Why Push Notifications and Proximity Are Better Together
Posted by Amanda McLaughlin on Mar 22, 2018
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Location, location, location. That’s usually one of the first pieces of advice out of someone’s mouth when they’re advising another individual about where to purchase property. After all, prime location wields the kind of power that brings about massive upticks in prices.
Location has always been an important aspect for consumers, but yet, brands still aren’t widely adopting location technology when it comes to their push notification strategies. As can be seen in the housing market, location can easily sway a shopper to purchase something that might not have been on their radar. A real-life example is an individual on her way to work, who happens to receive a push notification in her Starbucks app alerting her to buy one, get one half-off beverages. She might not have been planning to make a pit stop at Starbucks on her morning commute, but now that the offer’s there and the café is on the way, why not stop and pick up a Frappucino for herself and her favorite colleague?
Although plenty of brands have experimented with push notifications over the last several years—ranging from prompts to check the items left in your shopping cart to flash sale alerts—only 3% of brands with mobile apps send push notifications regarding customer proximity to a nearby store. This statistic drops even more to 1% if you consider brands without apps.
In today’s world, location data is more plentiful than ever, thanks to many people owning a smartphone and having their geolocation enabled for social media apps. Retailers would be remiss if they weren’t taking advantage of this plentiful data to drive consumers to nearby brick-and-mortar stores for a spot of impromptu shopping. And yet, this disconnect between push notifications and proximity still exists, meaning that the immediate future is an optimal time to make a serious investment into this mobile strategy and get ahead of the competition.
This tactic can be especially effective in high-density areas, such as shopping malls or cities, where the potential for distractions is high—and the potential for spur-of-the-moment purchases is even higher. Additionally, location data of in-store shoppers can help inform brands of their shopping behavior, an invaluable benchmark for the omnichannel shopping journey.
Ultimately, the argument for location, location, location doesn’t only apply to choosing a place to live. The case for proximity-enabled push notifications has never been more substantive. If the data is available, why not use it?
