News and Analysis

7 Loyalty Platforms for Restaurants

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One area where restaurants have particularly specific needs is in promoting customer loyalty. Vertical-specific loyalty platforms for restaurants tend to have features and capabilities that more generalized loyalty platforms do not. For example, many loyalty platforms for restaurants are tied to reservation systems, so waiters know customers’ preferences before seating them at their tables.

Although the number of loyalty platforms for restaurants is growing every day, we’ve put together a list of seven important players that anyone who is interested in this space should be following.

Amazon Pursues Retail-as-a-Service, Looking to Sell Go Tech to Cinemas, Airports

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This time, it’s not Amazon Web Services, the cloud underpinning Amazon’s operations and those of other companies around the world, but Amazon’s Go technology that is being peddled to new clients. Bezos’ e-commerce behemoth is in talks to sell the flashy cashierless solution to movie theaters and airports, CNBC reported. 

If Amazon is successful, the play to sell Go to other businesses may some day turn what now appears a revolutionary technical advance (with potentially devastating consequences for cashiers) into a commonplace asset. Just as AWS, the B2B play partially financing Amazon’s low-margin retail biz, supports thousands of businesses unbeknownst to their customers, Go-as-a-service could come to change all of retail without many consumers even realizing Amazon is behind changing checkout norms.

These Retailers Are Using Mapping Tech to Change the Shopping Experience

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Over the past few years, a number of national retailers have added mapping technology into their mobile apps. Even more retailers have given store associates handheld devices with integrated indoor location features, putting the answers to frequently asked questions—like where products are located and how to get to certain store departments—at their fingertips.

Even though location and mapping technology is embedded into many consumer-facing shopping apps, and it’s used by retailers to fuel both their marketing initiatives and back-end operations, publicly explained use cases from retail brands are rare. Here are five examples of how retailers are applying the technology and using mapping to fundamentally change the in-store shopping experience.

Commentary

Understanding Facebook’s Place as a Small Business Marketing Vehicle

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“While [Facebook is] not yet anywhere near Google’s ability to generate leads, I have, over the past 6 months, started to see them surpassing Yelp in driving local key performance indicators on the pre-sale side,” Mike Blumenthal tells David Mihm.

‘Deep Audience’: Reach, the Location-Rich Media-Mix, and the Whole Marketing Picture

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TV and other legacy platforms are evolving to become more precise. These forces reflect brands’ desire to reach the people they’ve identified as most amenable to their products, and they reflect the desire to do so with messaging that is deeply relevant to consumers’ lifestyles and interests.

Retailers Need to Use Tech to Work Smarter, Not Harder

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To have any chance for long term survival, retailers and brands need to bring more technology to bear in operating their businesses, enabling them to work smarter, not harder. Here are some strategic ways big retailers can use technology.

Latest Posts

#SFSW16: Yelp Announces New CPC Program

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Ten new partners in one week, a “Twitter firehose for local analytics,” and an appearance at Street Fight Summit West 2016. The new programs are helping to further Yelp’s mission to make the local marketing ecosystem less daunting for merchants…

Survey: Some National-to-Local Marketers Still Need Convincing on Digital Effectiveness

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Street Fight surveyed over 200 managers and decision makers at big companies in retail, financial services, and other industries. We asked them about spending patterns, perceived effectiveness, pain points, etc., around their local marketing and advertising efforts.

#SFSW16: Why the ‘Gig Economy’ Is Not the Future of Work

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In a morning keynote at Street Fight Summit West in San Francisco on Tuesday, Thumbtack CEO Marco Zappacosta discussed the challenges facing skilled professionals and long-term trends within the service sector.

5 Tools for Capturing Customers from Competitors

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Merchants can use multiple tactics to turn a competitor’s customers into their own, from timely advertisements and relevant mobile messaging to targeted social media coupons. Here are five examples of platforms businesses can use to poach customers from their competitors,

Street Fight Daily: Google AMP Yields Mixed Reviews, Voice Search Far From Mass Adoption

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Publishers Give Mixed Reviews So Far to Google AMP… Voice Search Remains Far From Mass Adoption…

Yelp Extends Online Booking Capabilities With New Platform Partners

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Yelp took another step in its expansion into the online booking arena this morning, with the announcement that it would be adding five new platform partners to its roster: Whittl, TicketNetwork, delivery.com for laundry, Peek and foodjunky.

Pingup Partners with Yahoo to Expand Online Booking for Local Services

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Pingup, which describes itself as a “transaction platform for local services,” announced a new partnership with Yahoo this morning. The move expands Pingup’s publisher network, allowing users searching for local services on Yahoo to book an appointment on-demand through the Pingup platform.

Deliv CEO: ‘We’re Selling the Picks and Shovels’ for Brick-and-Mortar Gold Rush

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Deliv CEO and Founder Daphne Carmeli — who will be a speaker at Street Fight Summit West tomorrow in San Francisco — caught up with us recently to talk about what sets today’s delivery startups apart from their fallen predecessors.

Street Fight Daily: Publisher Reach on Facebook Declines, Grocery May Be Next Boon for Amazon

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Publisher Reach on Facebook is Down 42% Since January… Shipping, Business Supplies, and Grocery Delivery — Not Echo — Most Likely to Be Amazon’s Next Growth Driver… What’s Next for Tronc: Scooping Up Other Newspapers…

Can Local Tech Make Dining Out ‘Seamless, Tailored & Magical?’

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Nowait CEO Ware Sykes, who will be a speaker at Street Fight Summit West next week in San Francisco, spoke with us recently about about how technology is rethinking the conventions of dining out for both customers and restaurateurs.