Geographic information system (GIS) data already is used extensively by retailers for everything from site selection to reporting and business intelligence. But the addition of mobile behavioral data, in conjunction with cloud-based mapping programs, can uncover critical insights — such as shoppers’ activity before entering a store and their movements after leaving the store. Retailers can uncover new dimensions in their analysis of customers and competitors, craft more relevant offers and ultimately increase both sales and revenue.
Location information experts Gary Sankary, Head of Industry Marketing Strategy for Esri, and Doug Shaddle, Director of Data Sales for UberMedia, shared their insights into the ways retailers can dig deeper into the data being generated by consumer mobile devices:
Retail TouchPoints: How can mobile location data help retailers beat the competition?
Gary Sankary: Mobile data is the best way to see who the competition’s customers are and where they’re coming from. And using techniques like data enrichment, it’s possible to create a profile of your competition’s customers without having to visit their stores.
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Doug Shaddle: This data provides the means for retailers to not only understand their own customers, trade areas, demographics, etc. but to also do the same types of analysis for their competitors, so that a retailer can effectively identify threats and opportunities on a store, market, regional or national basis.
RTP: What kind of location-based data, being generated by consumer devices in-store, can help retailers compete more effectively?
Sankary: Customer location over time helps retailers understand how customers are interacting with their brands, online and in-store. Understanding where customers are coming from and where they’re going, before and after they visit a store, retailers get insights into customer behaviors relative to the path to purchase. This can be used to create relevant offers and targeted marketing based on customer behaviors. This aggregated data provides unique and new insights into the competition because retailers can see when customers are moving between brands and stores.
Shaddle: As you mentioned, smartphones and other smart devices are fairly ubiquitous among consumers. Through opt-in location-based services, these smartphones are sharing location information. UberMedia collects, cleanses, and anonymizes this information so that retailers can use the information to better understand their customers and compete more effectively. The data can be used to identify where customers live and work, determine more realistic trade areas, and provide more relevant insight into the customer base’s demographics and shopping behavior. The information can be used to analyze revenue potential at proposed new sites, determine gaps and opportunities in a market, identify potential cannibalization issues and review cross-shopping and co-tenancy affects. The data is also very effective in improving digital and direct marketing campaigns.
RTP: What are other ways can retailers apply location-based behavioral data to find in-store patterns they can use to increase sales?
Shaddle: Highly effective uses of the data include foot traffic measurement, cross-shopping behavior, and multi-media marketing. For example, the data can be effectively used in marketing campaigns to drive engagement, consumer shopping traffic and conquest campaigns, as well as to measure campaign effectiveness.
Sankary: By enriching customer locations, home and work, with location-specific data, retailers can build accurate profiles not only of the customers, but also the segments and demographics that are visiting their locations.
Learn more about location-based mobile behavioral data by checking out Shaddle and Sankary’s webinar on-demand!
