Early Adopter GSI Commerce Hits the Mark with Innovative Use of Geotargeting Technology
ATLANTA – (June 10, 2008) -As retailers continue to seek out new ways to differentiate their online offerings, they are turning to technologies such as Digital Element’s IP Intelligence and Geotargeting technology to enhance the user experience when interacting with their virtual storefronts, and ultimately drive revenue. While there is nearly ubiquitous adoption of IP Intelligence within the online advertising industry, the retail industry is starting to see the potential of geolocation. As infrastructure is further developed and location-based services, including those for cell phone users, become more widely available, applications that leverage knowledge of a user’s location will be critical for capturing a larger piece of the global e-commerce pie.
Whether the goal is to create a “neighborhood store” feel online, reduce the rate of abandoned transactions, or increase conversions for both online and offline sales, Digital Element’s industry-leading IP Intelligence and geotargeting solutions provide patented technology which allows online merchants to perfect audience segmentation and targeting capabilities based on a comprehensive set of parameters that include geographic location (country, region, state, city and zip code); connection speed; Internet Service Provider (ISP); language; domain name; and demographics.
An early adopter of Digital Element IP Intelligence is GSI Commerce Inc., a leading provider of e-commerce and multichannel solutions. GSI’s full-service interactive marketing division, gsi interactivesm recognized the role that geolocation technology can play as part of its e-commerce partners’ online strategies. When an existing partner, Ace Hardware Corporation, looked to GSI in 2006 to help drive more traffic to its network of more than 4,600 independently owned and operated stores, gsi interactive devised a site redesign that included an innovative use of geolocation technology within its store locator tool. GSI then supplemented its e-commerce platform to integrate this technology.
According to John Raisch, a director of user experience for gsi interactive, “We wanted this to surpass your run-of-the-mill store locator application, so we looked for a way to help Ace’s customers find their neighborhood hardware store.” By combining geotargeting with online maps, visitors to AceHardware.com are automatically shown the number of retail stores within a certain radius of their geolocated area. “Now, we are leveraging geolocation in a number of ways that deliver innovation to our partners, including dynamically targeting messages to international site visitors and re-directing them to local sites to save them the extra step of having to “choose your location.”
“GSI was an early adopter in leveraging IP Intelligence to improve the online presence of its partners,” said Rob Friedman, Executive Vice President, Digital Element. “Like online advertisers, online retailers can use geolocation technology to create more impactful relationships with the global and growing audience of online shoppers.”
About Digital Element
Digital Element delivers the de facto standard in IP Intelligence and Geotargeting technology, providing coverage for 99.9999 percent of the Internet and collecting more than one million points-of-view daily from different online vantage points. Taking advantage of its patented technology and a team of dedicated data analysts, most of the world’s largest networks, websites, interactive players, and emerging technology companies leverage the most comprehensive set of IP data available to improve the reach, relevance and results of their online endeavors. Through Digital Element’s industry vision and leadership, this non-invasive technology has evolved into much more than just geographic information and now includes other intelligence factors such as connection speed, domain name, ISP and language.
For more information on how to uncover new levels of insight about online users, please visit www.digitalelement.net. Digital Element is a business unit of Digital Envoy, part of the Landmark Interactive division of Landmark Communications.
Media Contacts:
For Digital Element:
Carabiner Communications
Suzanne Moccia
(404) 842-0823
smoccia@carabinerPR.com