News and Analysis
Amazon’s Retail-as-a-Service Expands into Payments, AR, and Salons
As Amazon continues to mature, it needs to find revenue growth in new, creative places. The company’s booming advertising business is one such conquest. Iterating on the AWS playbook by bringing tech-fueled logistical innovations to physical stores could be another.
Airkit Raises $40 Million to Fuel the Future of CX
Just this morning, the low-code digital customer experience platform Airkit announced a $40 million round of Series B funding, led by EQT Ventures. The Series B will be used to accelerate the company’s investments in go-to-market and product development. The announcement comes just seven months after Airkit came out of stealth with a $28 million Series A.
2021: All Upside for Digital
As retailers try to determine how to welcome customers back in person while expanding digital efforts that accelerated last year, NetElixir CEO and founder Udayan Bose weighed in on what to expect from commerce and why retailers should invest aggressively in online channels.
Commentary
Retail as a Service: Amazon will Create (and Destroy) with Cashierless Checkout Solution
Mike Boland: The innovation including and surrounding cashierless checkout goes beyond payments to affect a broader set of functions like supply chain, inventory management, and store layouts. It’s like a retail toolkit in a box, with cash-flow friendly pricing, à la SaaS. You may have heard of it: It’s called retail as a service (RaaS), and it could transform the next decade of retail. Amazon will lead the way.
Beyond Proximity Offers: The Second Act of Beacons is Underway
Beacons have grown into a nuanced component of successful mobile marketing. We’ve learned what they do best—strengthen advertiser approaches to metrics and measurement as well as the relevance and contextual richness of on-the-ground, in- or near-store experiences—and we’ve figured out that while push notifications can be a part of the story, they aren’t the main narrative.
Evolving Our Lens for Local Ranking Factors
Blumenthal and Mihm: We in the Local Search industry are not served by relying so heavily on traditional SEO logic and tools—in our approach to the Local Pack, our understanding of the ranking factors, and even what we suggest to clients as appropriate activities.
Latest Posts
LBMA Podcast: Ant Financial, Proxama + Primesight, PlaceIQ
This Week in Location Based Marketing is a weekly video podcast from the Location Based Marketing Association with Asif Khan and Aubriana Lopez. On the show: Coke’s AI vending machine, Dex merges with YP, Commutestream.
Raise Report: New Funding for NewStore, Dynamic Yield, Convoy
Every two weeks, we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. This week’s edition includes new funding for PebblePost, SnapTravel, Node, and SimilarWeb.
Street Fight Daily: AI Is Already Reshaping Retail, Facebook Releases Details on News Subscription Feature
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Artificial Intelligence Is Already Reshaping Retail in Profound Ways… Facebook Releases Details on Upcoming Subscription-Based News Product… What Retailers Think About the Store of the Future…
Why Insurance Giant State Farm Approaches Digital Marketing Like a Small Company
At a time when customers are accustomed to looking up insurance quotes on the Web or through an app, Edward Gold, advertising director at State Farm, says his company thrives off of its local interactions. He spoke with Street Fight about the approach the insurer takes with marketing at the local level.
How Local News Publishers Can Score With Proximity Marketing
Proximity marketing is becoming increasingly popular as brands and local merchants try to reach consumers on the go. In this Q & A, James Ewen, marketing manager at UK-based proximity-marketer Tamoco talks about how local news publishers can benefit from this trend.
Street Fight Daily: Facebook Thrives While Twitter Dives, Snap Monetizes Placed Acquisition
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Defies Expectations, Posting Big Growth Despite Warnings That Revenue Will Slow… Twitter User Growth Stalls, and Investors Respond in Kind… Here’s How Snap’s Placed-Assisted Attribution Abilities Will Garner Revenue…
Foursquare Analysis Highlights Looming Bubble for Boutique Fitness Studios
Forget those New Year’s resolutions. The biggest surge in attendance at gyms and boutique fitness studios actually happens in the spring and early summer, according to a new analysis of foot traffic patterns by the data science team at Foursquare.
Alignable Rankings Show Lead Generation, Hiring Categories Primed for Disruption
Small businesses are largely at the mercy of the online reviews published on sites like Yelp and Facebook, but now those business owners have turned the tables with some tough critiques for technology vendors in a new report published by the SMB social networking platform Alignable.
Street Fight Daily: Social Shapes Young People’s Shopping Decisions, LinkedIn Adds Brand Insights
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… 80% of Gen-Zers, 74% of Millenials Say Social Influences Their Shopping Choices… LinkedIn Allows Brands to Track Who Is Visiting Their Sites… How Uber Is Trying to Fix Itself…
Building a Local Stack: The Rise of ‘SMB OS’
SMB OS includes the full range of business services that traditionally fall outside of – but are related to – advertising. It’s POS systems, supply chain, payroll, insurance, appointment scheduling, online ordering, CRM… even HR.
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