News and Analysis

Can a Pandemic Inflect Local Commerce Tech? Part II

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What about the tech adoption accelerants happening on the supply side? Tech giants who provide marketing and operational tools for local businesses have been in hyperdrive over the past few months to roll out new Covid-era features.

Here are three areas where we’re seeing the most activity … and where we could correspondingly see the most local business evolution.

As Delivery Market Consolidates, Affiliate Marketing Gets Sophisticated

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Uber’s recent decision to acquire Postmates for $2.65 billion was just the beginning. As the delivery market consolidates, there will almost certainly be rising demand for pay-for-performance marketing products that help these companies strike a balance between volume and profitability.

One of the latest examples of this is the launch of Actionable Intelligence, a product by Button that gives marketers the ability to target and test high-value audience segments with personalized offers.

6 Ways to Use Martech Tools for Covid Compliance

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Different industries are looking to manage the spread in different ways. For retailers, that might mean using artificial intelligence to make sure customers are following social distancing rules inside their stores. It might also mean using location data, beacons, and other mobile technologies to track where consumers are going during shutdowns or monitor employee compliance with local Covid regulations.

It’s worth noting that this is a sector that is evolving at breakneck speed. These are just a few of the ways the martech community is using its technology for Covid compliance right now.

Commentary

Most Local Merchants Unfazed by Facebook Controversies, Though Some Signs of Trouble

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By now, consequences of the negative aura surrounding Facebook’s role in customer info abuse, fake news, and Russian political meddling should have started to take hold. Yet over half of local merchants we polled said they would continue to use Facebook as they had previously, and only one in five said they may use it less.

Google’s Local Improvements—Posts Become Essential, and Mike Wins the Bet!

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“Google’s made plenty of laudatory improvements to Google My Business and associated products over the past 24 months, and there does seem to be a qualitative shift in the way it’s approaching the space,” David Mihm tells Mike Blumenthal in their biweekly column.

LBMA Podcast: Mapbox, GasBuddy, IKEA

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On this week’s edition of the Location-Based Marketing Association podcast: Propellant Media, Singapore’s Lifesight, Mapbox API, Gasbuddy, IKEA’s sleepiest ad ever, Swrve + Bluedot.

Latest Posts

Where Home Phones Meet Voice-Assisted Search

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Similar to the shift from desktop to mobile, local marketers need to consider how the shift to voice-activated devices will impact their strategy. The smart home hub offers a new device on which consumers will interact with local businesses.

As E-Commerce Looks for a Local Edge, In-Person Return Services Expand

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This morning e-commerce fashion marketplace Tradesy is announcing an extended partnership with Happy Returns, a consumer returns startup that offers in-person returns for online retailers. Tradesy found that customers overwhelmingly preferred to return their online purchases in-person rather than by mail.

Street Fight Daily: Yelps Adds Feature to Drive User Engagement, VR’s Future Role for Consumers

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Yelp Launches New Feature for Asking and Answering Questions About Any Business… How VR Headsets Will Infiltrate the Market and Impact Advertising… Retailers Are Testing Price Increases Online…

Luxury Lingerie Maker Cosabella Drives Sales with Email, Social Media

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With Valentine’s Day upon us, what better time for looking at how a lingerie company does its digital marketing? Street Fight recently sat down with Cosabella CEO Guido Campello and marketing director Courtney Connell to talk about how company gets the word out about its products.

Case Study: Georgia Cleaning Service Uses AI Assistant for Targeted Promotions

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“We cannot afford for a campaign to be ineffective, which to us means that we need every campaign to bring in enough money to at least pay for itself,” says My Amazing Maid owner Royce Ard . “Almost all of our marketing expenses are for acquisition-type campaigns to attract new customers.”

Street Fight Daily: How Brands Fare on Snapchat, Facebook Reaches Out to Local Newsrooms

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… New Report from Snaplytics Breaks Down How Brands Fare on Snapchat… Facebook is Beginning to Reach Out to Local Newsrooms… Google Maps Adds Feature Allowing Users to Plan and Share Itineraries…

What Does It Mean to Practice Local SEO Ethically?

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It can be all too easy to give the client the impression that search marketing is too hard from them to really understand — so they should just trust you. But that sets the stage for a relationship that is not based on ethical behavior.

Here’s How Marketers Can Capitalize on Valentine’s Day Foot Traffic Trends

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According to a new analysis of Valentine’s Day foot traffic trends conducted by the location intelligence company Foursquare, movie theaters are the place to be on Valentine’s Day. Theaters see an incredible 255% lift in foot traffic, compared to the week before — and 64% of moviegoers opt to eat out before or after the show.

Street Fight Daily: Amazon Disrupts Retail in Seattle, Oracle Makes IoT Data Actionable

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Amazon’s Living Lab: Reimagining Retail on Seattle’s Streets… Oracle Launches Apps to Surface Predictions and Insights from IoT Sensor Data… Using Data to One-Up the Competition…

Raise Report: New Funding for MapAnything, Cuebiq, SIM Partners

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Every two weeks, we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. This week’s edition includes funding for The Bouqs, Soundhound, Reserve, and Fuze.