The meteoric rise of daily deal sites like Groupon was almost as captivating to follow in the press as their precipitous fall. But according to the latest industry stats and projections, daily deal companies can’t be written off just yet. In fact, their comeback is underway according to industry experts and analysts like Boyan Josic.

“We all watched the historic rise of daily deals several years ago, which was quickly followed by a jarring correction in the industry,” says Josic, the founder of Daily Deal Media. “Now we are seeing a slight surge in both merchant demand and the performance of Groupon and other deal sites that have made it through some testing times.”

Continue Reading

In what amounts to yet another compelling case study highlighting effective mobile marketing, National Wholesale Liquidators has deployed a comprehensive mobile marketing strategy to drive interest, traffic, and sales at the company’s discount retail chain of 12 stores.

Having emerged from bankruptcy just four years ago, the company says mobile marketing is playing a key role in the retailer’s impressive comeback.

In fact, the recent mobile marketing efforts have brought more mobile-connected shoppers into its stores, Drew Bickel, the company’s director of planning, allocation, distribution and special projects tells Internet Retailer.

Continue Reading

Since releasing iOS 7 beta to developers last week during the keynote kick-off at WWDC 2013, Apple and its developers have made waves for the enormous potential uncovered in the forthcoming major mobile OS refresh planned for later this year.

Among the most curious discoveries this week is that iOS 7 may feature deep integration with LinkedIn.

Inching up the social importance ladder that Facebook and Twitter previously ascended, Apple is apparently planning to add a third social network to the system-wide share sheet in iOS 7.

Continue Reading

With video ads emerging as the most effective and engaging ad units available in the entire mobile ad ecosystem today, it comes as no surprise that one of the top mobile ad companies in the world is working overtime to expand its video ad proficiency and capabilities.

On Wednesday, Millennial Media unveiled a comprehensive suite of new advertising products for marketers to harness the power of mobile video on smartphones and tablets.

For example, advertisers can now add customizable features to their video that let consumers engage with the content in ways not possible in any other medium.

Continue Reading

On Wednesday morning, Distimo announced the launch of Conversion Tracking, a free Software Development Kit (SDK) that offers app developers a “one-stop shop” to measure and analyze their app transaction value and the lifetime value of their app users.

The app store market data and analytics leader says that Distimo Conversion Tracking directs consumers to the right app store, and enables developers to easily identify what country and traffic source their app users are coming from and what devices they are using.

“Until today, there has been no product available for developer that combines both data from app stores as well as conversion tracking,” boasts Vincent Hoogsteder, CEO and co-founder of Distimo.

Continue Reading

Troy Alstead, Starbucks’ chief financial officer and chief accounting officer, dropped a mobile bombshell at the Jefferies Global Consumer Conference this week.

Mobile payments are fast-becoming a hot way to pay for a hot cup of joe at Starbucks.

“Mobile payments not launched all that long ago represents greater than 10% now of our U.S. transactions,” Alstead revealed during the presentation.

Continue Reading

The first super hero blockbuster film of the summer, “Man of Steel,” brought in $128.7 million last weekend, eclipsing the box office receipts from “This Is the End,” which raked in $32.8 million.

So how did moviegoers decide which summer hit to see over the weekend? Their smartphones.

A new infographic from Tapjoy shows how today’s moviegoers are using their small screens to decide what to see on the big screen. In fact, 72% of people have now used their mobile device to help decide which movie to watch, TapJoy says.

Continue Reading