News and Analysis
Efficacy of Google Posts Drops Following Relegation to Bottom of Knowledge Panel
Following a seemingly arbitrary choice on Google’s part to move Posts to the bottom of the Knowledge Panel, their efficacy in boosting businesses’ local search presence seems to be dropping.
Retail as a Service: Amazon will Create (and Destroy) with Cashierless Checkout Solution
Mike Boland: The innovation including and surrounding cashierless checkout goes beyond payments to affect a broader set of functions like supply chain, inventory management, and store layouts. It’s like a retail toolkit in a box, with cash-flow friendly pricing, à la SaaS. You may have heard of it: It’s called retail as a service (RaaS), and it could transform the next decade of retail. Amazon will lead the way.
Digital Ad Trends to Watch in 2019, Mobile to Account for 71% of Digital Ad Spend
Programmatic SSP Pubmatic released on Tuesday morning an elaborate report detailing digital ad trends to watch in 2019. The highlights include a look into how mobile, video, and of course programmatic itself will continue to evolve in the coming year, reshaping the way brands reach customers.
Commentary
Same-Day Delivery: The Linchpin in the Battle for the Last Mile of Commerce
Consumers are more impatient and time-starved than ever. At least that’s the impression one could derive from the seemingly unending string of same-day delivery announcements from major retailers, restaurants, convenience-store chains, startup enablers, and technology companies. The driving force behind their renewed focus on ever-shorter delivery windows: conquering the elusive last mile of commerce.
Better Use of Data Could Dramatically Alter Local Digital Sales
Data is a core principle of digital marketing today, yet when it comes to local, big data has not penetrated very deeply where the sales process is concerned. All of that is about to change with the appearance of multiple companies trying to put data at the center of the way digital marketing is presented and sold to local businesses.
Did Apple Just Solve Deep Linking?
One of the coolest things to come out Apple’s September product event was 3D Touch, which lets users indicate levels of intent based on how hard they press apps and links. Beyond the gadgetry of 3D Touch, one thing hasn’t been said: This is essentially deep linking, an area that will be a key battleground in local. 3D Touch could preempt the deep linking dilemma by peeking deep within other apps — a lighter and more elegant solution I’m calling “deep previewing.”
Latest Posts
7 Platforms Offering On-Demand Beauty Services
With 28% of hairdressers, stylists and cosmetologists already working as independent contractors, the beauty industry is an ideal environment for on-demand platforms to gain traction. Here are some platforms currently vying for a share of the pie.
LBMA Podcast: Groupon Acquires VenueLabs, Snapchat’s Geofilter Ads
On the show: Parkour Method; Roku & Innovid team up; Amazon tests delivery service; Reachi uses a mesh network to help the Red Cross; Snapchat’s Geofilters become ads; AdTile launches the Motion Store…
Street Fight Daily: Apple Preps Geofencing, Postmates Raises $80M
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Apple Inventions Hint at Next-Level iOS Geofencing Features (Apple Insider)… Yahoo’s New Mobile Browser Search Results Are Better Than Its App (Search Engine Land)… Postmates Raises $80 Million in Push Toward $1 Deliveries (Wall Street Journal)…
INFOGRAPHIC: A Quick, Deep Dive Into Local Pharmacies
Here’s a view of the U.S. pharmacy industry – not the drug makers but the local distribution networks made up of thousands of retail pharmacies. These pharmacies help drive the nearly $260B in “Drug Store Revenue.”
On Building Local Products With Merchants in Mind
In local, particularly, it seems important to underscore something for new startups: to really think about and envision and understand their customer base…
Street Fight Daily: Groupon’s Apple Watch App, Amazon’s Store on Wheels
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Groupon’s New Apple Watch App Alerts You To Nearby Deals, Lets You Buy From Your Wrist (TechCrunch)… YP’s Split and Local.com’s Bankruptcy: Ain’t No Big Deal (Street Fight)… Shyp Nabs Foursquare’s Varun Shetty To Run Business Development (TechCrunch)…
YP’s Split and Local.com’s Bankruptcy: Ain’t No Big Deal
YP’s split and Local Corp’s bankruptcy filing might strike you as huge events. But for the greater local search industry, I don’t see these as particularly big milestones…
Placed Adds New Partnerships to Attribution Network
Placed, which connects ads to in-store visits, has announced the addition of several new partners to its network of over 80 companies that use the service to measure the impact of advertising on offline store visits…
Survey: Consumers Want More Online, Mobile Interaction With SMBs
A survey from Yodle finds that customers gravitate toward local businesses for better-quality service and are increasingly open to interactivity with them, a combination that provides immense opportunities for growth…
What Questions Do You Have About the State of Local Marketing?
Earlier this month we released the third edition of The Local Merchant Report. With expert analysis of survey responses from over 500 local merchants highlighted in charts and graphs, it’s a really deep dive. Here are some of the questions we asked…
Street Fight’s Big 3
Street Fight Columns
Street Fight Categories
Why AI Describes Locations Differently