Honing In On The Consumer Experience Using Location-Based Technology

By Jeremiah Shea, contributing writer

The writing is on the wall ... or maybe Tweeted, Instagrammed, and shared on someone’s Facebook wall. For anyone who carries a smartphone, totes a tablet, or spends any time online these days knows that buying online is becoming more and more commonplace. With the passing of the holidays, most people sat around a dinner table and discussed shopping in that manner. These conversations weren’t reserved for the millennial table either as everyone from dad to grandma are now engaging. With a report dropping recently that explains how online retail sales are actually much higher than the widely leveraged Census figures, the gut feeling everyone had is now being realized.

But what can your IT clients in brick-and-mortar retail do to stop the bleeding? How can a lackluster plan gain the immediate traction it needs to help overturn this incessant online wave? Beyond the obvious suggestions like building a strategy and making sound investments, the question often lies where to put the energy behind with no more than a second to waste.

This is where the consumer experience takes center stage. While shopping in pajamas has its benefits, there’s something to say about our evolutionary need to touch and feel. Terms like showrooming describe the experience of going into a store, seeing how a gadget works, and then price shopping online. It’s something most people are familiar with, whether they’ve heard the term or not. The second a potential customer walks through the door of a merchant, though, is the exact opportunity merchants need to be armed and ready. The advantage a store can gain with the right technology is the differentiator to witnessing showrooming or locking in the inevitable sale.

DMI, an end-to-end mobility company, recently released its first annual Mobile In-Store Experience Rankings which grades retailers on the in-store experience they provide to shoppers.

On the findings, Jeremy Gilman, VP of strategy for DMI’s brand marketing and customer experience group, notes: “Throughout 2015, we saw a dramatic shift in the industry begin to occur. Retailers are beginning to understand and unlock the massive potential behind enhancing in-store experiences through existing mobile applications.”

It’s clear that location-based technology is a magic bullet for those willing to adopt strategically. It can make all the difference in not only retaining a sale, but creating a unique experience for the customer that will have them forgoing the clicks for a more humanized touch.

As a whole, location-based services are forecasted to grow from around $8 billion to almost $40 billion over the next five years (Markets and Markets). This isn’t a fluke either as those who understand the threat of online are turning to this development to engage someone in a way a website simply can’t. Now, within the conversation of location-based technology, there are a few approaches.

The first method of using location services to target a consumer is geofencing. In a broad sense, the technology can create areas for which a merchant can deliver key messaging. Think of this as a digital greeter, saying hello to a customer on their phone as they enter a store or letting them know about some experiential marketing taking place in an area within the store they might not frequent. The “fence” in geo-fencing does just that and creates an area where you want a message delivered. This technology has additional benefits for the adoptee as well in not just consumer-facing applications, but also allowing a merchant to track devices and ensure those devices they own stay in store.

On the other side of the coin are beacons, an industry buzzword turned reality with retailers desperately needing a way to make a more hyper-localized connection to their customers. While geo-fencing defines a large area, beacons speak to the individual in a specific location.

When technology like location-based services is coupled with a strategic attack, the results will help ensure a customer’s experience is affected in a positive way. That positive affect is what has the potential to lock in the sale and avoid the lingering allure of convenient online shopping. VARs that understand this principle and can provide location-based solutions that provide their clients with results they need to stay competitive will find they also have a competitive edge in the changing retail environment.