News and Analysis

Snapchat’s “Promote Local Place”: The Deeper Dive

Snapchat’s 200 million users can now use Snap Map to find businesses in addition to finding friends. These two activities can go hand in hand if friends are discovered nearby on the map when users are planning local adventures.

But what matters most for local is that Snap will now let businesses promote themselves in the map interface, adding a key option for local advertising. This will happen on a self-serve basis for both SMBs and multi-location brands.

How to Start Selling on Amazon in 4 Steps: Complete Guide for Beginners

As the coronavirus pandemic keeps shoppers away from brick-and-mortar stores, those same customers are looking for shopping alternatives online. That, combined with the general increase in e-commerce popularity, makes this an opportune time to expand your online retail presence — including opening up shop on the Moby Dick of all e-commerce marketplaces, Amazon. 

6 E-Commerce Tools for Brick-and-Mortar SMBs

Brick-and-mortar merchants are moving their stores online or developing combination solutions that encompass both website sales and curbside pickup to keep pace with customer demand. Many of those businesses that haven’t made the switch are weighing their options and looking for the right technology. Plug-and-play e-commerce platforms tend to be the most popular route for merchants looking to quickly pivot to online sales, but features like scalability, flexibility, and integration with inventory management software are also important to SMBs.

Here are six e-commerce solutions that brick-and-mortar merchants will want to check out.

Commentary

Denver and Other Communities Get the News Providers They Deserve

Communities, from activist citizens on up to major civic and other nonprofit institutions, will have to step forward to prevent local news organizations from being gutted by owners without roots in the communities those organizations service.

Facebook Apocalypse? What to Monitor

Will Facebook’s usefulness as a local marketing platform be seriously weakened as a result of its recent privacy scandal and new measures to protect user data? Street Fight recommends monitoring the following to evaluate how serious the damage is.

Google As Website? The Recent Explosion in Knowledge Panel Features and Interactivity

“Presentation layer doesn’t sufficiently describe Google’s ambitions. They want to be the transaction layer of the Internet—at least in local,” David Mihm tells Mike Blumenthal in their latest biweekly column.

Latest Posts

How Cisco’s Meraki Became the Largest Vendor of Bluetooth Beacon Gateways

While Meraki’s routers have long had the ability to broadcast iBeacon packets, in October they released a software upgrade which enables API access to these radios, activating a major new feature. Now customers can use their Wi-Fi access points to monitor beacons from third party vendors.

Street Fight Daily: Inside Food Delivery Economics, Tricky Ad Equation for Snap and Instagram

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Inside the Brutal Economics of Food Delivery… Snapchat and Instagram’s Young Audiences Rarely Notice Ads on Platform… Facebook Kills Off Exact Location Sharing in Nearby Friends, Adds ‘Wave’…

5 Platforms For Making Tailored Recommendations Across Digital Channels

Getting the right product in front of the right consumer at the right time is the holy grail for both online and offline retailers, and it’s being made easier by new tailored recommendation platforms that use natural language interactions to assist shoppers across multiple digital channels.

How Arrivalist Is Using Location Data to Measure Exposure to Travel Ads

In the past, destination marketers relied on active input from visitors who shared comments on what made them book a trip to a particular place. The ability to anonymously track devices, however, has opened the door to new ways to get real data on travel.

Street Fight Daily: where Location-Based Marketing Is Headed, Uber Ends Self-Driving Ops in SF

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… How Location-Based Marketing Will Evolve in 2017… Uber Ends Self-Driving Car Test in San Francisco… Brands and Publishers Use Facebook Messenger to Boost PR and Sales…

Under Pressure, Local TV Advertising Still Shows Lots of Opportunity

Local TV ad spending is set to take a big hit next year, projected to decrease at a double-digit pace after an election and Olympics year. Nonetheless, local TV represents a solid opportunity for smart media and marketing tech companies, as TV remains U.S. consumers’ primary time-sink.

The SDK Equation: Four Questions for Restarting the Conversation on Publisher Integration

How can mobile marketing restart the conversation around SDK integration with publishers, industrywide? Let’s start with distinctions and empowerment — key ways that the industry can arm publishers with the knowledge they need to evaluate a good SDK while detecting the badly built versions.

Street Fight Daily: Amazon’s Ad Tech Strategy, 7-Eleven Beats Tech Giants on Drone Delivery

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… A Briefing with Amazon, Ad Tech’s Dark Horse… 7-Eleven Beats Google and Amazon to First Regular Commercial Drone Delivery Service… Mobile is the Key to Extraordinary Brand Experiences…

Hearst Papers Tested to Perfect the Vital ‘User Experience’

Revenue SVP Esfand Pourmand wants the group’s 17 dailies and 57 weeklies to maximize their revenue potential. To do that he knows they also have to enrich “user experiences” across multiple platforms.

The Buzz on Wikileaf: Compare Pot Prices Then Map a Route to Your Next High

A GasBuddy for pot? Why not? That seems to be the conclusion of one Seattle-based entrepreneur, whose location-based pricing-and-reviews service wants a slice of what he estimates will be an $8 billion industry in 2017.