News and Analysis
The Secret to Alibaba’s Singles Day Success? Brick-and-Mortar
We’ve all heard by now that Alibaba’s Singles Day—think of it as the Chinese Prime Day—shattered sales volume records, recording over $30 billion in revenue for Jack Ma’s retail giant. What you haven’t heard is that brick-and-mortar retail played a key role in that windfall.
Infographic: Cyber Monday Goes Mobile
Smartphones are gaining momentum as the preferred platform for Cyber Monday shoppers. Consumers have their smartphones with them everywhere they go, including work, making it essential for retailers to have a winning mobile marketing strategy.
Black Friday Is a Boon to Local Retailers. What About ‘Small Business Saturday’?
Womply Senior Manager of Communications Dallin Hatch says he was surprised to discover just how big Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become for small retailers. He was also surprised to see what a little impact Small Business Saturday has on seasonal sales.
Commentary
Why the Contractor-Employee Conundrum Isn’t a Fatal Liability for the On-Demand Economy
The recent California Labor Commission ruling, classifying one Uber driver as an employee has led to a lot of chatter about cracks in the business model underlying the “on-demand economy.”
So How Do We Define a ‘Small Business’ Anyway?
Small businesses pack a big punch when it comes to the economy. A working definition that most people and corporations can agree on would aid market interpretations, statistical analyses, and, of course, make it simpler for advertisers to reach the right audience.
Study Finds Consumer Search Preferences Depend Heavily on Type of Business
A few categories like restaurants, physicians, and beauty salons consistently capture the greatest volume of searches, stretching out into a long tail of lower-volume searches for occasional needs like roofing, chiropractors, and house cleaning.
Latest Posts
How Worldnow Plans to Rev Up Revenue for the Local Media Consortium
The newspapers and broadcasters in the Local Media Consortium are betting their digital future on a five-way ad strategy. A big part of the strategy is new LMC member Worldnow, which sells advertising across 450 media sites reaching 81% of U.S. households…
Street Fight Daily: Google Unveils New Ad Targeting Tools and Mobile Upgrades
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Debuts New AdMob Tools For Ad Targeting, Native Ads, Scaling Apps And More (TechCrunch)… Here’s What Marketers Need to Know About Google’s Mobile Upgrades (AdWeek)… Are Wearables the Next In-Store Shopping Buddies? (eMarketer)…
Why We Still Search for ‘Starbucks’ on Google Maps
With calendar integration, a generalized understanding of me generated from analyzing my geographic movements over time, and (perhaps) biosensor feedback from wearables, a mobile app may be able to predict my actual need, and suggest places that may be closer, higher rated, or otherwise more convenient than the Starbucks I now search for.
Street Fight Daily: Mary Meeker’s 2015 Internet Trends, Google and Apple Adjust Mobile Payments Strategies
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… KPCB’s Mary Meeker Points to Slowing Growth in Internet Trends Preso (Re/code)…
Google and Apple Adjust Strategies on Mobile Payments (New York Times)… Google Confirms That a ‘Buy’ Button Is Coming to Search Results (Business Insider)…
Exploits and Vulnerabilities Challenge the Integrity of Google Maps
The recent run of bad luck for Google doesn’t lend itself to a simple comprehensive explanation, but each of the company’s recent issues in its own way highlights a key problem for Google: how to build and maintain an accurate local dataset on a global scale…
Street Fight Daily: Mobile Web Market to Triple, Facebook Adds Critics’ Restaurant Reviews
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Mobile Web Market Will Triple in Size to $850B by 2018 (VentureBeat) Mobile phones and mobile networks will be growing just 10 percent and five percent per year, respectively, by 2018, but mobile web services will continue growing like crazy. Mobile commerce […]
Why Local Search Is the Key to Groupon’s Turnaround
As Groupon look to wean the company off an increasingly challenging email marketing strategy and reposition it as a go-to marketplace, the Chicago-based company has invested considerably in building the infrastructure to compete for the hundreds of millions of local shoppers who pass through Google each day…

















































Why Restaurant PR Matters for Local Growth