News and Analysis

5 Ways to Improve the Customer Experience for Holiday Shoppers

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The retail space starts to feel chaotic this time of year, with brands pulling out all the stops to win over holiday shoppers. Amidst all the talk of sales and discounts, retailers this year are looking at integrating new customer experience initiatives designed to bring in first-time shoppers and encourage long-time loyalists to spend even more than usual.

To learn even more about the customer experience strategies retailers are launching this year, we checked in with a few industry experts. Here are their thoughts on the best customer experience strategies retailers are trying out this holiday season.

Which Emerging Social Platforms Will Win Big This Holiday Season?

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Retailers looking for an edge this holiday season are testing the waters with newer, emerging social platforms in a bid to generate awareness and market their products to huge audiences of tech-savvy teens and twenty-somethings.

On TikTok, a mobile app for creating and sharing short videos, retailers are poised to connect with a base of more than 500 million users.

With GatherUp Acquisition, ASG Expands Into Reviews Space

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Mike Blumenthal says the acquisition by ASG gives GatherUp greater access to organizational value, helping the company build better products and processes faster and more robustly. He expects there to be virtually no change in GatherUp’s day-to-day activities. All of the company’s teams—including sales, customer success, engineering, and management—will remain intact following the acquisition. Aaron Weiche will stay on as CEO. Although GatherUp was founded in San Jose, the company employs a distributed team that is now focused in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Commentary

The Place of Newspapers in the Local Marketing Ecosystem

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“Digitally speaking, NextDoor is encroaching on a space that local papers really should own.” David Mihm tells Mike Blumenthal. “It’s basically a glorified forum that in my view would be every bit as successful, if not more so, if hosted by a truly local entity.”

Building a Local Stack: The Rise of ‘SMB OS’

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SMB OS includes the full range of business services that traditionally fall outside of – but are related to – advertising. It’s POS systems, supply chain, payroll, insurance, appointment scheduling, online ordering, CRM… even HR.

Facebook’s Self-Serve Ad Creative Can’t Be SMBs’ Only Choice

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By removing some of the barriers to ad spend for small businesses, Facebook is trying to become a one-stop shop for their ad dollars. SMBs are likely aware of the problem, but they shouldn’t be willing to rely on Facebook exclusively for their marketing and advertising needs.

Latest Posts

Street Fight Kicks Off 2nd Annual Local Visionary Awards

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Have you got the goods to take home a belt? For five-plus years, we have tracked the evolution of local, from the trendy daily deals then to the trendy chatbots today. Local is continuously inventing and innovating, and for the second year in a row, we’re honoring the best of these developments with our Local Visionary Awards.

Case Study: Coffeehouse Chain Adds Convenience With On-Demand Delivery

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In addition to increasing sales with added take-out and mobile ordering options, supervisor William Lee is also hoping that on-demand delivery will help to organically bolster Tom N Toms’s presence on social media and mobile channels.

Street Fight Daily: News Sharing Remains Low-Tech, DoorDash CEO’s Crowded Sector

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Pew: Most News Sharing Remains Low-Tech, Offline… DoorDash CEO: Food Delivery Winner Will Be Best Service, Not Biggest Brand… The Athletic Brings Subscription-Based Local Sports Coverage to a City Near You…

Street Culture: Seattle Food Startup Delivers Culture to Chef Partners

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When building trust and loyalty with both customers and employees, the company mission is a backbone often referred back to for consistency and clarity. Food ordering/delivery startups Lish’s three company values are the focus on the customer, quality, and variety, says CEO Aakhil Fardeen.

Lessons for Mobile Marketers From Meeker’s 2016 Internet Trends Report

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The report focuses on several trends that should be of interest to retail marketers and their mobile marketing strategies. For starters, there is less differentiation between products, brands, and retailers. These days, products evolve into brands, brands become retailers, and retailers become products.

LBMA Podcast: Twitter/Foursquare, Amazon Dash, Verve/Roximity

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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: Pinterest, Danone + INRIX, KWIK, Dolce & Gabana, Rover, KFC India, Gimbal + Health Media Network, xAd + Comscore.

Street Fight Daily: Lyft Launches Luxury Service, Localytics Integrates with Oracle

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Lyft Launches Premier, Poaches Uber Employees to Get It Running… Localytics Integrates with Oracle for Omnichannel Marketing… Uber Raises $1.15 Billion From First Leveraged Loan…

Life After Patch: Finding Success in Community Publishing as a One-Person Operation

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Two years ago, Aol’s sale of Patch to Hale Global prompted a number of the company’s former editors to found their own independent sites. Michael Dinan, who had held major Patch posts in suburban Connecticut, was one of them. In this Q & A, we see how he and NewCanaanite.com are faring.

5 Steps to Identifying the Channel Partners That Will Grow Your Business

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It’s no surprise they call the golden rule of channel sales the 90/10 rule where 90% of the sales are going to come from 10% of your partners. The best approach to this problem is to come up with frameworks you can use to focus on those most likely to end up in the winner bucket.

Street Fight Daily: Gannett Acquires Jersey Papers, Walmart Responds to Apple Pay

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Gannett Buys the Bergen Record and Other New Jersey Papers… Walmart’s Answer to Apple Pay is Now Available in All Walmart Stores… Used-Car Mobile Marketplace, Shift, Launches…