Providing a great, value-added customer experience is essential for retailers. Geofencing gives retailers the ability to target customers with personalised content; improving customer experience and boosting retail sales. To that end, we’ll show you how to use geofencing to take customer engagement to the next level.

Geofencing in retail: a quick refresher

The combination of WiFi and geofencing offers a killer marketing tool for retailers wanting to enhance in-store experience. 

But what exactly is it? 

Geofencing is the ability to detect a smartphone entering a specifically defined area by activating a trigger in the device itself. Geofences can be used in both indoor and outdoor and WiFi is one of the best ways to define the area. Retailers can use apps on smartphones to create a virtual boundary around or near their store, triggering an automatic response if a customer enters it. As well as automatic marketing potential, it’s a great way for brick and mortar retailers to add extra value to their retail experience; helping them compete with online sales. 

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5 ways retailers can use geofencing to give killer customer service

Think of geofencing as an easy way for retailers to add some gold-dust to their marketing strategy. From adding value to customers with product searches, to sending real-time promotion offers, geofencing takes customer experience to another level. Here are 5 ways to make it work for your retail store:

Add value and make purchasing easier with in-store product search

Micro-moments are defined as the process of smartphones aiding with daily intentions, including purchasing decisions. Most customers use micro-moments to help make a purchasing decision; including looking for product reviews or searching for stock levels. Geofencing combined with micro-moment strategy is a great way to add value to the shopping experience of your customer, making it easier to create engagement and develop lasting loyalty. As a customer enters the geofence, automatically activate product search or navigation tools to make the search and shop experience easier and better for your customer. Using barcodes or QR codes makes this experience easier for customers too, creating a streamlined and value-added in store experience.

Using automation to better customer experience

Send real-time, relevant promotion offers to your customers

The great thing about geofencing and WiFi is the ability to interact with customers in real time, literally while they’re in your store. When customers enter your geofence, send them a coupon or promotional push notification to be used there and then. This not only encourages sales, but it also adds value to customers, making them feel connected and valued by your retail brand. You can add an extra layer of interaction with beacon technology, tracking customer movements around your store in real time, then sending a relevant promotion based on a product area or item they’re spending time looking at. Making sure your promotions are relevant and valuable to your customers is essential,boosting engagement and sales.

Ask for instant customer feedback on their retail experience

Everyone knows how valuable customer reviews are for businesses and retailers, from product reviews to feedback on customer experience. Geofencing allows retail stores to ask customers for instant feedback on their recent store experience through a push notification or app message. Not only does this help inform retailers on how they can improve, it generates important social proof for brand awareness. It also makes customers feel genuinely valued and appreciated, increasing positive brand sentiment and experience overall. 

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Generate accurate data analysis on customer behaviour

Knowing exactly how your customers interact with your retail space is vital for improving customer experience. Combining in-store WiFi with geofencing and location tracking technology will allow you to collect and analyse valuable, user-generated data on customer behaviour in your store. You’ll know which areas of your store attract the most attention, where bottle-necks occur, or even how long customers wait in line to be served at specific periods of the day. All of this will improve customer experience overall, creating retail moments and interactions with added value that customers actively enjoy.

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Geofencing can help increase online retail sales too

While geofencing is primarily used to boost in-store customer experience, this tips over onto online too. Many retailers have both a physical and an online location, so this is a great cross channel strategy. You see, improving customer experience in-store will make it much more likely your store becomes the retailer of choice for that customer when and if they ever need to order online. In addition, data collected from online geofencing and WiFi will combine to create powerful customer understanding, inform accurate targeting and boost essential online social proof with people power. 

Geofencing is a marketing must have for retailers

Geofencing is a great way for retailers to not only compete with online stores, but also offer an in-store customer experience packed with value for every customer. Retailers can use geofencing in their marketing strategies to segment and target accurately, as well as send real-time promotions that are relevant to every customer. 

The result? 

Increased customer interaction, loyalty and retail sales. 

Want to start leveraging the power of geofencing? Explore Beaconstac’s solution or schedule a demo today!

• Author Details

Author Details

Hannah Hambleton

Beambox

Hannah Hambleton is the Content Manager for Beambox. Hannah writes about how businesses can use marketing technology and trends to drive growth and create lasting loyalty. Beambox is a guest WiFi provider, combining technology with marketing insight for a perfect customer experience.

http://beambox.com

hannah.hambleton@beambox.com

This blog was originally published on November 2nd, 2019 at 08:32 am