Tag: geolocation marketing

ABI has released a report that says that a new type of sensor fusion that is rare today will be commonplace soon.

ABI Research has now released a report that looks quite promising for companies that have been considering the use of location based marketing, as they have said that geolocation sensor fusion remains “very much a rarity on smartphones today,” but that this will be changing in the near future.

The report said that by 2019 the market for this technology will be tremendous due to usage trends.

It explained that trends toward local search, health, retail, personal asset tracking, and connected home apps will spread geolocation based tech massively by 2019. This will open up a practically limitless number of doors for location based marketing technology providers and users. Patrick Connolly, a senior analyst from ABI Research, explained that “Conditions are perfect for disruptive new entrants.”

ABI Research feels that the technology that will drive location based marketing is about to take off.

Connolly went on to explain that “All major sensor IC vendors have identified location-based sensor fusion as important, yet InvenSense is the only company to actively invest in this area. This lack of priority is driven by a short-term demand issue, as the indoor ecosystem is not evolved enough to warrant major developer interest.” The result, he said, will be that there will be a “void”, as that application starts to explode over the next couple of years.

GNSS IC vendors and startups will, says ABI Research, be able to take advantage of a considerable chance for meeting this demand. That said, it should be pointed out that unlike the market for IC, where there is a single position for which everybody must compete, it is the belief of ABI Research that smartphones will run a number of different indoor geolocation technologies for various apps and purposes.

Connolly explained that this environment is unique in its potential for competition, which is made even more complex by vendors such as Apple, that like to develop their own geolocation sensor fusion solutions as a component of an “always-on ubiquitous offering”. As a result of the disruption that this will cause, competition will develop and it will form a chance for equal measures.

Location based marketing companies will be provided with an array of choices with which they will then be able to engage consumers.

A recent study has shown that shoppers think that the idea of offers over smartphones is attractive.

The results of a recent survey that was conducted by Vista Retail Support, a retail tech firm, has shown that 81 percent of consumers would be willing to accept a mobile marketing offer that was sent to them from a retailer, while an individual was shopping in that store.

Four out of every five consumers would be willing to take advantage of the opportunity those deals could present.

That same study determined that 40 percent of participants would be interested in receiving price comparisons that a retailer would send to their smartphones while they were shopping within that store. This shows that there is a certain willingness among smartphone owners to embrace the type of opportunity that location based mobile marketing has to offer them.

Still, retailers have not yet adopted this type of mobile marketing technology, despite the appeal to consumers.

According to the Vista Retail Support sales and marketing director, Richard Cottrell, “Retailers are not utilizing technology to make personalized offers to their customers, yet the survey shows shoppers are open to this form of interaction, giving retailers a wealth of new opportunities.”

The survey also determined that, on an increasing basis, consumers are looking to chances to be able to buy over their smartphones and then simply pick up their purchases at the store. Among the respondents to the survey, 30 percent – nearly one third – said that they used a service of that nature in order to be able to avoid the Christmas shopping crowds within the stores themselves.

There are clearly many opportunities presented over m-commerce and mobile marketing that are becoming very popular to consumers. It is now up to retailers to identify the technologies that will work best for their offerings, and to make sure that they are keeping up with the expectations of their customers, as they become increasingly reliant on mobile devices for various parts of their daily activities. Those that fail to keep up could end up losing customers to competition with more convenient smartphone based shopping features.