Messaging company Airship has acquired ReplyBuy, which enables two-way conversations and payments over SMS. Airship plans to add commerce capabilities to all its channels. Perhaps you’ve heard that ecommerce has grown rapidly this year.
I’ve been kind of hoping that a citizen newsletter editor would take over some of my work here, but so far, no luck. Citizen developers are getting more support from Google, which has just released an Airtable-like system named, um, Tables. It lets non-programmers define processes, share data, and do other stuff that used to require a highly trained professional.
Forrester analysts have also been hard at work, with a Google-sponsored study finding that better use of data and analytics is a top-5 priority for 63% of marketers and siloes are the top data challenge (57%). Fewer than half (42%) have a cross-platform view of Web and app analytics, which might seem like a little or a lot. But 84% consider cross-platform analytics critical or very important, so let’s call that glass half empty.
Amazon advertisers can now measure results outside of Amazon stores using a new service from Stackline and Gigi. Gigi will enable unified audience buying for Amazon Marketing Cloud and Amazon DSP, which run ads in Amazon’s online stores and streaming TV channels such as Prime Video. Stackline’s panel-based multi-retailer attribution will track customer behavior across Amazon, Walmart, Target, and other major online or in-store retailers.