News and Analysis
6 Fulfillment Services for Personalizing E-Commerce Orders
Packages full of bubble wrap and styrofoam peanuts just aren’t cutting it anymore. Instead, more retailers are using e-commerce fulfillment services to create branded experiences, replete with everything from personalized tissue paper to custom selected product samples. Whether the purchase takes place online or in person, industry players are realizing that presentation is a critical component of the complete brand experience.
2022 Predictions: Immersive Tech Edition
Here are three predictions for what could happen at the intersection of immersive tech and local commerce. And because I often disparage broad predictions that don’t have any teeth, we’ve included action-specific or figure-based statements in each prediction (highlighted in bold).
SOCi Study Finds 62% of Google Reviews Are Written by Local Guides
Local Guides write most of the reviews on Google today — about 62% of all reviews, in fact. In the restaurant category, the dominance of Local Guides is even greater, with Local Guides writing about 69% of all reviews.
Commentary
How Long Will Google’s “Calculative PR” Playbook Work in Local Search?
Mihm: The engineering mindset that millions of spammy listings in a corpus of hundreds of millions of legitimate listings worldwide, or a (hundred million?) spam reviews in a corpus of billions of legitimate reviews worldwide, are simply “edge cases” that are beneath Google to prioritize reflects a profound lack of empathy for how their technology impacts fellow human beings — both consumers and especially small business owners and their employees.
Blumenthal: Absolutely agree. And a related problem is that they see customer service in the same context: as an engineering/cost-benefit problem to solve, not as a way to improve their product. As such they see the last 5, 10 or 15% errors in their big data solutions as just a cost of doing business that they have no responsibility to solve.
How Targeting Fuels Audience Activation and Satisfaction
Consumers benefit from targeting. When there are clear rules and guardrails in place for tracking and targeting, shoppers enjoy a more relevant online experience and a panoply of ad-funded digital services.
Traditional ads still have a place in the marketing mix, of course. But the future of marketing is digital. Online ad spend is expected to surpass traditional ad spend (likely for good) this year. How is it that targeting, while respecting privacy, makes the consumer internet better?
LBMA Vidcast: Walmart and WhatsApp, Gucci Tries Out AR
On this week’s Location-Based Marketing Association podcast: Walmart Mexico accepts WhatsApp orders, Nex raises £2M for lunch discovery, Gucci lets try on shoes in AR, 7Eleven delivers to beaches & parks, Reveal Mobile launches foot traffic attribution, Trax acquires Shopkick.
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Follow-Up Thoughts on the SMB Marketing/Operations Universe
“Regardless of the right package, the key for both agencies and small businesses is to choose best-of-breed components in each galaxy that integrate with each other so that you can add relevant and profitable services over time,” David Mihm says to Mike Blumenthal in their bi-weekly column.
Dr. Soon-Shiong and His New ‘Patient,’ the L.A. Times: Will His Rx Be ‘Local’?
My hunch is that Patrick Soon-Shiong will find that applying advanced technology to local news is not as challenging as conquering cancer, especially if he listens to what Angelinos say is their biggest concern by a wide margin – getting from their home to work or other day-to-day destinations.
Street Fight Daily: Facebook Sheds Young Users, Brands Move Marketing In-House
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Is Shedding Those Coveted Gen-Z Users… 56% of Brands Plan to Move More Marketing In-House… What It Would Take for Amazon to Become FedEx or UPS…
#SFSW18: Street Fight Announces Winners of the 2018 Local Visionary Awards
Street Fight has announced the winners of the 2018 Local Visionary Awards. The awards were presented in a ceremony at Street Fight Summit West. The 9-category competition honored the very best campaigns, companies, ideas, and individuals working in the local marketing and commerce ecosystem.
Amazon to Launch Delivery Service for Businesses, Challenging UPS and FedEx
Amazon is about to jump into the business of package delivery. The delivery program will launch in Los Angeles in the coming weeks before expanding to additional cities. The move poses a direct challenge to the likes of UPS and FedEx.
Liftoff Dating App Report Shows Cold Seasons’ User Behavior and Geographic Trends
For local marketers, dating apps are prized for their location-reliable data. In a report released last week by mobile app marketing and targeting company Liftoff, the best time to register a dating app user is in August.
LBMA Podcast: SpherePay, Uberall, Walmart, Nissan
This Week in Location Based Marketing is a weekly video podcast from the Location Based Marketing Association with Asif Khan, Rob Woodbridge & Aubriana Lopez. On the show: Untuckit goes RFID, Robomart, Starbucks tests AR, Discover + ApplePay.
Street Fight Daily: Amazon Launches UPS & FedEx Rival, P&G Cracks the Code on Marketing
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Amazon to Launch Delivery Service for Businesses, Challenging UPS and FedEx… Drawbridge Partners with mParticle to Help Brands Deliver Personalized Experiences… Liftoff Dating App Report Shows Cold Seasons’ User Behavior and Geographic Trends…
Drawbridge Partners with mParticle to Help Brands Deliver Personalized Experiences
“Brands don’t want to engage with devices, they want to engage with consumers,” wrote Brian Ferrario, VP of Marketing at Drawbridge. “Devices don’t buy stuff, grow affinity with brands, or help amplify brand messages. People do.”
Ashley Furniture Uses Assistive Web Tech to Reach New Demographics
Selling furniture on the Internet has never been an easy proposition. People want to feel the fabrics on sofas and test the sturdiness tables before spending thousands on furniture purchases, but that hasn’t stopped Ashley Furniture from expanding its digital footprint in recent years.
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