6 Ways to Use Geolocation Data in E-commerce

It’s hard to define the exact number, but it’s estimated that there are anywhere between 12 and 23 million e-commerce websites worldwide. By 2040, the number of online stores will account for 95% of all purchases, which means even stiffer competition. Online retailers must look for better strategies to boost customer satisfaction and retention. 

For e-commerce businesses, focusing on buyer motivation and interest is essential. You should determine what kind of offers and promotions customers usually respond to, which products they like, and which information they search from your website. That’s where e-commerce geolocation comes into play. 

Geolocation data gives marketers the power to do everything they can to ensure customers don’t leave your site empty-handed. By understanding these insights, you can easily tailor your operations to any wants and facies of specific groups of your target audience. 

That is all possible through the analytics functions attached to dynamic content tools, redirect tools, and other tools tapping into consumers' geolocation data. In this article, you will find the top six ways to transform your eCommerce strategy using geolocation data.

1. Leverage Location-Based Marketing

Using beacon technology helps you check your customers’ location and send them targeted offers, coupons, or promotions.  According to this study, 73% of shoppers getting beacon-triggered notifications on their mobile phones proved the likelihood of purchasing while staying at a store and visiting it more often. 

The best thing about beaconing is that it only requires physical devices placed at different points within a brick-and-mortar location that connects via Bluetooth to your consumers’ phones. For example, a coffee shop can send relevant offers or promotions to customers near their location or while visiting your competitors. You can use the given data for a lifetime to target customers with the right content.

Another way to use customer location data is to amplify the marketing game with relevant and personalized strategies. For example, you can create dynamic QR codes using QR code generators in no time to give extra discounts to customers who visit a retail store or cafe. They are more likely to consider such an offer as an incentive.

2. Include Local-Based Keywords for Paid Search Ads

Using organic keywords is essential, and the same thing is with paid ads. You can use location-based ads to let customers easily reach your business. Therefore, your ads should use location-based keywords to attract the maximum number of customers, and that’s where geotargeting can help with that. 

Geotargeting aims to deliver advertising to a specific audience based on their geolocation. You should also consider search intent that customers often narrow their searchers by adding the name of a city or area. For example, “coffee shops near Madison Square Park” or “clothing stores near Manhattan” use location intent to target. 

It’s crucial to add location-specific keywords to let customers easily get found when searching for businesses similar to yours. Include well-known tourist destinations, area codes, ZIP codes, neaby landmarks, popular street names, and other location terms.

3. Identify Potential Customers Through Technology

Modern technologies have become even more advanced. E-commerce business owners can quickly identify customers who visit but don't buy.

Aside from having a well-designed e-commerce website, technologies, like IP geolocation API, give more access to building persona profiles of real customers, including demographic characteristics, cross-channel contact data, and other insights. These data allow the creation of hyper-targeted messages and target customers by specific market segments and devices.

As you know, many users can use VPN, but detecting their geolocation data is challenging. Thanks to technological advancement, you can identify whether customers use VPN and see their IP address and location. Using IPVanish, you can hit those customers with your ads. 

“When we develop websites, apps, and other solutions for our clients, we ensure that they are integrated with technologies that can enhance their customers’ experiences, even on mobile devices. With the integration of geolocation applications, for example, our clients can gather data about their customers regardless of where they make their orders,” says Kris Nicolaou from Brain Box Labs.

4. Improve Mobile Customer Experience

Using geolocation technologies is a great way to enhance the mobile customer experience. Retail stores can implement strategies to meet customers’ needs and satisfy mobile users once they better understand their target audience and what they value.

Geolocation data and technologies allow you to detect the exact addresses of potential customers. Socio-economic demographic maps include essential information regarding customers’ gender, age, race, education, annual income, language, marital stardust, etc. Marketers can easily detect their target consumers and customize their e-commerce marketing strategy accordingly. 

That way helps you quickly have customers’ orders ready and delight their experience with your business using geolocation strategies.

5. Build Geotargeted Mobile Ads

As you know, people spend too much time on their mobile phones. No advertising is more effective than mobile ads because they help e-commerce to target the right customers at the right time and place. The best thing about mobile ads is reaching potential customers and those visiting your trading area. 

Geo-targeting with Google Adwords, Bing Ads, and Yahoo Ads helps you search marketing campaigns on a local level. You can target customers based on their country, state, city, and even income ZIP codes. 

Mobile native advertising can also appear within an app's natural context to capture potential customers. In this way, you can extract a lot of customer data by the inclusion of third-party and target later on those devices by putting your ads. For example, if you have a new store location, you can send digital ads to households within a specific radius surrounding the new location.

6. Incorporate Micro-Moments Marketing

Have you heard about the term micro-moments in 2015? Google says micro-moments are game-changers for both brands and customers. Since mobile has changed how we live, the customer journey was fragmented into hundreds of real-time intent-driven micro-moments. Each one is essential for e-commerce. 

E-commerce business owners must take steps to reach target customers with relevant content during each stage of customers’ journeys. Studies have shown that you can improve your brand awareness by 46% simply by featuring in mobile search ad results. Moreover, 50% of customers search locally on their mobile phones to search for a new brand or product within a day.

Using geolocation data is an effective way to discover customers’ preferences, behavioral triggers, and impulse points in each micro-moment. Optimizing your content strategy for mobile at all stages of the customer journey is essential. 

Use different content types to boost engagement and awareness, including YouTube videos, ad targeting, consumer reviews, social posts, visual content, how-to articles, and optimization of local search results. Using the right martech tools and optimizing this data can further personalize your subsequent communication with your target customer.

Bottom Line

E-commerce site owners should use geolocation data to create a more convenient and immediate shopping experience for their potential customers. They respond better to relevant marketing, meaning the ROI of customized and targeted campaigns will increase. 

Using modern technology and geolocation data is one of the best ways for merchants to drive consumers to a local store by targeting customers primarily. It may require a little creativity, but it is worth the effort, especially for local e-commerce.