News and Analysis

Restaurants Are Using Technology to Bring Back Customers Post-Pandemic

How do local restaurants implement coronavirus-driven changes, and what role will technology play in helping those businesses reemerge from lockdown status?

Statewide regulations, like sanitizing protocols and spacing between tables, are in many ways easier for restaurants to implement because they are clear-cut. Certain diner expectations are harder for restaurants to gauge, and that has presented a new opportunity for technology providers catering to the restaurant market.

Can a Pandemic Inflect Local Commerce Tech?

Could forced adoption of alternative shopping methods like curbside pickup lead to user acclimation? Will millions of shoppers get exposed to the merits of these streamlined options and like what they see? Will new habits be born that sustain throughout normal times?

If so, these technologies — along with virtual-office enablement — could benefit from this period as a blessing in disguise for exposing their value propositions. But who stands to benefit most? We’ve identified five local commerce tech areas to which this could apply.

Cannabis CBD

Cannabis Businesses Are Running More Geofenced Campaigns. Here’s Why

While geofenced campaigns and foot traffic attribution are old hat for mainstream brands, they represent a new frontier for cannabis businesses.

Despite widespread legalization in many states, the cannabis industry has been shut out from many of the most effective marketing and advertising strategies. In some cases, those restrictions come in the form of strict state and federal laws. In other cases, it’s simply due to a lack of ad tech platforms willing to accept their campaigns.

But times are changing, and new doors are opening up to businesses in the cannabis industry.

Commentary

People Are Talking About You: The Hidden Value of User-Generated Content

Simply put, insights gleaned from reviews can help you do business better. Though reviews may contain bias of various kinds, they are still the best source you can find of detailed feedback from real customers.

Understanding the Proxies That Can Undermine Location Data

For marketers, the ability to deploy technology that identifies and bypasses online users who may be masking their locations and digital traits yields improvement in the form of targeted campaigns and fewer wasted impressions.

How Local Healthcare Providers Can Imitate Advances in Retail to Boost Efficiency

Providers need to do, ironically, what the best retailers do: make the experience better. To that end, data management is key. Here are some steps providers can take to address patients’ need for access and control.

Latest Posts

How Should SMBs Respond to Complaints on Social Media?

The way a merchant responds to complaints on social media will influence not only the perception of the offended customer, but also the perception of any potential customers who view the interaction online. Here are eight strategies that business owners can use when deciding how best to respond to customer complaints on social media.

Street Fight Daily: Mobile and International Feed Facebook Revenue, Mixed Reviews on AMP

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Mobile, International Dollars Drive Facebook to Projected $33 Billion in Ad Revenue Next Year… Google AMP Gets Mixed Reviews from Publishers… To Aid Attribution, LeadsRx Launches One Tracking Pixel to Rule Them All…

Street Culture: UberMedia’s Transparency and Deliberate Growth Helps them Win Halloween

“We do a lot of different things every day, but it’s not like, ‘check check check,’ everything’s done,” says the company’s CEO Gladys Kong. “It’s about not being afraid to try new things. Keep learning. Keep working at it. Have integrity and deliver excellence”

Philly Answer to Tough Critique of Newspapers’ Digital Push: We Need to Do Better and We Will

A new study that says newspapers’ struggle to bridge the immense gap between the print and digital worlds has been a near-total bust. We spoke about the study with to Jim Friedlich, Executive Director and CEO of the Institute for Journalism in New Media.

LBMA Podcast: GasBuddy, OpenTable, and TomTom’s Parking Solution

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: Australia Post & Posterscope, Snapchat, Reali, Sears, Koupon Media + Verifone, ReviewPush + Yelp, and Panasonic’s smart mirror.

Street Fight Daily: Feds Restrict Data-Sharing, Speculation That Gannett/Tronc Could Fall Through

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Broadband Providers Will Soon Need User Permission to Sell User Data… Gannett and Tronc Shares Tank on Speculation Deal is Off… LivingSocial’s Lessons for the Experience Economy…

How Businesses Are Using Ridesharing Services to Bring in New Customers

Consumer demand for ridesharing services has never been higher, with 40 million monthly riders spending an average of $50 on Uber alone. Now, some businesses are hoping that they can piggyback on that success by running promotions in conjunction with these very same services.

Foursquare’s Rosenblatt: ‘Location Is the Atomic Unit of Mobile’

Foursquare has gone from check-in darling to an under-recognized data powerhouse. But in that transition, it’s more successful than ever. And its primary emphasis has remained the entire time: real-world consumer behavior. Meanwhile, the ad industry’s hunger for location data grows.

Street Fight Daily: Groupon Acquires LivingSocial, Businesses Use Ride-Sharing to Create Revenue

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Groupon is Buying LivingSocial, Plans to Downsize Business to 15 Markets from 27… Snaplytics Debuts Snapchat Revenue Measurement Tool to Inform Brand Marketing… Google Voice Search Comparison Shops on Mobile, Creating Audio Ad Opportunity…

#SFSNYC: Street Fight Announces Winners of the 2016 Local Visionary Awards

The 13-category competition honors the very best campaigns, companies, ideas, and individuals working in the local marketing and commerce ecosystem. Nearly 200 submissions were received in the competition, and they were judged by a group of innovators and local experts.