Geofencing App Development for Business Growth

As per the research by Delloite, it was revealed that in 2017 respondents earning $100,000 or more expect 57 percent of their spending will be online and 39 percent in-store. They also added up that as holiday retail spending is bucking trends this season, online spending is expected to exceed this year for the first time.

These predictions can become true at least when Amazon is concerned. Amazon’s e-commerce sales are expected to grow 32 percent to $196.8 billion dollars in 2017 in the U.S., or 43.5 percent of total e-commerce sales. This figure represents gross merchandise volume data, which includes sales made by third parties on Amazon’s marketplace.

Here the question arises – What can brick-and-mortar retailers and small business owners do to compete with the trends of online sales?

How would they get a larger piece of the retail pie? One answer lies in location-based marketing using geofencing technologies.

What is Geofencing all about?

Geofencing is a feature that uses Global Positioning System (GPS) or Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to access their customer’s location by establishing a virtual fence around a specific area.

An area can be a precise location of your business, a larger region around your business, or even the location of your nearest competitors. You can send push notifications or text messages or display relevant ads on the browser or social media feeds whenever any of your customers enter or leave the geofenced area.

Customers are typically identified by:

• Using your business’s mobile app
• Social media profiles
• Browser and search history

But businesses are not just limited to retail or using their own locations!

• The cafeteria can trigger a notification when a customer walked into another cafeteria
• An event planner can trigger notifications when fans visit birthday parties, weddings, etc, and can offer helpful tips

The possibilities are quite broad – if used correctly, geofencing can revolutionize your business and offer you many perks. Let’s consider some of the benefits:-

• Cost-Effective Marketing

Today, the cost of creating ad campaigns is sky-high and it’s not easy for every product owner to match that budget. But, with geofencing, you can cut down your cost and still produce the desired result – since it only focuses on targeted customers and these customers are surely going to profit from you.

Geofencing is like the extension of your local store or restaurant. With geofencing, you get the chance to pinch the user with the best offers on your product at the right time when they need it.

For instance, Taco Bell – Geofencing is a very important tool for the marketing plan of Taco Bell. Its mobile ordering feature attracts users to download their mobile app and simply pick up their order from the outlet without waiting.

When their customers download the app, the restaurant uses geofencing capabilities to alert the customer when they are near and can serve hot and fresh food. Additionally, they are using push notification services to target people under 30 years old whenever they are in the locality of Taco Bell.

With the right tools at a right time, you can grow your business by sending alerts with just location-based functionalities in your mobile app. Isn’t that cost-effective enough?

• Driving-in customers

Apart from marketing the brand, it also provides the reasons for the customers to visit their stores. Although they are nearby your business, that doesn’t mean that they are aware of all promotional offers you are running –You need to tell them. You can use variations in your approaches – let’s say you can geo-fence your competitors’ locations and deliver the ads and push alerts promoting your business when they are in the vicinity of your competitors.

The North Face – one of the top outdoor product companies in the USA producing coats, fleece, shirts, footwear, etc. started trials of geofencing in 2011 by sending text messages about deals and discounts on the new arrival but eventually started expanding with the alerts about weather condition or logistics for ski competition. A difference in the approaches can always attract the users to draw customers in and in turn, can increase engagement.

If you feel hesitant enough to approach your competitor’s customer, you can opt for co-marketing geofencing campaigns. For instance, travel companies target wedding planners’ customers. If you constantly overwhelm your visitors, they are likely to opt out of your service, but if you offer value and convenience with a well-timed strategy and different approaches they are likely to visit you. Based on demographics and interests, you can apply a filter to reach a specific group of audiences and ultimately grow your business.

• Business Intelligence

With the help of geofencing, your business can gather customer data to know their buying habits, buying motivation, etc. By analyzing the customer’s data carefully, you can generate a more detailed segment of your customers, by targeting them with social media posts, ads, and push notifications that are related to the customer’s behavior and interests.

Walgreens is looking to develop location-based software to understand the behavior of customers and ultimately improve customers’ experience. When customers enter the store, Walgreens wants them to check their point balance, and store specific information before they purchase certain products.

Today, customers come across many offers and discounts, but they tend to respond to what is convenient to them and are tailored to their interests and behavior.

Hence, geofencing can be used as the best tool to gather customers’ data to further process them for business analytics.

Few other use cases…

Keeps the track of construction, vehicles, tools, materials

Today most Construction Company uses GPS facility to keep track of their construction fleets by installing the technology in their types of equipment and providing alerts to any unauthorized entry to the construction site. The manager can receive push notifications when equipment has crossed its radius, so you can determine whether your equipment is stolen or moved to any specific location.

Another important use of geofencing is in the fleet-management system. When the fleet delivers any material, your crew can be notified so that they can make any arrangements to reduce waiting time.

Few Examples of Leading Companies that thrive Business by Geofencing App Development

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Uber
• Zomato
• Starbucks

The Conclusion

Today geofencing is gaining momentum in all industry verticals and if used effectively at the right place and time, it can drive more conversions and boost your brand. Looking for application development that facilitates geofencing?

Tell us your requirements and we assure you that our experts will surely accomplish them.