Survey: Eight-in-10 consumers will share location for value

Boston – Eight-in-10 (77%) consumers would be willing to share their smartphone location data as long as they received enough value in return. A new study from in-store mobile marketing platform provider Swirl also revealed that consumers are much more likely to entrust their location information to their favorite retailers (65%) than to shopping/deals apps, Google or Facebook.



As retailers ramp up their use of beacons for in-store mobile marketing, they must overcome the two largest complaints from consumers about today's mobile shopping alerts: lack of relevance (41%) and lack of value (37%)



According to the study, 80% of shoppers would use retailer apps more often while shopping in a store if those apps delivered sales and promotion alerts. Sixty-two percent said they would increase their use of use retailer mobile apps in the store if the apps provided content that was more relevant to their interests and location. When shopping in-store, almost twice as many shoppers prefer to learn about products and promotions from their smartphone than from a store sales associate (65% compared to 38%).



“There is no doubt that 2014 will be the year of the beacon in retail. Retailers like Timberland, Kenneth Cole and Alex and Ani have been using in-store beacons for the past six months and Apple recently enabled iBeacon technology in all of its stores,” said Hilmi Ozguc, founder and CEO of Swirl. “Our research shows that consumers are eager to receive relevant content and offers on their smartphones while shopping in-stores and they are willing to disclose their location in return. Beacon-triggered in-store mobile marketing represents a huge opportunity, but to succeed, retailers will need to create experiences that truly engage and add value for shoppers.”