News and Analysis

How AI Bots, Voice Assistants Are Changing Shopper Behaviors

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Rapid changes in the way people communicate aren’t just impacting personal relationships, they’re also hitting the retail market as consumer preferences evolve. In a new report released just this morning, the post-purchase solutions provider Narvar uncovers generational differences in how consumers prefer interacting with retailers.

Street Fight Daily: Google Appeases Antitrust Regulators on Shopping, Brands Turn to Influencers

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Offers to Treat Shopping Rivals Equally Via Auction… Why More Brands Are Adding Young Influencers to Their Creative and Marketing Teams… The Luxe Lab at Neiman Marcus Signals a Shift in Focus for Department Stores…

Street Fight Daily: Inside Uber/Lyft Funding War, Small Brands Hit Roadblock on Instagram

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Funding Talks at Uber and Lyft Complicate Ride-Hailing Allegiance… Small Brands Are Finding It Harder to Get Verified on Instagram… Never Mind GDPR, Here Comes Apple’s Intelligent Tracking…

Latest Posts

Street Fight Daily: Tribune Resumes Journatic, Facebook Talks SMBs

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Tribune Resumes Limited Usage of Journatic (Chicago Tribune)… Facebook’s Dan Levy Touts Small Business Growth: Advertisers Have Nearly Doubled Since January, Promoted 2.5M Posts (TechCrunch)… BIA/Kelsey: Deals Still Aim for $5.5B by 2016 (NetNewsCheck)…

Patch Adds COO as Leadership Change Continues

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AOL’s Patch network of hyperlocal news sites has made yet another significant change at the top, naming former Westwood One operations head Steve Kalin to the newly created position of president and COO. Kalin will take responsibility for the company’s daily operations — with the advertising, finance, marketing and content functions all reporting to him…

How E-hail Apps Like Uber Could Impact the Hyperlocal Ecosystem

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It’s entirely conceivable that fast-growing ranks of Uber users would not be averse to other commerce offerings that could be paid for through the phone app. In fact, these users are probably even more used to the idea of paying over the phone than people who use Google Wallet or Apple’s Passbook, neither of which has achieved wide adoption or even viral growth…

Case Study: Restaurant Focuses on Online Menus, Reservations

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Jen Ziskin, co-owner of the restaurant La Morra, in Brookline, Mass., says she relies on a combination of email marketing, OpenTable, and menu management platform Locu to spur interest long before customers walk through her doors…

Street FIght Daily: AT&T Launches Alerts, Foursquare’s 10.4M Users

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.AT&T Launches AT&T Alerts, A Location-Based Deal Alert Service, As The Field Grows More Crowded (TechCrunch)… Foursquare Has 10.4 Million Monthly Users (AdWeek)… Groupon’s Restaurant Tools Get A VP Of Sales (Fast Company)…

SMB Social Media Is All About Branding, Not Conversions

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SMBs may become frustrated when they can’t see tangible results from social media, but they should realize that most of their potential customers are absorbing and reacting to social media conversations and understanding brands through these interactions. Brand marketing, not the 0% conversion rates, is social media’s key strength…

Conference Notebook: Commerce and Content Collide

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Selling stuff makes most editorial folks uneasy. But as the price of online (not to mention mobile) advertising inventory drops, online shops, affiliate programs, and daily deals are becoming a key revenue strategy for local and national publishers…

Street Fight Daily: Cash Crunch at LivingSocial, Startups Tackle Local

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.LivingSocial May Be Running Dangerously Low on Cash and Time. Will Amazon Come to the Rescue? (Pando Daily)… Startups Tackle the Local Neighborhood as the Next Frontier  (GigaOm)… Google Updates iPad App to Make Search More Local (Mashable)…

Using Contextual Awareness, Qualcomm Labs Targets Tokyo

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Dentsu has teamed up with Recruit Co. and Qualcomm Labs to create a massive location-based marketing campaign in Tokyo. The campaign builds upon a technology provider’s newly released contextual-awareness software development kit, Gimbal, to dynamically distribute offers to consumers by synthesizing a user’s location and social graph without draining battery life…

WNYC’s Schachter: Many Hyperlocal Startups Don’t Focus on ‘Things That Matter’

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“The amount of coverage of restaurant openings that you see in the hyperlocal space is disproportionate to the significance of restaurant openings to the world as a whole,” says the WNYC news VP. “That is probably a little uncharitable, but not too much.”