News and Analysis

Early Spending Results are In! MULO BOOMs this Holiday Season StreetFight

Early Spending Results are In! MULO BOOMs this Holiday Season

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As of this writing, Black Friday and Cyber Monday (now seemingly extended to Cyber Week) are behind us.  MULO (multi-location) pundits and agencies involved in retail and restaurant analyses and predictions are starting to call the winners and losers in the holiday Street Fight, which now involves battles between brands, products, SMBs, and MULO chains, […]

Street Fight LIVE Insights: Stopping at C-Stores with Mike Templeton

Street Fight LIVE Insights: Stopping at C-Stores with Mike Templeton

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Some people collect snow globes or stickers on road trips. Others boast that they’ve seen all the National Parks. Still others have a thing for selfies in front of weird vintage structures. But Mike Templeton, one of the speakers at Street Fight LIVE stops at and collects insights from convenience stores (C-stores), the unsung heroes […]

The MULO Dozen: November in Review Street Fight

The MULO Dozen: November in Review

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As November and 2024 draws to a close, news from MULO (multi-location) brands has hardly slowed down! In fact, this season is a make-or-break for retailers, restaurants, C-stores, and service businesses as consumers travel near and far to eat, shop, and squeeze in those errands before the year ends. Of course, the biggest news of […]

Commentary

customer experience

What’s Driving CX? 3 Predictions for 2023

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This is a pivotal moment for the state of customer experience (CX) as customers demand more connected, frictionless, and innovative experiences. However, despite the significance of CX, according to Forrester’s US Customer Experience Index, CX quality declined for 19% of brands in 2022. 

amazon playbook

Amazon Takes a Page from the TikTok Playbook

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Social commerce provides the promise of an additional revenue stream for social platforms that have largely relied on advertising for monetization. The giants are copying each other to get there, and Amazon has taken a page from the TikTok playbook to spur its latest advance.

green shopping

Consumer Trust and Green Shopping Lead the Way in 2023

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With almost every business continuing to evolve, 2023 is going to build on the success of this year. In fact, next year will present new opportunities to build trust, innovate digital marketing tactics, and advance our industry’s effort to reduce our industry’s climate impact. 

Latest Posts

he Power of Place: Retailers Revolutionize Store Location Selection with Geospatial Intelligence

Retailers Revolutionize Store Location Selection with Geospatial Intelligence

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It’s a tale as old as time. A retailer picks a storefront, leases a building, and renovates a space — only to discover that the location itself is a dud. Maybe there isn’t enough foot traffic, or parking is too difficult. Or maybe shoppers in the neighborhood just aren’t interested in buying whatever products the […]

StoreConnect, a Trailblazing Force in E-commerce, Raises $9 Million

StoreConnect, a Trailblazing Force in E-commerce, Raises $9 Million

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E-commerce has come into focus as a critical solution — sometimes the only solution — for small and mid-size businesses that want to sell outside their physical stores and collect insights into consumer behavior. Given the important role that online sales now play in local commerce, it’s no surprise that firms focused on the e-commerce […]

Search Fails May Cost Retailers as Much as $13.8B in Sales This Holiday Season

Search Fails May Cost Retailers as Much as $13.8B in Sales This Holiday Season

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MULO (multi-location) retailers struggle to compete with Amazon, the online giant.  But they are never going to win that battle if they don’t focus on search for the holiday season. A new study by Nosto reveals that as much as $13.8B in sales may be lost on Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) because when consumers […]

Party On! Bankruptcy for Party City May Not Be the End

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The media is filled with stories these days of MULO (multi-location) retailers closing stores and doors and declaring bankruptcy. Our BUST series covered Bed Bath & Beyond, Jenny Craig, Christmas Tree Shops, and others.  But before you start ringing the death knell on one more MULO brick-and-mortar retailer or restaurant, be aware that the party […]

Mailchimp Launches GenAI-Powered Marketing Assistant for SMBs

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The email marketing and newsletter giant Mailchimp is at it again. Earlier this week, the company launched its latest game-changing solution for SMBs — a marketing assistant powered by generative AI. Intuit Assist for Mailchimp is expected to help businesses generate content, personalize their marketing, and learn faster from their marketing mistakes. Rather than being […]

Head of the Class — Back-to-School Marketing Language Trends

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Very few seasons connote change the way the back-to-school season does. Even for those of us who are no longer in school, the shorter days and cooler mornings mean that a new school year (and, by default, autumn, if you live somewhere lucky enough to experience it) is soon upon us. And every time summer […]

Brand Halloween Holiday Creep 2023

Brand Halloween Holiday Creep 2023

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Before you could even put away your beach chair and utter “Pumpkin Spice,” Halloween accessories, boxes of tinsel, faux trees, and December lights began thier holiday creep and began to appear on store shelves. MULO (multi-location) retailers have changed the traditional sales cycle and accelerated the holiday shopping schedule. Halloween 2023 began in July, as […]

Grocers Navigate the Shift from E-commerce to In-Store

Grocers Navigate the Shift from E-commerce to In-Store

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More than half of e-commerce grocery customers have left the channel since last year. Where have they gone, and what can grocers do to bring them back? That’s the question many supermarket chains and retail marketers are trying to answer. According to new data from SymphonyAI Retail CPG, 52% of e-commerce grocery customers have left […]

BUST: The Wrong Time for Rite Aid

BUST: The Wrong Time for Rite Aid

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Bankruptcies and store closings have hit the retail world hard this year. Bed Bath & Beyond was the most notable, and Christmas Tree Shops and Jenny Craig are among the other retail brands that closed doors in 2023.  Rite Aid is the latest MULO (multi-location) brand to suffer the impact of retail shrinkage. Although the […]

7 Ways to Use AI Responsibly for Multi-Location Marketing

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AI is no longer a thing of the future. It’s something that’s here—and it’s here to stay. In fact, more than 80% of marketers are currently using AI tools. But what are some practical applications of AI for multi-location marketing and how can you use it to streamline processes and improve campaigns? We’re sharing seven […]