News and Analysis

Raise Report: Pilot, Airtable, AdStage Secure New Funding

Share this:

Every two or three weeks, we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. This week’s edition includes funding for RapidAPI, Chargebee, Made.com, and TheSkimm.

Openings and New Hires at Mono Solutions and Twitter

Share this:

Every two weeks, Geoff Michener covers some of the latest openings and new hires in this dynamic industry. This week’s edition includes moves and new openings at Emerging Insider Communications and MoviePass.

Street Fight Daily: Snap Doubles Down on Location, A Grocery Mega-Merger?

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Location May Be the X Factor for Snap’s Appeal to Advertisers… As Amazon Applies Pressure, Target and Kroger Mull a Merger… Where and When AI Can Make a Difference in Marketing…

Commentary

Local Stores Become Showrooms for Online Buying

Share this:

“Showrooming” refers to the act of using local stores as showrooms for more price-competitive online purchases. Retailers can get on the right side of this trend by beating Amazon at its own data-centric game. That means launching apps — or working with those that aggregate retail feeds, such as Milo — through which personal recommendations and incentives are offered to in-store buyers…

As Facebook Readies IPO, Local Strategy Is in Focus

Share this:

Considering that 70% of small businesses already use Facebook as a promotional tool through Pages, the company has a serious leg up on the competition. Transitioning these users into paying customers means cutting into Google’s massive market share of local ad spend, and potentially replacing the search giant as the de facto marketing tool for local businesses online…

Lesson From Gilt: Consolidation Means Growing Up for Daily Deals

Share this:

Gilt City’s retreat points to a larger systemic issue for the deals space in 2012. With venture investment in the space waning, access to the type of funding necessary to scale the capital-intensive sales efforts is becoming much more difficult — and the potential for a relative newcomer to achieve Groupon or LivingSocial-like growth seems a lot less likely…

Latest Posts

Street Fight Staff and Friends Predict 2014’s Top Stories

Share this:

As 2013 winds down, it’s clear that the landscape in hyperlocal business has shifted significantly. Looking ahead, we’ve asked Street Fight staffers and a few friends who regularly contribute to the site to submit their prognostications for what’s to come in the next 12 months…

What We Learned About Local Merchants in 2013

Share this:

In Street Fight’s “2013 Report on the State of the Local Merchant,” merchants discussed what they’re looking for from hyperlocal vendors, and outlined the factors they look at when deciding where to spend their local marketing dollars…

Street Fight Daily: Uber CEO Taunts Critics, RetailMeNot’s Simple Success

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.Uber CEO Taunts Price Critics, Points to Airline “Surge Pricing” (GigaOm)… RetailMeNot Wins the Holidays by Not Overthinking It (PandoDaily)… Mobile: Preparing for the Third and Final Wave (Wired)…

Lessons Learned From the ‘Daily Deal’

Share this:

According to a study conducted by Street Fight, the two most important factors for merchants evaluating hyperlocal marketing campaigns are the ability to attract new customers and ensure the right people are being targeted. Since daily deals are falling short in accomplishing this, what hyperlocal marketing avenues should local merchants explore?

Case Study: Tennessee Cafe Fends Off Daily Pitches From Hyperlocal Marketers

Share this:

“You can buy ads and you can post things on Facebook all day long, but unless somebody actually understands your passion and understands what you’re trying to do for the community, they’re not going to tell their friends,” says Reveille Joe Coffee’s Matthew O’Dell.

Street Fight Daily: Apple Buys Hyperlocal Startups, Booze Brands Align With Taxi Apps

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.Apple Acquired Mapping Firm BroadMap, Location-infused Evernote Competitor Catch (9to5 Mac)… Free Rides: Booze Brands Align With Transportation Apps (AdAge)… Foursquare’s New Money Means Facebook Isn’t Everything (Wired)…

When Will Big Retail Rethink Point-of-Sale? Sooner Than You Think

Share this:

Revel Systems wants to bring the tablet-based point-of-sale model upstream and disrupt the entrenched cadre of existing business software providers, which generated billions in revenue last year. Revel’s founder Lisa Falzone, a Stanford grad and one-time hedge funder, spun the company out of an online ordering app in 2010. Since then, Falzone and her team have raised over $14 million in venture funding, and have activated over 5,000 accounts…

5 Tools Local Retailers Can Use to Build Digital Storefronts

Share this:

The majority of local retailers — including those with basic websites that are optimized for mobile — still aren’t offering customers tools to browse listings and complete purchases with their smartphones. Here are five platforms that local businesses can use to quickly (and cheaply) set up digital storefronts where customers can purchase goods and services via mobile…

Street Fight Daily: Square CEO’s Gift, Groupon Expands Point-of-Sale

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.Square’s Dorsey Returns 10% of his Shares (Fortune)… For Groupon, The iPad is its New Passport to Global Markets (Washington Business Journal)… UrbanSpoon Hires New Top Exec, Hopes to Emerge from Restaurant Discovery Pack (PandoDaily)…

DemandForce CMO: There’s No Limit to Where We Will Want to Go

Share this:

If Google’s acquisition of Waze was the biggest exit in local tech over the past few years, Intuit’s buy of Demandforce was arguably the most important. Since shelling out nearly half of a billion dollars for the retention marketing software provider, the company has quietly executed on a strategy to position itself an integrated solutions provider for small businesses…