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…
Can coupons be reimagined to spur more consumer engagement? That’s what DataSphere is working on. The Seattle-based company sells and hosts marketing solutions to more than 20,000 SMBs under local TV and newspaper brands owned by Gannett, Belo, Raycom, Meredith…
Apple finally made some moves into the local mapping wars last week with the purchase of Locationary, which helps find business locations, and HopStop, which provides transit maps and travel suggestions. We'll go out on a limb and predict that…
The transition from one-off daily deals to an 'always on' loyalty/rewards platform that keeps merchants in the fold has been a Holy Grail of sorts for the deals companies. This was the case for Groupon Rewards, which launched in May…
Traditional media's rush into digital marketing services as an incremental revenue source is in full swing, with Hearst LocalEdge, GateHouse Media's Propel, Digital First's AdTaxi and GannettLocal among those taking aggressive stakes in the opportunity. Now smaller publishers are seeking…
The daily deals business isn't dead, but it isn't growing either. At this point, they aren't the anchor for SMB digital solutions that had been hoped. The question is whether more sustainable loyalty and rewards programs - many putting their…
You want vision? LevelUp CEO Seth Priebatsch says his loyalty/transaction marketing company will emerge as a partner for SMBs -- think authentication; orders and refunds; and analytics -- in the same way that Facebook Connect is a partner for media…
As traditional local media players begin to lose some of their prominence, the search for alternative local sales channels has become increasingly important. The channel currently being explored: payment processors, which normally focus on selling Point of Sales systems. Processors…
The SMB payment space has been getting mighty crowded since Square’s 2010 launch. Major merchant acquirers such as PayPal, Groupon, Intuit, VeriFone, Heartland Payment, Swipely, Merchant Warehouse and Total Merchant Services have joined Square in the battle for small spending…
Big Data means a lot of things to people. The analytics certainly help. But is it really helping promote new sales and services? That’s the challenge, as companies seek to add coupons and consumer info directly to the payment card…
We like the idea of using corporations as a distribution base for media and services. In the 1990s, The Family Education Network built a great newsletter business distributed in corporate lobbies. The concept's been widely extended with the addition of…
Payment processors and related companies work with most SMBs and are increasingly seen as a potential sales channel for reaching them with additional services. This week, we talked with one processor, Boston-based Merchant Warehouse, about its efforts to leverage its…
Is appointment scheduling poised to be a new anchor for service promotions? That vision --"look for an appointment, get a deal or upsell " -- has been articulated by a number of scheduling vendors, such as Agendize, FullSlate and Schedulicity.…
Ads aren't just valued for bringing in calls and walk ins. Local businesses increasingly place value on consumers looking up maps and directions, or participating in loyalty efforts, notes SuperMedia Director of Mobile Development Chris Folmer, who was speaking on…
The newspaper consortium-owned Wanderful Media is rolling out a retooled version of Find & Save, a shopping info site that it hopes will reinforce ties between the newspapers and the national retailers and brands that have traditionally driven their (estimated)…
It was just a matter of "when," but Groupon has finally relieved Andrew Mason of his CEO duties after a quarter in which Groupon widely missed its mark because of its very high expenses and serious international issues, despite growing…
Living Social has won a lifeline from some of its existing investors today with a new infusion of $110 Million. The new cash lets the #2 deals company, which has been 31 percent owned by Amazon, proceed after sustaining very…
Red Beacon founder Ethan Anderson has unveiled his latest project, MyTime, a "scheduling supermarket" that sets dynamic pricing for unfilled appointments. Online scheduling intrigues us as a gateway towards promotions and transactions, but it remains underutilized by SMBs and the…
Loyalty sales (including analytics) are typically associated with large brands such as Hilton and United Airlines. But a number of companies have been also trying to crack the code on SMBs, where the volume is. This week, Edo Interactive announces…
Deals are fading for many publishers. Group Commerce Inc., for instance, is just the latest company to cut back on its support of local deals. But for local businesses, deals remain potent building blocks for a wide range of promotional…
