Richard Seesel

BrainTrust Query: You Are Here ... Like It or Not

August 30, 2010

FROM RETAILWIRE:
A recent study by Forrester Research concluded that, while location-based services (LBS) are intriguing, they are still too small for major marketers to spend much time on. How aggressive should retailers be around investing in location-based services? What do you see as the next evolution of LBS?      [more...]

As long as consumers are more willing to indicate their location on their GPS-enabled smart phones--and less wary of the privacy implications--it will pay for retailers to take advantage of the trend and the technology. There is a great opportunity to reach the ultimate target market--consumers who are already in your store--with incentives to stay, to browse and to buy.

If stores can further discern the specific merchandise interests of customers in the store, the target marketing becomes that much more effective. I'm looking at this strictly for its marketing potential...again, the privacy issues involved are troubling but there has to be willingness to "opt-in" for the idea to work.