Geospatial Technology: Role of geolocation tools in boosting sales
Geolocation platforms and apps have proven to be more than merely handy tools used in sales. They provide amazing insight into any kind of target demographic, by combining customer preferences and locations into complex and valuable data sets. With that in mind, we’re going to explore the role of geolocation tools in boosting sales, for basically any kind of niche!
Geolocation apps
Once we get into the role of geolocation apps in boosting sales, there’s one thing we need to dive into first. Namely – just what kind of apps are we talking about? While you might have heard about the geolocation data provided by backend platforms specifically designed for that; you’d actually be surprised by what user-facing apps are used for geospatial targeting.
Think about it – just what kind of apps are geolocation apps? Basically, this is an app that makes extensive use of the consumer’s location. Now just imagine the amount of data that can be mined from geolocation-based startups like Uber, once they gain traction and attract a huge user base.
Or even more obviously marketing-minded – apps like ShopKick actually give the user a notification when they’re physically near a store that has special offers! Such apps give huge insights into customer preferences based on geospatial data. Just remember the craze that swept the planet over Pokemon Go a few years ago. That only scratches the surface of the power that a sales plan driven by GPS has. And while this sort of data analysis was something only huge businesses could afford a couple of years ago, these days even startups and small businesses are able to leverage such technology and reap the rewards in sales.
Offers based on Location
Termed as ‘BlueKeep’, the vulnerability affects the Remote Desktop Services of Windows systems. An attacker could successfully exploit the vulnerability to execute arbitrary code on the target system.If we consider the value of geospatial services in sales, we’d be remiss not to mention the incredible value of location-based offers. This is especially important for world-spanning companies, that serve a huge variety of different geographical markets with similar products. In other words, when you’re preparing your product for a global audience, having the ability to tailor both the marketing strategy and the product itself to the intricacies of the specific sales locations is pretty much invaluable.
With that in mind, the role of geolocation tools in boosting sales becomes imminently visible. For example, if you’re able to gain a clear overview of meteorological data in a specific market, you’ll know when to start marketing your product for cold weather. Obviously, such an example is not applicable in every niche, but it’s simple enough to showcase the importance of geospatial data.
The specific offer will vary quite a bit, but the insights you gain into the specific preferences, socioeconomic advantages and challenges, and the local holidays and events in a particular region, will allow you to find the most suitable approach to the market in question. If you manage to think outside of the box and make use of geolocation targeting, the world is your oyster. And if your business manages to have an insight into the unique qualities of a given area – you’ll definitely have an upper hand compared to the competition.
Compromising between online and retail shopping
If we take a look at the shopping trends of the 21st century, one thing will stand out in particular. Compared to the previous era of shopping, even the biggest retailers are struggling to maintain their dominance – and many have failed even in an attempt to stay afloat. The world of online shopping, courtesy of Amazon and similar emerging platforms, has made them seem like dying giants.
But this is not a concluded story, and the much-spouted death of retail isn’t as simple as it may seem at first glance. In fact, the role of geolocation tools in this situation isn’t to be underestimated either. Huge retail chains like Walmart have found that merging their inventory systems with the latest geolocation technology has driven some of the traffic back into local stores.
And this isn’t something that only big companies are doing either. Even smaller businesses have seen the advantage of coming up with location-specific inventory management software, the kind that allows customers to quickly see what products are currently available in their local stores. In this way, both the online cyber stores and the physical, brick-and-mortar ones are updated as quickly as possible. Companies that stay behind and keep monitoring their inventories using ancient spreadsheets are not as likely to have the same level of control and insight, thus lacking the flexibility needed to stay ahead.
Creating sales territories
Lastly, we’ll take a look at one of the more readily available examples of the role of geolocation tools in boosting sales – the creation of sales territories. This is an approach that lets each sales team manage the company’s resources and time far better, with no geographical overlapping, and efficient travel routes.
That’s why the proper contextualization of location data is hugely important. It doesn’t matter if you have the most detailed geolocation information in the world if you don’t make use of it correctly. Imagine a sales team that doesn’t have defined territories. There are many problems that could arise from such a lack of organization, starting from the loss of leads that happens when more than one salesperson on your team touches base with a single customer.
Now, as anyone who’s in the world of sales will tell you – sales territories are by no means a new strategy. However, their efficiency has increased exponentially with the readily available precise geolocation data in the 21st century. Huge advances in data-mapping technology have allowed for more precise planning than ever before.