Business and Marketing News
One reason Amazon bought Whole Foods was to serve as a Local Commerce Logistics Center. Today, two years after the acquisition, Whole Foods is on the cutting edge of new trends like Amazon Prime loyalty extensions, Amazon in-store display and delivery. The sale also shook up a nearly $1 Trillion grocery segment in the US/Canada … Read more
Facebook’s reach out to banks and credit card companies for customer bank balance, transaction data and fraud alerts, per today’s Wall Street Journal, signals a second, more cautious run at “transaction marketing.” The WSJ article details an effort by Facebook to support Messenger via customer data, making it feel safer to use the messaging service to … Read more
Five years in, is card-linking finally assuming a place in the promotional media pantheon alongside reviews, coupons, prepaid deals and loyalty incentives? With card-linking, consumers link their credit and debit cards to retailers and brands. The resulting transaction data can be mined to help retailers, brands and other commerce companies provide targeted offers and incentives … Read more
Groupon has been pushing hard to upgrade its merchant base from one-time partners to permanent clients with monthly sales goals. The latest initiative? A “Partner Network” for publishers willing to highlight Groupon deals in return for a piece of the action (10-12 percent for local deals, and lower amounts for Getaways and Goods). Partners get access … Read more
Over the years, we’ve seen some major paradigm shifts in the transition of local marketing to digital. In 2003, it was the rise of Google search as applied to small business –to this day, the biggest thing that ever happened to local. In 2007, the paradigm shift was the rise of Groupon and prepaid deals … Read more
Gift cards have been growing astronomically and now make up an industry nearing $100 billion in revenues. You’ll see racks of cards for national brands and retailers everywhere, from Safeway to Bed, Bath & Beyond. But can local merchants get in the loop? We’ve seen gift card activity increase in travel, spa & salon and … Read more
When it comes to local commerce and loyalty programs, all roads lead to groceries. That’s the feeling of key companies in the space, including WalMart, Amazon, Google and eBay. Groupon this week announced Snap, a grocery coupon and loyalty program that gets it into groceries in a more meaningful way than prior efforts to go in via … Read more
Five years in, is card-linking finally assuming a place in the promotional media pantheon alongside reviews, coupons, prepaid deals and loyalty incentives? With card-linking, consumers link their credit and debit cards to retailers and brands. The resulting transaction data can be mined to help retailers, brands and other commerce companies provide targeted offers and incentives … Read more
Google’s Payments division is seeking synergies across many of Google’s business units – hence the recent insertion of several AdWords executives into the Payments leadership. Speaking at Money2020 in Las Vegas, Google Payment VP Ariel Bardin bluntly acknowledged that people don’t think Google has a real role in the payments world, and didn’t mind that Google Wallet … Read more
American Express is under the knife, as it cuts $1 billion in spending with the end of its Costco and JetBlue co-branded cards. The cutback will probably cut into many of the forward looking promotion and marketing projects that Amex underwrites with Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Uber, Pinterest and others. It will also lead to the departure … Read more