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Posts by Mike Boland

November 27, 2019

Has Amazon Found the SMB Supplies Sweet Spot?

This is the latest in LSA’s Skate To Where the Puck is Going series. Running semi-weekly, it examines the moves and motivations of tech giants as leading indicators for where markets are moving. Check out the entire series here, and its origin here.  Amazon likes to experiment. Its sometimes-wacky “throw against the wall to see if it sticks” rollouts…

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November 26, 2019

Amex Advances Resy Integration: What’s Next?

Tech Vision is LSA’s series that spotlights emerging tech. Running semi-weekly, it reports on new technologies that LSA analysts track, including strategic implications for local commerce. See the full series here.  Resy just got a lot more relevant. As you may remember, American Express acquired the restaurant reservation platform back in May for an undisclosed…

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November 25, 2019

How Should Messaging Be Used as a Marketing Channel? Part II

Data Scout is LSA’s series that curates and draws meaning from third-party data. Running semi-weekly, it adds an analytical layer to the industry data that we encounter in daily knowledge building. For LSA original data, see the separate Modern Commerce Monitor™️ series. As we wrote last week, the dynamics and effectiveness of any given marketing…

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November 22, 2019

WordPress Beefs Up SMB Monetization Options

Automattic is on a roll. It recently received $300 million from Salesforce Ventures and made a few key acquisitions including Tumblr and ZBS. The acquisitions represent expanding functionality, congruent with an ongoing theme of website builders becoming one-stop-shops for presence and promotion. Some definitions are in order to avoid confusion. Automattic sits at the center…

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November 21, 2019

SMB SaaS: The Funding Roundup

Funding Watch is LSA Insider’s series that tracks funding to SMB-focused startups and tech providers. See the rest of the series here. Things continue to heat up in SMB Saas. For those unfamiliar, this sector is represented by companies that build software tools for small businesses. It’s everything from “front of the house” marketing and customer…

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November 20, 2019

GroundTruth Rolls Out AI-Fueled “Visit Optimization”

Location intelligence continues to be one of the hottest areas of innovation and discussion in local commerce. The underlying dilemma is the sheer volume of commerce that happens offline, while it’s increasingly influenced online (including mobile). Connecting those “O2O” dots is the name of the game. This was the biggest topic that emerged at Localogy’s…

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November 19, 2019

How Should Messaging Be Used as a Marketing Channel?

Data Scout is LSA’s series that curates and draws meaning from third-party data. Running semi-weekly, it adds an analytical layer to the industry data that we encounter in daily knowledge building. For LSA original data, see the separate Modern Commerce Monitor™️ series. The dynamics and effectiveness of any given marketing channel is usually a function…

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November 15, 2019

Will CallJoy Ease the SMB Call Crunch?

Tech Vision is LSA’s series that spotlights emerging tech. Running semi-weekly, it reports on new technologies that LSA analysts track, including strategic implications for local commerce. See the full series here.  SMBs are famously time-strapped, as they juggle being chefs, dentists and roofers while also wearing the hat of business operator. That makes simplicity and…

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November 14, 2019

Squarespace Ups Its Social Game

This is the latest in our series on SMB website builders. See the whole series here.  One theme we’ve been tracking and covering in these pages over the past year is the rapidly-expanding services bundle from website providers. Competition has ratcheted up as website providers look to sweeten the deal for SMBs, reduce churn, lock…

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November 13, 2019

Salesforce Expands From CRM to CMS

This is the latest in LSA’s Skate To Where the Puck is Going series. Running semi-weekly, it examines the moves and motivations of tech giants as leading indicators for where markets are moving. Check out the entire series here, and its origin here.  Among the companies examined in an upcoming LSA white paper on “SMB Saas,” Salesforce is pegged…

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