News and Analysis
The Numbers on Mobile’s Role in Holiday Shopping This Season
The results of a survey released just last week by mobile ad firm AdColony go beyond the already stale proclamation that the mobile revolution has taken over retail, pointing instead to granular details about just how consumers are using mobile today. We provide the highlights.
Google Reviews Hit with Massive Spam Attempt
Google reviews, increasingly essential to the online search presence of brand and SMB brick-and-mortars alike, were hit by a massive spam attempt last week. At least 2 million fraudulent reviews were posted, according to ReviewFraud.org.
Kroger Pushes Boundaries with Mobile Holiday Strategies
Feeling the pinch from online-only grocers, many brick-and-mortar supermarkets are beginning to dip their toes into mobile marketing this holiday season. Kroger, on the other hand, is jumping all the way in.
Commentary
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.”
Why ‘On-Demand’ Alone Isn’t Enough to Make a Viable Business
Success in this market doesn’t come from betting that millions of consumers will change their purchase behaviors. Success in the on-demand economy employs a simple, time-tested formula: taking an existing service — one that a lot of people use — and making it better.
Will Mobile Search Dethrone Google?
Why would Google’s market leadership be vulnerable to mobile search incursion? Innovation in search can occur at the user experience level, the core indexing and ranking algorithms, and the business model and ecosystem that supports search. Each of these faces potential mobile disruption.
Latest Posts
5 Cloud POS Alternatives to Windows XP for SMBs
Cloud-based POS systems are growing in popularity among all businesses, and particularly those in the SMB category. We’ve put together a list of five cloud POS solutions for SMBs that can no longer rely on Windows XP, complete with information about what makes each option unique…
LBMA Podcast: Google’s Location Aware Search, xAd’s ‘Meaning of Local’
On the show: Thync’s digital drug; Indoor Atlas partners with Aisle411; Marriott and Netflix Travel Brilliantly together; Nomadic Gifts brings back the carrier pigeon; Verve Mobile acquires Fosbury; Facebook gives away beacons…
Street Fight Daily: Google’s Mobile Web Ambitions, Routific Gives Tech to SMBs
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Made A Secret Acquisition To Get You To Stop Using Apps Because It Makes Most Of Its Money From Search (Business Insider)… Routific’s Route Optimization Tools Help Local Businesses Offer On-Demand Delivery (TechCrunch)… Meet the Startup Drawing Maps for Foursquare, Pinterest and Mapquest (Fortune)
Is Yelp’s Slowing Growth a Function of Mobile’s Adolescence?
The apparent slowdown in Yelp’s growth does not necessarily reflect the value of the company to consumers or advertisers. Instead, it exposes the growing pains of the mobile ecosystem.
Report: Local Merchants Embrace Digital, but Need Plenty of Help
In the connected local economy, digital techniques will be the primary means of navigation for the customer journey everyone talks about. At the same time, physical-world commerce infrastructure is about to be seriously outdated. The 2015 Local Merchant Report, a survey of 500+ SMBs and VSBs, helps suppliers better understand merchants’ usage of and attitudes toward digital marketing and e-commerce…
Washington Post’s Gazette Community Sites Were Stuck in a Print Past
I was shocked to hear last week that Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post was closing its Gazette community news sites in suburban Maryland. But if I had been paying closer attention to the fast demographic and lifestyle changes in those suburbs, it might have seemed a little more obvious.
Street Fight Daily: Court Deals a Blow to Uber’s Biz Model, Airbnb Seeks $1 Billion
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… So, About that Uber Ruling (TechCrunch)… Airbnb Is Said to Seek $1 Billion More in Financing (New York Times)… Square’s Restaurant Delivery App Caviar Rolls Out Fastbite Service in New York (Venture Beat)…
Small Biz and Big Tech: How to Connect Local Merchants With Today’s Ad Technology
You can’t love what you don’t understand and the same holds true at every level of strategy – from local to global. We already know geo-targeted advertising campaigns equal success; it’s only a matter of jumping the hurdle of understanding before local businesses know it too…
#SFSW15 VIDEO: 3 Companies That Are Rethinking Brick-and-Mortar Business
The web is not a just a place for offline business to wrangle consumers anymore. Increasingly, technology is changing the way we actually build businesses in the real world. Representatives from a trio of companies that are revolutionizing the way their industries do business in the physical marketplace came together at Street Fight Summit West earlier this month to share their success stories.
Street Fight Daily: Snapchat Capitalizes on Local, Uber Nabs Ex-Google Maps Chief
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Snapchat Turns Geofilter Digital Stickers Into Revenue Source (LA Times)… Uber’s Ambitions Grow as It Hires Google’s Former Mapping Boss (Skift)… Starbucks Mobile Ordering Expands To 21 More States, Now Live In Over 4,000 Stores (TechCrunch)…
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Meta Is Automating Ads, But Brands Still Face a Bigger Problem