News and Analysis
What I Saw in 2024: 10 MULO Trends and Predictions
As a journalist, I’m used to telling the stories that others pitch to me. (BTW…keep sending me your stats and news throughout 2025! You can reach me at [email protected].) Indulge me for a few minutes while I offer my perspectives on the year of MULO (multi-location) brands based on everything I’ve gathered. Here are my predictions […]
2025 Social Media Playbook: Authenticity, Originality, and Community-Driven Engagement
The era of trend-chasing is over. According to the newly released 2025 Sprout Social Index™, consumers are reshaping their expectations for brand behavior on social media. The verdict? Authenticity, originality, and personalized connections are no longer optional—they’re essential. This shift is more than a passing phase. As Rachael Goulet, Director of Social Media at Sprout […]
Walmart Credits In-Person Retail for Its Growth, and It’s Not Alone
Walmart’s Q3 earnings call revealed something interesting: Walmart places much of its recent revenue growth and success on in-person shopping. “In-store volumes grew, pickup from store grew faster, and delivery from store grew even faster than that,” the company wrote about its U.S. locations. The growth of in-store shopping in an era of e-commerce accessibility […]
Commentary
Must-have Digital Tools for Your Marketing Agency Strategy
Developing your marketing agency strategy is essential to the growth of your firm. As such, you’ll want to create and initiate your growth strategy at the launch of your agency, then revise it on an annual basis.
What’s Driving CX? 3 Predictions for 2023
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 Takes a Page from the TikTok Playbook
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.
Latest Posts
Report: Gen Z Welcomes Ad Tracking
When Gen Z goes on a voyage of product discovery, they usually do so via social media, and boy, do they like to be tracked—much more so than their older cohorts. According to findings released today and titled, “From A to (Gen) Z: How and Where Young Consumers Are Shopping,” by Tinuiti, the largest independent performance […]
Basis Announces FreeWheel Partnership to Democratize CTV Advertising
As more TV watchers cut the cord and shift to streaming services, connected TV advertising is seeing a surge in popularity. CTV advertising spend hit a record-breaking $1 billion in June, and now more programmatic firms are looking at partnerships with companies specializing in CTV as a hedge against the evolving landscape. Just this week, […]
Intango Grows U.S. Footprint with REIGNN Acquisition
Intango is a contextual and search advertising technology company that designs and executes tailored marketing and monetization solutions. Despite being in business for more than a decade, and working with some of the world’s largest brands, the Tel Aviv-based company has managed to fly under the radar in the U.S. market — until now. As […]
Report: 74% of Businesses Interested in Using AI and Automation
Was the last email newsletter from your favorite jewelry boutique generated by AI? What about the Facebook and Instagram posts from your local coffee shop? Years after big brands first started using AI and marketing automation to generate better ROI from their digital campaigns, small and mid-size businesses have finally jumped on board en masse. […]
Back-to-School 2023 by the Numbers
Although Halloween treats are already appearing on MULO (multi-location) retail shelves, let’s not forget that back-to-school shopping is still in season. Depending on where in the U.S. they live, students can return to academics as early as July these days. Although many schools still start after Labor Day, summer vacation ends early in many regions. […]
The ‘Last Mile’ Looms Large as Q4 approaches
As much as everyone loves Amazon, we must admit, they ruined it for other businesses in terms of raising customer expectations, particularly when it comes to the last mile. Amazon Prime. Next day. Same day. Drones. Amazon does it all, and other shipping providers have had to meet those standards to stay competitive. AxleHire, a […]
Forecasting Frenzy: Inside the Strategies Retailers Are Using to Predict Holiday Trends in 2023
Holiday forecasting is presenting a challenge for retailers in 2023, with multiple layers of economic uncertainty. After years of supply chain woes and logistics challenges, followed by a 2022 holiday season marked by the effects of inflation, retailers are looking at the 2023 holidays as an intricate puzzle. Behind the scenes, many retail executives say […]
It’s Time to Plan for Data Signal Sustainability
If you’re a publisher or advertiser, and especially if you’re operating in the mobile space, you’re probably getting a little tired of being told about new forthcoming privacy changes that are sure to upend your monetization and marketing plans. The simple fact is that change is the only constant in today’s digital landscape; if you’re […]
Audio Advertisers Sidestep Privacy Issues by Targeting Segments, Rather Than Individuals
One of the oldest broadcasting mediums is finding new life in the digital era — and advertisers are taking notice. More than a hundred years after the voices of radio personalities like Orson Welles became household names, and decades after transistor radios made audio content portable and widely-accessible for the first time, audio news is […]
Shuttered Forever or Transformed? 12 Storefront Businesses That Went Poof!
Is this about nostalgia or a MULO (multi-location) business lesson? Probably a bit of both. In our ongoing BOOM and BUST series, we talk about MULO retailers, restaurants, and service businesses that declared bankruptcy or became obsolete because of management issues or blindness to consumer trends and technologies. Let’s walk down memory lane and reflect […]
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