News and Analysis

95% of Consumers Plan on Buying Most Holiday Gifts Online

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While brick-and-mortar sales remain a robust part of the holiday shopping experience, online shopping is asserting clearer dominance than ever before this year. A walloping 95% of consumers plan to do the majority of their holiday shopping this season online, according to multi-channel engagement platform Leanplum.

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.

Commentary

Google’s Product Bid for DIY Wallet Share

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“Google has been on a tear this past month in the DIY realm,” notes Mike Blumenthal in his bi-monthly conversation with David Mihm. “Three major product rollouts in a 30-day span; Websites, Posts and now SMS messaging. And Google only needs uptake on one of them to get a chance to sell Adwords Express.”

Three Lessons from the Dex Media/YP Merger

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For Dex Media and YP to become DexYP, they had to teach one another three lessons that every business in the local space should know: the primacy of distribution, the fallacy of stagnation, and the inevitability of market consolidation.

Accidental Ad-Blocking: The Brand-Safety Snag that Advertisers Can Fix

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When it comes to ads that brands want to publish on the web as well as in-app, there’s a brand-safety technology snag that many advertisers don’t know about — and it’s costing them in-app impressions. Think of it as accidental ad-blocking.

Latest Posts

Is Google Shrinking the Local Pack?

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The reduction of local search real estate represents a huge challenge to marketers, who must work even harder to ensure their clients’ listings can compete in a shrinking field. It also suggests that a strategy combining organic and paid efforts is becoming ever more important.

10 Reasons That On-Demand Services Fail

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Hundreds of startups have flooded the market with “Uber for X” models in the past few years, but the landscape in 2016 is filled with just as many failures as successes. We asked some of those that have found success to map out the potential pitfalls that they and other have encountered along the way.

Street Fight Daily: Amazon Boosts Alexa Ordering, What Businesses Need to Know About Chatbots

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Shipping Could Be the Next Billion-Dollar Opportunity for E-Commerce Retailers… Survey Says Most Businesses Already Use the Internet of Things… Startups Should Be Watching as the Supreme Court Decides Samsung versus Apple…

Openings and New Hires at Adelphic, ClickBank, Web.com

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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 Serviz, CBS Interactive.

Raise Report: Fresh Funding for Verve, Thrive Market, InVision

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Every two weeks, we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. This week’s edition includes new rounds for Condeco, Lystable, Narvar, and Farm Hill.

LBMA Podcast: Facebook, Factual, Uber and Adtile

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Welcome to This Week in Location Based Marketing, a weekly video podcast from the Location Based Marketing Association with Asif Khan and Aubriana Lopez. On the show: Adelaide Zoo, MCX, Nesa Solutions, Tywst, Posterscope + Lamar, Verve, Broadsign + TINT, Digerati Magazine.

Street Fight Daily: 80% of News Site Traffic from Facebook/Google, Walmart Expands 2-Day Shipping

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Amazon Revamps Alexa Skills to Stay On Top of Smart Home Market… Online News Sites Get 80% of Traffic from Facebook and Google… How Uber and Lyft Have Changed the Game for All Travel Brands…

As Gannett Acquires ReachLocal, Some Lessons From Its U.K. Exit

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As news filtered out earlier this week that media giant Gannett had bought ReachLocal for $156 million, it capped off several years of speculation in the local marketing industry about where the public company would end up. As a former ReachLocal employee (2010-2014) now living in Norway, I’ve watched the company as it has faced steep challenges […]

Why Local News Sponsorships Are More Relevant than Ever

Two Views of Community News — From 30,000 Feet and at Ground Level

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There are plenty of bad prognostications about the future of the community news business out there. But if you look at what is actually happening company by company, site by site, the view is not universally grim. There are a number of players making serious progress in digital revenue.

Street Fight Daily: Facebook Demotes Publishers on News Feed, Yelp Launches ‘Knowledge’ Platform

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook to Change News Feed to Focus on Friends and Family, Not Publishers… Yelp Announces Expanding ‘Knowledge’ Social Analytics Platform… Google Launches Two New APIs to Improve App Intelligence and Context…