck is MULO anyway? MULO refers to multi-location businesses. They could be run by a corporate entity or franchises. MULO brands may be retailers, restaurants, health and wellness entities, personal services (like tutoring, tax prep, ear piercing, hair styling, or even podcasting) or even entertainment centers like those offering pickleball, golf, and baseball. […]
Commentary
How Personalized Packaging Can Drive Loyalty and Conversions
The key word here is experience. Opening a box full of bubble wrap or (get the vacuum ready) packing peanuts does not lend itself to compelling video content. What cements a product in the viewer’s mind is the branded experience. This could be personalized tissue paper, a thematic wrap element, clever inlay design, or custom selected product samples, to name a few.
How Retailers Can Scale their Workforces for the Holidays and Beyond
How can operations and HR leaders in retail organizations overcome a significant worker shortage, both now and in the future?
Tips for Black Friday and Cyber Monday Discounting
To meet the moment, retailers should be paying attention to the macro-factors impacting the current retail environment, ever-changing customer preferences (even so much as the final days before BFCM), and the nuances of the company’s own assortment and capabilities.
Latest Posts
Valid Consent: Building Trust and Demonstrating Compliance
Let’s explore how marketers, privacy professionals, and data managers can work together to obtain valid proof of consent, and why it’s critical to activate consent, preferences, and first-party data in a way that honors consumer privacy.
Live Commerce Guides Retailers to Success in the Metaverse
Immerss Co-Founder Patrick Jacobs says his company is working with a number of retailers to leverage live commerce as a way to blend the physical and digital worlds. Jacobs says sales rates with live commerce are on par with or better than in-store conversion rates, and that merchants jumping into live commerce now will be better prepared for the metaverse boom in the future.
What’s Next for Personalization and Digitization in E-Commerce
We’ll see the evolution of two major e-commerce trends in 2022. First, e-commerce retailers will work to make their digital homes less of a copy of every other e-commerce site and more of a destination that users want to spend time at. Second, the line between brick-and-mortar and digital is going to become fuzzier and less defined.
How Do the “Other” Search Engines Handle Local Search?
I wanted to look in particular at search engines other than Google and their treatment of local search. I was intrigued by the recent announcements that Bing was making forays into product inventory as a component of local search as well as the launch of Bing Travel, a Google Travel competitor but with a very different approach to destination-based search and discovery. Similarly, recent news about the exponential growth of Brave and DuckDuckGo in our era of privacy impelled me to find out more about their handling of local results.
Location-Based Marketing Association: Indoor Maps as a Service
In this episode of Location Weekly, the Location-Based Marketing Association discusses Catalina partnering with Place IQ, Japanese dating agency Matching Advisor Press using vending machines to find matches, Seattle launching an NFT Museum, and Here Technologies launching Indoor Map as a service.
TV Advertising Versus Social and Search
TV ads are delivered to consumers in a clutter-free environment, where the consumer is usually in a “leaned back,” focused state of being. TV ads are often delivered via 60″+ TV screens with full surround-sound audio, creating an immersive “sight, sound, motion” impact like no other medium. Of course TV drives better recall! And if TV ads drive better recall, basic logic would conclude that TV ads also drive better consumer response.
6 Contactless Shopping Solutions for In-Store Retail
The retail industry took notice when Merkle debuted its newest contactless shopping solution at CES 2022 this month, but the company’s Scan & Know product isn’t the only touchless retail solution on the market. Thanks to the continued adoption of augmented reality and virtual reality among consumers, more technology providers are developing in-store retail experiences that keep physical contact to a minimum.
Catalina Partners with PlaceIQ to Connect Omnichannel with OOH
A new partnership between the shopper intelligence provider Catalina and the data provider PlaceIQ could have a major impact on the way multi-location brands run optimized OOH campaigns in the coming years.
6 Contextual Video Advertising Platforms
Advertisers are leaning into contextual targeting as a way to connect with consumers in brand-suitable environments. They’re also investing more heavily in video advertising, upping ad spend on video by 12% in 2021 to a record $81.9 billion for the year. As we move further into 2022, the real magic looks to be in the combination of contextual advertising with video advertising, as more brands discover the power that comes with being able to reach audiences interested in their messages with video content that’s designed to engage.
2021 Lessons That Should Inform Your 2022 E-Commerce Marketplace Strategy
This digital-first mindset applies more pressure than ever on brands to create a holistic online experience in 2022, one that combines tried and true business strategies with creative new methods for enhanced visibility and customer experience. Success will come down to three critical elements in the year ahead: brand discoverability, compelling offers, and seamless customer experiences.
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Meta Is Automating Ads, But Brands Still Face a Bigger Problem