News and Analysis
What’s Snapchat’s Local Play?
Snap continues to make moves in local commerce. Historic steps include geo-filters, while more recent activity includes Local Lenses and business listings in Snap Map. These features are notable on their own, but they get more interesting when you view them together and extrapolate to Snap’s local road map.
For example, Snap has more 13-34-year-olds active than any other channel, including Facebook and Instagram. This essentially means Snap can offer SMBs incremental and non-duplicated reach to an attractive audience.
Retailers Embrace Mobile As Pandemic Holiday Shopping Ramps Up
While this holiday season will be unlike any other, retailers have reason to be optimistic. Holiday sales are set to rise 1% to 1.5%, with e-commerce growing as much as 35%. Consumers are expected to spend between $1.147 trillion and $1.152 trillion between November and January. Much of that spending will happen with large retail chains that have omni-channel experiences already set up, and that has smaller retailers rushing to put their own mobile strategies in place.
How 5 Retailers Are Using AR for Covid-Compliant Try-Ons
With hygiene and customer safety now a top priority, more retailers are beginning to use AR to simulate the try-on experience. Whether they’re “trying on” items at home or in-store, AR tools are giving retailers a way to assist customers in their buying decisions as they virtually test out thousands of products using their mobile devices.
Here are five examples of how innovative retailers are taking full advantage of AR in the Covid era.
Commentary
Why Google Decided Phone Calls Are the Key to Google Assistant’s Future Success
Among all the new AI-driven capabilities Google could’ve bestowed on its powerful Assistant, the company decided to focus on one capability in particular: a phone call.
Listen Up! Voice Makes Itself Heard in Delivery of Local News
“Voice is still in its early innings, but Edison Research data on smart speakers shows that the top things people are calling for is news. That’s enough for me to know that the time to get moving on this is right now,” says Amplifi Media CEO Steve Goldstein.
LBMA Podcast: New LBMA Research, Foursquare & Tinder, Verve & Receptiv
On this week’s edition of the Location-Based Marketing Association podcast: iQiyi, Location Sciences, Foursquare + Tinder, Google Expeditions, Verve buys Receptiv, Kohl’s + Amazon returns, London goes iZettle, and new research from The LBMA.
Latest Posts
6 Ways Merchants Can Prepare For the Rise in Voice Search
Forty-two percent of U.S. consumers already say they’ve used voice assistants in the last three months, and industry forecasters are predicting that 20% of all user interactions with smartphones will take place through these assistants within the next three years. Here are six ways that local businesses can start preparing.
Street Fight Daily: Retailers Emphasize Mobile Web Over Apps, Verizon and Yahoo Close Revised Deal
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… The Mobile Web is Quietly Killing Off Retail Apps… Why Verizon Decided to Still Buy Yahoo After Big Data Breaches… ‘More Options and Misunderstandings’: Media Buying on Snapchat Confuses Advertisers…
Openings and New Hires at Lyft, DAC Group and Placed
Every two weeks, Geoff Michener covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. This week’s edition includes moves and new openings at Navads, Brandify and Foursquare.
Street Culture: Sitter.me Puts Company Culture of Trust and Respect First
“The culture starts at the top and stays with the top and there is nothing more important than leading by example in that respect,” says CEO Kristen Stiles. Her company, Sitter.me, connects parents with local babysitters.
Street Fight Daily: Google Home Enables Retail Purchases, IBM and Visa Partner for IoT Payments
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Home Can Now Buy You Stuff from Over 50 U.S. Retailers… Visa, IBM Team for Consumer Payments through IoT Devices… Facebook Isn’t Going After LinkedIn, It’s Chasing a Much Bigger Jobs Market…
How 30A’s Multiple Revenue Streams Elevate the Local Site to New Heights
Founder and CEO Mike Ragsdale explains why diversification is such an important element of 30A’s fast growth into what is now a multimillion-dollar operation. He also explains how community news sites that don’t have a tropical beachfront to boast about can create their own unique, revenue-generating brands.
Street Fight Daily: Yahoo and Verizon Near Cheaper Deal, Facebook Adds Job Postings for Brands
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Yahoo and Verizon Are Said to Be Near a Cheaper Deal… Facebook Swipes at LinkedIn by Letting Brands Post Job Openings on Pages… Snap Sets Valuation at $19.5 to $22.5 Billion as IPO Approaches…
Where Home Phones Meet Voice-Assisted Search
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
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
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…
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Meta Is Automating Ads, But Brands Still Face a Bigger Problem