News and Analysis
Mobile Drives Sales on Black Friday
Data from ShopperTrak showed a 3% decline in traffic at physical stores on Thanksgiving and Black Friday even though sales were up overall. That’s because retailers with strong online shopping programs saw significant gains, with a reported $9.2 billion spent on Cyber Monday alone.
In an analysis of holiday shopping campaigns, the people-based marketing platform LiveIntent found that brands had a “robust” performance on Black Friday weekend. Total conversions during Black Friday weekend stood at 36% higher than that typical time period. Retailers that pushed mobile shopping saw the greatest gains, as LiveIntent’s analysis found that mobile drove the most traffic.
5 Seed-to-Sale Platforms for Cannabis Businesses
That trend has led to a significant uptick in the number of cannabis businesses using seed-to-sale ERP software. Seed-to-sale platforms give cannabis businesses a way to track and regulate inventory. Although older seed-to-sale systems were challenging for growers to use, updated versions of the most popular platforms have been re-designed to allow growers to more easily track inventory, run smarter operations, and identify crop hazards in a way that still meets current regulations.
Here are five popular seed-to-sale platforms for cannabis businesses.
Retailers Hoping for Record Cyber Monday to Follow Friday Windfall
US retailers set all-time records on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, wracking up $11.6 billion in online sales. Adobe predicts that Cyber Monday will also set a fresh record of $9.4 billion, pushing the Thanksgiving weekend total to nearly $30 billion.
The increasing importance of online sales has forced traditional retailers to compete with e-commerce natives like Amazon not only by offering their own robust set of deals but also by investing in delivery infrastructure and reducing friction for consumers ordering online.
Commentary
How Using Wearables Data Can Strengthen Brands’ Outreach
Wearables have the ability to become a conduit to exciting new revenue streams, but it’s up to marketers to take advantage of the data these devices generate, and to create a marketing ecosystem that evolves through contextually-based experiences that matter to the consumer.
Why Voice Search Is the Future
Voice presents tremendous opportunities for location marketers to build their businesses, too. Companies such as Domino’s Pizza and Starbucks are tapping into voice to drive commerce, but the best way to capitalize on voice is to let consumers define your approach.
Making Sense of Posts in Google’s SMB Product Portfolio
“In local, most businesses do not have a transaction so Google wants to control the action,” Mike Blumenthal tells David Mihm. “If they can sell an ad, great, and if not then they take credit for a click or a call, driving directions or response to a CTA (and gather the data of those activities).”
Latest Posts
#SFSW16: Yelp Announces New CPC Program
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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?’
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.
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Meta Is Automating Ads, But Brands Still Face a Bigger Problem