News and Analysis
The Freezer Beyond the Grocery & C-Store
Cryotherapy is one of the latest categories to scale in the health, wellness, and longevity space. In this column, we’ve detailed how brick-and-mortar businesses have expanded far beyond the typical gym as the population ages and become more concerned about staying healthy longer. Highly specialized brands and franchises are offering body-related services like IVs. I […]
Early Spending Results are In! MULO BOOMs this Holiday Season
As of this writing, Black Friday and Cyber Monday (now seemingly extended to Cyber Week) are behind us. MULO (multi-location) pundits and agencies involved in retail and restaurant analyses and predictions are starting to call the winners and losers in the holiday Street Fight, which now involves battles between brands, products, SMBs, and MULO chains, […]
Street Fight LIVE Insights: Stopping at C-Stores with Mike Templeton
Some people collect snow globes or stickers on road trips. Others boast that they’ve seen all the National Parks. Still others have a thing for selfies in front of weird vintage structures. But Mike Templeton, one of the speakers at Street Fight LIVE stops at and collects insights from convenience stores (C-stores), the unsung heroes […]
Commentary
Rootstrap Co-Founder on AI Regulation
First of all, Anthony Figueroa wants everyone to know he is a big believer in the power and potential of AI. As co-founder and CTO of outcome-driven software development company Rootstrap, he is both amazed and afraid of AI’s potential based on what he has seen so far. “I think the biggest danger is that […]
The Next Big Change for Brands: Digital Trust
Data privacy and consumer trust are key priorities for multi-location brands, users, and the U.S. government. On January 1, the California Privacy Rights Act was put into effect, a solid sign that federal privacy laws may be in the near future in the U.S. In fact, a recent McKinsey report explored the topic of “Digital […]
How Multi-Location Brands Can Improve Customer Experience
According to recent reports, 43.5% of brands agreed that positive CX is a critical differentiator when it comes to getting an edge on the competition. Creating positive customer experiences seems like a no-brainer, but in reality bridging the CX perception gap between customer service, marketing, and sales teams and potentially 10s or 100s of store […]
Latest Posts
Sheeva.ai and Visa To Enable In-Vehicle Payments
Visa has joined the in-vehicle payment revolution. The brand’s heritage is in plastic credit cards, but for quite some time, it’s been a sophisticated global digital-payments platform. Its Visa Acceptance Solutions division has entered a partnership with Sheeva.ai, which enables digital payments using network tokens activated from the dashboards inside vehicles. “Network tokens are the […]
Sneak Preview: Holiday Season 2023 Retail Sales
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are behind us. A lot of shopping and feasting still remains. But Street Fight wants to glimpse what retail sales have seen so far and what you might expect in the shopping and eating days until the end of 2023. What’s especially interesting is that in-person shopping seemed to take […]
The MULO Dozen: November Brands in Review
As we wind down 2023 and head into the holidays, here are some of the latest happenings among MULO (multi-location) brands. Because consumer sentiment and social media buzz can have a huge impact on brand reputation and sales, we’ve added a new section this month — consumer voices. If you have any news to add […]
AxleHire CEO Goes Deep into Delivery Experience
If you think the retail industry is overwhelmed at this time of the year, when the holidays take center stage, try working in the shipping industry. Raj Ramanan is CEO of AxleHire, a last-mile shipping service for e-commerce retailers, touts its “Amazon-like” service experience of next-day and same-day delivery as desired. And satisfaction goes right […]
What Content Marketers Can Expect in 2024
Productsup is a P2C (product-to-consumer) platform that processes the flow of content about more than two trillion items a month across upwards of 2,500 marketing and retail channels for enterprise customers around the world, including IKEA, ALDI, and Sephora. Its goal is to help companies overcome commerce complexity to deliver consistent product information and a […]
How Retailers are Keeping the Grinch from Stealing This Holiday Season
Sadly, it’s not just the Grinch ruining the holidays for many retailers. It’s thievery. Last year, about $112B was lost to various types of retail crime, including shoplifting, flash mobs, and organized crime. Technologies, including AI-based video at point-of-sale, sensory heat maps, cash automation technology, and autonomous security robots, are helping retailers prevent, spot, and […]
What’s Entertainment? Agency VP Nick Dan-Bergman Reveals New Research
LaneTerralever, a full-service marketing and digital experience agency that works with a wide range of attractions and entertainment destinations (as well as the gaming industry), just completed a research report that provides insights into what today’s consumer is looking for in location-based entertainment and experiences. We don’t typically think of attractions (like amusement parks or […]
What Google At Peak Search Means for Marketers
For Q3 2023 earnings, Google reported a shortfall on cloud revenue and that their US core advertising / search business over delivered to make up part of the difference. So how has Google become this dependent on non-advertising revenue streams to achieve future growth targets and how much longer can they go back to the […]
Keep an Eye on C-Stores (Both on and Off the Road!)
As we’ve previously covered, the traditional C-stores (convenience store) used to be that corner deli where you could pick up snacks, soft drinks, or smokes or the stop along the highway where you gassed up, took a hygiene break and grabbed something sugary to tide you over on the road. Consumers are starting to head […]
BrightLocal Report : How Consumers Find Local Businesses
When business owners and marketers need to ensure their business information is correct and consistent for thousands of locations, they might do well to first consult the BrightLocal Local Business Discovery and Trust Report 2023 for guidance. To Sammy Paget, Content Marketing Manager at BrightLocal, trust is at the heart of a high level of […]
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