The retail industry is entering an uncertain period where most physical stores are closed to the public due to stay-at-home orders. While this can be a challenging time for retailers, it also presents an opportunity to increase your online presence and develop a plan to engage consumers and increase sales once stores reopen.

Just because consumers aren’t traveling to physical stores doesn’t mean that you should pause your targeting efforts. In order to stay competitive, rethink your retail business strategy with the assistance of location data.

While the format in which retail businesses interact with customers is shifting to a digital-only environment for the indefinite future, retailers can use location intelligence to strengthen their targeting campaigns, which can help identify previously untapped audience groups and increase brand engagement.

Increasing your online presence presents an opportunity to expand your reach to consumers outside of a store’s typical physical radius. When promoting online purchases, you can target regions you typically wouldn’t market to, eliminating the physical barrier to sales. By analyzing pseudonymous foot traffic data and visitation patterns of consumers in other areas, retailers can identify populations that have visited stores similar to their own and develop ads to target those individuals.

In order to build optimal targeting campaigns to re-engage consumers retailers should analyze consumer visitation trends before having to temporarily close their brick-and-mortar stores. This real-world insight will provide retailers with an indication of what traveling patterns consumers will possibly return to once stores open again. Consider implementing a geofencing campaign to target shoppers as they return to malls or the surrounding area with special offers, such as an in-store sale or highlighting a product that consumer has shown interest in, to increase store visits and product sales.

In addition to expanding their online presence, retailers should prepare for the future spike in physical store visits once social distancing rules are phased out. Although many physical retail stores are closed to consumer visits, this time can give your business the opportunity to plan for future campaigns and gain an advantage over your competitors.

Location data can provide retailers with competitive intelligence tools that give them insight into who visits their competitors’ stores and how often, which reveals how to best encourage those consumers to engage with your brand instead. In addition, retailers can use location intelligence to benchmark where they stand among competitors so they can develop marketing campaigns and design brand strategies to best increase their store’s presence in the market and ability to stand out from similar stores.

Location data can provide retailers with competitive intelligence tools that give them insight into who visits their competitors’ stores and how often, which reveals how to best encourage those consumers to engage with your brand instead. In addition, retailers can use location intelligence to benchmark where they stand among competitors so they can develop marketing campaigns and design brand strategies to best increase their store’s presence in the market and ability to stand out from similar stores.