News and Analysis
Happy Returns Expands Into College Market
Startup Happy Returns, based in Santa Monica and founded by alums from HauteLook and NordstromRack.com, offers a way for shoppers to return e-commerce purchases at real-world kiosks. Beginning this fall, Happy Returns will be setting up kiosks—which it calls “Return Bars”—at five campuses around the country to capitalize on the returns generated by back-to-college online shopping.
Commentary
A ‘Radical Transformation’ Is Brewing in SMB Phones
For local businesses that rely on the phone for inbound leads (which is nearly all of them), the functionality of copper lines pales in comparison to what call-tracking-enabled lines have done for years. Unfortunately for business owners, the VoIP packages being sold to them also fall far short of the level of functionality that call tracking provides…
How Personalization And Security Will Coexist in Local Commerce
The evolution of mobile technology has been very exciting to observe, especially in the local commerce space. As I covered in my last piece we are finally starting to see things come to life with the ability to pay for everyday products and services using mobile devices. But overall one has to ask if this […]
Latest Posts
Street Fight Daily: Snapchat Tests Local, Yelp Sues Reputation Firm
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…… Snapchat Tries Our Stories For Locals Only (TechCrunch)… Yelp Sues Positive Review Provider Revleap (IT World)… Same-Day Delivery: Delivering Profits Or Just Parcels? (Forrester)..
LBMA Podcast: Factual Partners With Metadata, Thinknear Discusses Location Score Index
On the show: Indoo.rs partners with KLM; Capital Radio + Outdoor Plus bring music to billboards in real time; Alibaba tests drone delivery; Wheely’s Cafe sells modern coffee carts; Sportsman Tracker is funded; Yahoo! + Flickr = Wetter; TripAdvisor buys ZeTrip; and PayPal invests in Pulsate….
Street Fight Daily: Lyft Eyes Big New Round, Groupon Sells Beacons
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…… Ride-Hailing Service Lyft Is Said to Be in Talks to Raise $250 Million (New York Times)… Expedia Buying Orbitz for $1.6 Billion (Skift)… Online-To-Offline Metrics Increasingly Available, Important To Marketers (Search Engine Land)…
Groupon Plans to Start Selling Beacons to Merchants
The deals company announced solid fourth quarter earnings Thursday evening, finishing the year with gains in both revenue and gross billings. During the earnings call, CEO Eric Lefkofsky announced its latest project: a redemption system that uses beacons to allow merchants to track and communicate with Groupon customers in their stores…
Street Fight Daily: Google’s New Payment Project, Real Estate’s Digital Decline
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…… Google Said To Be Testing A Point-of-sale System Called Plaso (GigaOm)… Borrell: Real Estate To Scale Back On Digital (NetNewCheck)… An Attribution Standard? IPG, Horizon, Digitas and Others Agree to Use One Firm (AdAge)…
Uber and Foursquare Co-Founders Lead $15M Investment in Dining App Reserve
Expa, the startup accelerator founded by Uber co-founder Garrett Camp and Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai, has led a $15 million venture investment in Reserve. The round included a number of celebrity investors including actors Jon Favreau and Jared Leto as well as rapper Will.i.am…
Streets Ahead: Google Chat, and Instagram Reels