Mobile applications such as foursquare and Gowolla have emerged as a way for consumers to “check in” to their favorite stores, presenting a unique opportunity for retailers to leverage location-based marketing initiatives to connect with shoppers. These strategies help merchants reach new and existing customers with more relevant and valuable offers.
Geocommerce Offers is a solution also designed to help retailers leverage purchase location data to deliver targeted, real-time offers tailored to consumer shopping activity and locale ― but shifts the marketer’s success metrics from “check-in” to “check-out.”
Launched in May by edo, a provider of personalized offers linked to bank cards, Geocommerce Offers is powered by a data analytics engine built on consumers’ transaction data. Combined with location-based technology, this enables retailers to deliver the most targeted offers at the location where a consumer has just made a purchase and is most likely to make another ― at another merchant’s store close by. By flipping the focus to “check out” from “check in,” mobile communication and location-based technology can leverage offers from multi-channel retail and restaurants, creating a new standard for in-store mobile advertising.
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edo has partnered with financial institutions, card issuers and more than 200 local and national merchants that run offers through the edo network. When a cardholder from one of the company’s financial partners makes a purchase, the edo targeting system searches existing Geocommerce Offers from its merchant network and presents the right offer to the right person based on his or her store location and purchase selection.
Users then receive an email, text message or mobile update notification for the tailored offer, based on their pre-selected communication preferences, which can be redeemed using the card already in their wallets. Savings instantly are credited back into shoppers’ bank accounts.
Retailers including Barnes & Noble, Dicks Sporting Goods and PetSmart are leveraging Geocommerce Offers to deliver instantly redeemable deals via shoppers’ credit, debit cards and mobile devices.
“We see the card as the connection, and with our new Geocommerce capability, have married location and purchase for the first time, giving consumers highly targeted offers that they are more likely to redeem,” noted Ed Braswell, CEO and President of edo. “Card-linked offers are as easy for merchants as they are for consumers. Marketers easily can target based upon transaction behavior, with no need for additional systems, point-of-sale integration, staff training, coupons or vouchers that slow service.”
