Geo Fencing and Virtual Perimeters? Ladies, Let’s Shop!

Picture yourself walking through Manhattan when your phone beeps at you, you have just received a text message from one of your favorite stores alerting you that not only are they having a sale but you are within a couple of blocks of one of their locations. Cool? I think so.

More and more retailers are looking into this geolocation based advertising. This is how it works -a “geo fence” (a sort of virtual perimeter) is put up around each location and when you, as a consumer, enter that area, you are sent a text message.  This is a opt-in text so you get to decide who is able to send you a message, it isn’t like you’d be getting a text message every time you enter a virtual perimeter.  Currently there are very few retailers using the technology with North Face being among the first to do so.

I think that this will be a big piece of the advertising puzzle in the next few years. From and retailers standpoint they are directly contacting a consumer who wants to be contacted and is in close proximity to the retailer’s location. From a consumer’s standpoint they get to control who is advertising to them and get the benefit of whatever offers or incentives they receive via text.

The only issue I can see here is that retailers will need to be very clear with their privacy policies. Most people are not happy about giving out their cell phone numbers, for this to be successful, retailers will need to ensure the privacy of their consumer base.  Overall, I think geolocation based advertising will soon be a direction that all retailers will need to go in.