News and Analysis
Report: Retail Lags in Omnichannel Customer Service
Retailers around the globe learned to adapt during the pandemic, quickly pivoting to offer curbside pickup, mobile payments, and online storefronts. Despite making strides in digital adoption, a new report finds that many retailers are still missing the mark on omnichannel customer service.
How Will the Metavearth Materialize?
Back to the metaverse’s meaning, concrete definitions are elusive … mostly because they don’t exist yet. But broadly speaking, there are two metaverse tracks. One involves virtual and synchronous worlds. The other adds digital dimension and context to the physical world. Both will take years to materialize.
Commentary
The Hidden Opportunity Cost of Google Plus: Review Volume
Blumenthal: I was able to look at reviews per month since 2015 for a large number of restaurant locations across the sites that are now common in the restaurant industry. Interestingly, Yelp’s and TripAdvisor’s review volume is roughly the same now as it was in January 2015, while you can see that Google’s review volume is now roughly 10x that of either of those two sites. And Google was receiving fewer reviews per location per month than either Yelp or TA in early 2015.
There is an interesting but not totally obvious point on the slide where Google’s review volume starts to take off and that is April 2016. For those of you who don’t track Google minutiae quite the way that I do, that was the month when Google finally separated reviews from Google Plus and no longer required a Plus profile to leave a review.
LBMA Vidcast: InMarket Acquires ThinkNear, Google Assistant Upgrade
On this week’s Location-Based Marketing Association podcast: InMarket acquires Thinknear, Google Assistant lets you send reminders to others, Kraken Rum’s dining experience in London, Wirecard launches app in North America, Nike buys Celect for data science, Infiniti teams up with JCDecaux in Russia.
Back-to-School Retailing Is Now All About Using Mobile Data to Help Your Customers
Back to School (BTS) is a $53 billion shopping season that’s entering its final stage as parents and college students take care of school supplies and clothing needs before Labor Day. And as we close out this decade and look to the 2020s, the combination of mobile technology, hyperlocal commerce, and consumer expectations make this a fascinating juncture in BTS history.
Fortunately, these complex market scenarios represent more of a golden opportunity than a paradox due to the promise of mobile. Here are two reasons why national and local brands should leverage data to bridge the online-offline gap and improve their BTS sales.
Latest Posts
Blaze Pizza Leverages Mobile App, Instagram, Events to Entice and Keep Customers
Blaze Pizza has branded itself as the on-the-go pizza option for millennials. In-app mobile ordering, location technology, and a focus on partnering with local franchise owners who know their neighborhoods have allowed Blaze to maintain a robust loyalty program and keep its customers coming back.
Street Fight Daily: Google Rolls Out Media Subscription Tool, Amazon Expands Delivery
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Rolls Out New Subscription Tool with McClatchy News Sites… Amazon Shows Its Drive for Efficient Ordering is Relentless, Delivering Straight to Cars… DoorDash Makes a Big Push into Grocery Delivery, Partnering with Walmart…
What Google’s New Review Guidelines Mean for SMBs, Agencies, and Vendors
Given Google’s new anti-review gating guidelines, what’s important for businesses, Mike Blumenthal tells David Mihm in their biweekly column, is to “make giving direct feedback to the business extremely easy. Most unhappy consumers just want to express their dissatisfaction and given a choice will do so directly with the business rather than on a review site.”
Street Fight Daily: YouTube’s Brand Safety Woes Continue, Amazon’s Biggest Challenge
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Exclusive: YouTube Ran Ads from Hundreds of Brands on Extremist Channels… What Amazon’s Prime Numbers Don’t Show: The Battle to Grow in the U.S… ANA Urges Lawmakers to Hold Off on New Privacy Laws….
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Beyond Likes: Win Hearts with Emotional Marketing