News and Analysis
Do Cashierless Stores Present a Privacy Risk to Consumers?
Amazon’s convenience stores rely heavily on location technology to track consumers’ movements inside buildings. Cameras analyze shopping behaviors, strategically placed microphones listen to conversations, and information about consumers’ shopping habits is stored in a central database that Amazon can reference for future operational and strategic planning.
“As cashierless stores take off, more and more personal and payment data will be transmitted through phones and mobiles devices and stored in cloud-based software platforms,” says Ruston Miles, chief strategy officer at Bluefin. “This means that hackers will have more network access to this data through vulnerable providers and merchants.”
Why and How Often Consumers Share Location Data
Location is among the types of data consumers are most likely to weigh disclosing based on the utility of the scenario. Asked about eight different types of data, including marital status, social security number, and physical address, a higher percentage of survey respondents said whether they’ll share location data “depends” on the situation than for any other category. It’s neither an automatic yes or no; companies need to make a case.
Back to Basics: Data Collection in the New Privacy Era
Some widely used marketing methods, like firmographics and psychographics, are coming to a halt as brands are forced to consider whether consumers actually want to receive their messages. In place of those practices, marketers are returning to older forms of data collection to once again create differentiated customer experiences, explains Dawn Colossi, chief marketing officer at the market research technology company FocusVision.
“I think with digital transformation came the notion that brand marketing didn’t matter as much because you could just target your audience,” says Colossi. “But with limitations on targeting and spamming, getting your brand known for things that customers care about—and this comes from understanding how they think and feel—will be crucial for marketers.”
Commentary
With Data and Local Guides, Google Maps Stays Ahead of the Rest
Justin O’Beirne marvels that, with the AOI initiative, Google has figured out how to “create data out of data,” meaning that AOIs are a mashup of 3D modeling and data extraction from images. Looked at more broadly, this is not the only example where Google has built features on top of features within the Maps universe.
Latest Posts
Yext Integrates With Uber as Local On-Demand Becomes More Ubiquitous
With the new integration, clients of Yext’s Location Cloud for listings and local site management can let their customers book an Uber ride to their store from a local website, app, or email campaign via a “Ride with Uber” button. Once the customer catches a ride, the business can show an offer or other information to the rider.
5 Tools for Buying Local Ads in National Publications
By placing localized ads in national publications, smaller businesses and national chains with physical locations can cut down on wasted spending and ensure their ads are only being seen by consumers in the markets they serve. At the same time, these businesses are getting access to high-quality publications for a tiny fraction of the typical cost.
Burbio Creates Smarter Community Calendars for Local Events
Calendar and event sites in surburban towns have a “massive pain point,” according to hyperlocal entrepreneurs Dennis and Julie Roche. Their company, Burbio, tailors calendar information for consumers so that they can more easily keep up with everything that’s going on in their communities.
Street Fight Daily: Salesforce Launches Retail Platform, 55% of Online Shoppers Start on Amazon
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Salesforce Announces Cloud-Based Retail Platform for In-Store, Online (MediaPost) As part of the Customer Success Platform, retail brands on the Salesforce Commerce Cloud can transform how they connect with their customers at every step in the journey: from discovery, engagement, and transaction to […]
Pingup and EatStreet Set the Table for Simple Digital Food Ordering
Ordering dinner is getting a little bit easier. Two powerhouses in the chain that links that Chicken Phad Thai to the plate on your table are partnering to simplify the process of actually getting it there. EatStreet, the digital ordering service with more than 15,000 restaurants in over 250 cities in its quiver and transactional tech developer Pingup (connecting scores of […]
Street Fight Daily: Amazon Eats Up Warehouse Brand Market, Figures on AMP’s Progress
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Amazon Prime May Be Cannibalizing Traditional Warehouse Brands’ Customer Pool… Need for Speed: Google Shares Its Progress on AMP… How Millenial Journalists Are Unraveling Local News for their Peers…
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