News and Analysis

Retailers Use AI for In-Store Experimentation, Customer Service

Share this:

Brick-and-mortar retailers are looking for an edge in their fight against the e-commerce behemoths, and as the battle rages on, it’s looking like artificial intelligence might be the answer.

Street Fight Daily: Google Revamps Maps, Echo’s Market Share Slides as Speaker War Heats Up

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Maps Platform Arrives, Changing the Game for Developers… Amazon Echo Losing Market Share as Smart Speaker Rivalry Intensifies… Square’s Loss Widens As Spending Picks Up…

Who’s Using Local AR? And How Often?

Share this:

According to a recent survey, AR users like what they see, with a whopping 73% reporting high or very high satisfaction. But non-users report explicit disinterest, with the biggest reason being the rather daunting “just not interested.” This presents a big hill for AR app developers to climb. 

Commentary

What Do Google’s Enhanced Campaigns Mean for SMBs?

Share this:

To wildly mixed reactions, Google last week announced a major redesign to its pervasive AdWords SEM platform. Known as Enhanced Campaigns, the redesign will force advertisers to run a single, converged — though conditionally governed — campaign across desktop, mobile, and tablet devices…

After Boom and Bust, How Will the Discount Economy Evolve?

Share this:

The discount industry experienced 2012 as a major turning point. In the past 12 months, the deal provider landscape shook out even more, with the consolidation of many deals sites and the decline of some industry giants. Given the changed landscape, here are a few predictions about where the local offer and voucher space is heading…

Big Data and Local Search: The Netflix Precedent

Share this:

We’ve entered an era when product decisions can be made not by analysis of demographics or user testing but by extremely fine-tuned measurements of current user activities. For local search, the question becomes just how many of our passive online activities can be converted into data points to be examined for purposes of marketing and product development?

Latest Posts

Street Fight Daily: Square Kills Wallet App, Yelp Integrates Booking Service

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technologySquare Pulls Failed Wallet App as Troubles Mount (Wall Street Journal)… Yelp Bites Back At OpenTable, TripAdvisor And Google With Free Yelp Reservations Service (TechCrunch)… Apple Reportedly Integrating NFC Technology into iPhone 6 (MacRumors)…

For Local Commerce Startups Like Homejoy, A Choice of Whom to Disrupt

Share this:

Airbnb’s recent decision to become a hospitality brand has deep implications for a growing segment of startups that have built similar digital marketplaces for a number of traditionally offline industries. Today, these startups face a similar ontological decision: should they become a consumer brand, expanding deeper into a given industry, or should they expand horizontally, working to disrupt Yelp, Google and the other more horizontal mainstays of local search and discovery…

6 Tools Publishers Can Use to Monetize Their Business Directories

Share this:

directoryHyperlocal publishers are frequently on the lookout for new ways to generate revenue from their sites, and one of the most straightforward revenue diversification strategies involves launching a business directory. Here are six tools that publishers can use to monetize business directories on their hyperlocal sites…

Street Fight Daily: Airbnb Eyes Travel, Square Goes After Grubhub

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…. Airbnb Looks Beyond Flat-Sharing to Tickets and Travel (Financial Times)… Square Branches Out Into Food Ordering With New Square Order Service (TheNextWeb)… Foursquare goes Oprah: You’re a mayor and you’re a mayor (Engadget)…

Why One Investor Thinks Foursquare Has a Future in Ad Tech

Share this:

Add this to the interesting-but-never-going-to-happen suggestion box for Foursquare: ditch the consumer business altogether. Nihal Mehta, a New York-based entrepreneur-turned-investor, thinks that Foursquare might find a bigger business by bailing on its local search ambition to put its algorithm to work as an attribution product for mobile advertising…

Openings and New Hires at Mono Solutions, Google, Connectivity & Cxense

Share this:

Every two weeks, Search Influence’s Kelly Benish — who knows practically everyone in hyperlocal — covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. In this week’s edition, new hires and jobs at Haystak Digital Marketing, Angie’s List, Local Yokel Media, Mediative and hibu…

Street Fight Daily: Intuit Makes Another Acquisition, Square Rival Raises $50M

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technologyIntuit Buys Lettuce Apps For $30M To Add Inventory And Order Management To Quickbooks (TechCrunch)… Square Rival iZettle Receives Capital Injection From Group of Investors (Wall Street Journal)… Months Before CEO Shakeup, Leaf Investor Took Control of Startup (Xconomy)…

Using In-Store Analytics To Counter the Threat from Disruptive Digital Retailers

Share this:

Online retailers have successfully proven that leveraging analytics drives conversions and improves shopper experience. Indoor analytics provides these same invaluable insights to physical stores, closing the data gap between digital and brick-and-mortar environments…

Case Study: Golf Club Brings Back Deal Buyers With Rewards Program

Share this:

In her role as manager at Southern Pines Golf Club, Elaine Millar is responsible for the digital marketing strategy for the 18-hole course. Millar uses her rewards program as a promotional tool to keep the customers she gains through local deal sites coming back for future visits after their promotions have been redeemed…

Street Fight Daily: Square’s Alleged Saboteur, Google Buys Website Builder

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technologySequoia’s $12B Man Says Someone With ‘Axe to Grind’ is After Square (Upstart)… Google Gobbles Up Restaurant Startup (Wall Street Journal)… Uber Launches uberFAMILY, a Pilot Service in NYC That Uses Cars With Child Seats (TheNextWeb)…