Women attendees at BIA/Kelsey's SMB conference jumpstarted their networking at a session just for them on Monday night. Women Leading in Local, a special discussion and cocktail party for women only, has become a staple at BIA/Kelsey conferences. Over cocktails, attendees heard from…
Starting from a review of 3,200 companies, BIA/Kelsey has organized a new view of 575 companies providing local marketing services across 30 business categories. The Local Commerce Universe (LCU) presents the myriad startups and local media companies providing SMB marketing and operational…
A flood of conversation about the local on-demand economy has broken out since BIA/Kelsey's NOW Conference in June. The opportunities and risks for labor and small business, as well as the potential for profit among companies facilitating last-mile logistics for…
The Local Commerce Universe is expanding. What does this mean? "It's a new way to look at the integration of all the elements of the local commerce ecosystem," says BIA/Kelsey analyst Abid Chaudhry. "This includes traditional media, social, mobile and…
Edward M. Chen, U.S. District Court Judge for Northern California, may be remembered as a unicorn-killer after granting Uber drivers class-action standing to contest their compensation paid by the company for on-demand transportation services provided over the past six years.…
One of the innovations I'm predicting for phase II of the local on-demand economy (LODE) is CRM for on-demand workers. As LODE takes over (especially for millennials) individual workers will tie together several "gigs." Think: Instacart shopper by day, Uber…
Dave Ashton, founder of SnapCar, a French on-demand transportation company, has posted his "Case Against Full-Time Employees." The piece is receiving tremendous amounts of attention on LinkedIn today, nearly a quarter million views as of this writing. Ashton's is a…
The art of aggregating and deploying local service providers is defining the local on-demand economy (LODE). We unpacked this during a panel discussion at BIA/Kelsey NOW (video below). Like many two-sided marketplaces, LODE is fundamentally driven by supply and demand.…
Acquiring very small businesses at a low cost of acquisition and then locking them into a suite of services that they rely on to run their businesses (thus driving higher lifetime value) is a huge opportunity that is also incredibly difficult to…
It's well known by now that mobile has overtaken desktop as the primary mode for online searches. Home services has a tendency to lag broader online trends and this is no exception. However consumers are expected to soon use mobile for…
How are consumer behavior, consumption and expectations driving the movement known as the local on-demand economy (LODE)? It's a key question, especially for increasingly buying-empowered millennials, which we unpacked at BIA/Kelsey NOW (video below). The on-demand economy, like many two-sided…
Any company that sells to small businesses knows that demographics can be a stronger indicator of preference than vertical category. We recently met with the leadership team at Home Advisor to ask about the trends they are adapting to in the SMB…
Do SMBs really want a one stop shop solution for all of their digital marketing needs? This question is becoming more important as the stack of services being offered to SMBs grows broader and more complex. It's becoming too much for…
What are the burning issues of the local on demand economy (LODE), from the perspective of its funders? At BIA/Kelsey NOW a panel of top-tier VCs zeroed in on the cultural and political issues that will make or break LODE (video…
The local on-demand economy (LODE) is shrouded in question marks and is frothy with early stage experimentation. But one thing we do know is that it's moving really fast. In that spirit, our featured video clip this week is the opening presentation…
Video is a big component of how small businesses market themselves. And it appears that SMBs are beginning to take advantage of the full range of opportunities that video offers, not just to promote their brand but to educate consumers…
The local on-demand economy (LODE) restores access to services that have vanished from Main Street in the flood of brands and big box stores. This according to Moon Valley Software CEO Pete Ryan, whom we interviewed at BIA/Kelsey NOW (video…
One of the great challenges in selling digital services to SMBs is that relatively few SMBs go shopping for these products. These products need to be sold by outbound sales channels. Making these channels more efficient is a big opportunity…
"Everything that can be Uberized will be Uberized," said Shane Ginsberg, president of EVB, an Oakland, California-based marketing firm. But the on-demand common claim made by startups and VCs that their company is the next "Uber of" does represent a…
HotelTonight is one of the marquee names of the local on-demand economy (LODE), which lets you book a hotel in three taps. We discussed the company's business model and success factors with VP of product Amanda Richardson at BIA/Kelsey NOW (video below). One of…
