News and Analysis
Big Data Helps Predict Which Brick-and-Mortar Locations Will Thrive and Fail
While the Gap says its decisions are being made based on traffic trends and profits—the brand saw a 7% decline in quarterly comparable sales—data scientists from top technology firms are working feverishly behind the scenes to use big data to predict which store closures could come next. Having a heads up on which retail locations have a high likelihood of closing could benefit those in the commercial real estate sector, as well as retail brands looking to decide on future store locations.
After Amazon-Whole Foods, Microsoft-Kroger: The Grocery Revolution Is Happening
Microsoft and Kroger are teaming up, challenging Amazon’s dominance in grocery innovation and pushing back against its takeover of an increasing number of corporate verticals, including cloud infrastructure in the form of Amazon Web Services. (Street Fight’s Mike Boland has predicted that Amazon will sell its grocery tech just as it’s done with AWS, taking an in-house innovation and transforming it into a cash cow.)
How 5 Brands Leverage Voice Search Technology
Twenty percent of mobile searches now are voice-initiated, with voice technology users most likely to ask about business addresses, directions, and hours, followed by whether stores carry specific items. Let’s look at how five of these brands are taking advantage of voice search, and what other industry players could be learning from their approaches.
Commentary
As Local Search Behavior Evolves, Marketing Spending Will Follow
Merchants and marketers have to be findable and present useful information regardless of the searcher’s context. And that’s where the mechanics of local search marketing get messy. It feels like a great opportunity for tools and managed services that help break down those silos, and measure effectiveness across or between them.
4 Ways That Retailers Can Gain Traction on Mobile
As retailers continue to reimagine marketing to consumers using mobile, the tools to do so will evolve as well. Similar to marketing automation for B2B, retailer-focused solutions providers are enriching their platforms so that retailers can deliver marketing messages and offers to highly segmented consumers.
Latest Posts
The Not-So-Low-Hanging Fruit: Why the Local Market Remains Elusive
“The great challenge of winning the local market boils down to balancing sufficient reach and scale with specificity,” writes Noah Elkin, who is joining Street Fight today as managing editor. “It turns out thinking globally and acting locally isn’t always easy — as a consumer or a marketer.”
M&A Report: A Long, Hard Look at Loyalty Programs
Loyalty encompasses more than just promotions and punchcards. Tech companies that connect the data dots and create meaningful, accurate consumer personas that explain why we as consumers are loyal to a brand (not a promotion) should be able to parlay that information into new revenue per customer.
Street Fight Daily: Uber’s Big E-commerce Push, Amazon’s Restaurants Division Hires Staff
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Report: Uber to Begin E-commerce Deliveries Soon (The Next Web)… Amazon Hiring Staff for New Restaurant Division in Seattle, New York (Recode)… Once-Troubled Hyperlocal News Brand Patch Expands to Austin; Here’s the How and Why (Austin Business Journal)…
Street Fight Daily: AOL Buys Millennial Media, Facebook Serves As Forum to Buy and Sell Goods
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… AOL Buys Mobile Marketer Millennial Media for Roughly $240 Million (Marketing Land)… Facebook Advances Bazaar Ambitions (Wall Street Journal)… A New App With 2 Million Users Just Raised $100 Million to Take On eBay (Fortune)…
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