News and Analysis
Amazon Leans Into Livestream Shopping to Promote Prime Day Deals
More than a decade after livestream shopping first took off in China, it’s yet to reach critical mass in the U.S. Now, Amazon could finally be changing that. Companies like Shopify, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and Amazon have all invested heavily in live selling in recent years. Although Facebook famously bowed out of its investments […]
How MULO (Multi-Location) Brands are Using Threads
The newest social media app, Threads from Meta, has already close to 100 million users after its launch on July 5th. (As of this publishing, the number may even be higher, reflecting the viral spread of the app.) Despite skepticism about its functionality and staying power, big brands have already “threaded up” and are claiming […]
Study: Half of Marketers Don’t Trust Their Own Data
Nearly half of marketers have doubts about the reliability and accuracy of their digital data, despite spending thousands per month on their technology stacks. That’s according to a new study by Forrester and Zeta Global, which found that data challenges increase as more solutions get added to a company’s tech stack. Although 85% of companies […]
Commentary
4 Things to Consider When Choosing a Universal ID
Preparing for a cookieless future means getting on board with Universal IDs — there are many in the space and in the spirit of the open web, you’ll likely be working with a number of them by the end of the year. The choices that you make at this point are important, as these are long-term relationships with meaningful impact on the bottom line. So, be thorough — while there are many Universal IDs to choose from, they’re far from the same. The countdown to the demise of third-party cookies is minutes away from midnight, so start your evaluation now to ensure you don’t rush into a poor decision.
LBMA: Can FLoCs Replace the Third-Party Cookie?
In this episode of Location Weekly, the Location-Based Marketing Association covers Google’s FLoCs as an alternative to the disappearing third-party cookie, the AR platform Beerscans turning beer labels into augmented reality experiences, Krispy Kreme offering free donuts to encourage vaccination, and GroundTruth acquiring Addy.
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Adtech Firms Test New Concept with Autonomous Bot Delivery Campaign
While food delivery platforms like Postmates, DoorDash, and GrubHub have all launched no-contact options, they generally rely on human drivers leaving food on the ground outside people’s front doors. With the health risks and potential for mix-ups, it’s less than ideal.
A better solution might be the one being rolled out by Wrapify. Just this morning, the company announched the launch of a first-of-its-kind campaign that could take autonomous bot delivery to the next level.
Street Fight’s December Theme: Leaving 2020
What will the “next normal” look like in the post-Covid era of local commerce? Will things go back to the old normal or be a hybrid reality that cherry-picks components and new perspectives from the past nine months? Will e-commerce dip back down to pre-Covid levels or keep surging?
We’ll be answering these questions and others throughout the month, along with 2021 predictions (’tis the season) for our theme, Leaving 2020.
Why Your Business Should Start Incorporating Social Proof
When it comes to marketing your business, social proofing is one of the most critical and yet overlooked strategies in the book. Consumers seeing what others buy influences them to make similar buying decisions. As an example, when your website has reviews or testimonials from well-known figures in the same industry, that’s social proof in action because the reviews will compel many visitors to buy from you.
In this article, we’ll dive more deeply into what social proofing is, how to incorporate it into your business, and some of the pitfalls of social proofing that you would be wise to avoid.
Data Trends for 2021: Overcoming Digital Ad Uncertainty
With privacy regulations on the horizon, email is a known and comfortable identifier that many consumers self-register and that brands can anonymize in a digital environment with hashed emails for privacy compliance.
While 2020 has thrown a lot of curve balls, marketers that worked to get their consumer data house in order with an eye on ways to better enable their first-party data for a complete view of their most-desired audiences and buying behaviors will survive and thrive as we head into 2021. The newest technology, data-sharing innovations, and identity resolution algorithms won’t help if you don’t have the basics down.
How Local Retailers Can Reach Mission Shoppers this Holiday Season
The mission shopper is focused on getting in and out of stores as quickly as possible. They spend less time, and less money, in stores, and their mindset is different from the lighthearted holiday shoppers of yesteryear—or even last year.
Understanding this consumer archetype will prove critical to retail success this holiday season.
Qualifying and Quantifying 2020’s E-commerce Surge
Spending hasn’t declined — it’s just shifted. One of the themes we’re seeing is that the standouts of 2020 are those who have shifted with it. We’re talking here about a broad definition of e-commerce — not just ordering things online, but any digital or mobile purchase.
For example, in local commerce, these digital fulfillment models include mobile order-ahead functions in QSR and coffee. They also include curbside pickup for physical goods. And in an even broader sense (and looking forward), they will include touchless or cashier-less retail in a post-Covid era of physical retail.
The Most Important Local Search Updates of 2020
This has been the most active year in the history of local search when it comes to the introduction of new features. Google recently announced that it had made nearly 250 updates to Google Maps since the start of the pandemic, and just about every other local publisher, including Yelp, Bing, Foursquare, TripAdvisor, and even Apple Maps, has been busy.
As we near the end of this unusual year, I thought it would be useful to take stock of these changes and note the ones that are the most significant.
Survey: Consumers Are Taking a Cautious Approach to Black Friday
Despite the somewhat complicated outlook, there are things retailers can do to change their fate. NMI found that 43% of consumers plan to avoid shopping with retailers that don’t offer contactless payments. Retailers that quickly adapt and add contactless payment options, and then market those changes aggressively over the coming days, still have an opportunity to win back customers who would otherwise be staying home.
Will 2020 Be the Year to End Black Friday?
Black Friday this year will probably look a lot like it would’ve been in about a decade; we’ve just accelerated the online shift. 2020 will be the year that Black Friday and Cyber Monday stop being shopping ‘days.’ They’ll be turned completely upside down for years to come as retailers embrace a holiday shopping season of deals, strategized and targeted based on insights from online data.
DTC Brands Combine Physical Storefronts with Localized Search Strategy
Allbirds and Fabletics aren’t the first DTC brands to open up for in-store shopping, of course. Brands like Warby Parker and Bonobos pioneered the approach years ago. But the latest class of trendy DTC brands is doing things a little differently. Rather than focusing on urban centers, like New York and Los Angeles, DTC brands are using local data to target new, smaller locations in states like Arizona, Florida, and Texas.
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