Why geofencing is a must-have for modern retail

Geofencing isn't a futuristic feature anymore. It's foundational infrastructure for retailers looking to connect digital and physical experiences, personalize engagement, and measure real-world behavior.

Whether you're managing a loyalty program across hundreds of stores or running a mobile app for a national brand, geofencing gives you the real-time location intelligence you need to drive visits, boost conversion, and improve the customer journey.

In this post, we'll break down what geofencing looks like in retail today, how leading digital and marketing teams are using it, and why Radar is the trusted platform they choose to power these experiences.

What is geofencing in retail?

Geofencing means placing a virtual perimeter around a location and triggering events when a user enters, dwells, or exits. In retail, this powers a wide range of use cases, including:

• Personalizing in-app experiences.
  
• Sending location-based push notifications.
  
• Automating curbside and in-store pickup.
  
• Attributing visits to marketing campaigns.
  
• Measuring foot traffic and dwell time.
  

A modern geofencing platform does all of this with high accuracy, low latency, and minimal battery impact, with no beacons or Bluetooth required.

Why digital and marketing teams are investing in geofencing

1. Connect your app to the store experience

If you're investing in mobile, geofencing is no longer optional. Today's customers expect apps to recognize their presence in a store and respond in real-time.

With geofencing, you can:

• Trigger Store Mode when a user walks in.
  
• Unlock app features tied to store visits.
  
• Create seamless, connected omni-channel experiences.

See how DICK'S Sporting Goods powers their Store Mode with Radar, connecting in-store visits to in-app engagement.

This helps close the gap between app usage and in-store behavior, driving deeper engagement and increasing conversion.

2. Make location-based marketing personal

Push notifications that are tied to a user's real-world context outperform generic blasts. Geofencing enables you to send timely, relevant messages, like a promotion when someone is nearby or a reminder if they leave without buying.

This kind of personalization drives engagement, increases visits, and improves loyalty.

See how T-Mobile uses Radar to power location-based notifications for T-Mobile Tuesdays, driving timely engagement and in-store traffic.

3. Automate pickup and fulfillment

Curbside pickup and BOPIS are table stakes now. Geofencing automates these workflows by detecting when a customer arrives, triggering prep steps, and reducing wait times, without requiring manual check-ins or extra hardware.

Radar supports detection across zones, lanes, and entrances with reliable accuracy.

See how Ralph Lauren lets shoppers check-in for appointments with a quick, location-triggered notification for a seamless in-store experience.

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4. Measure the offline impact of your campaigns

Most analytics stop at the screen. Geofencing fills in the gap by giving you visibility into store visits, dwell time, and repeat behavior.

With Radar, you can:

• Attribute visits to digital campaigns.
  
• Measure return rates and visit frequency.
  
• Run A/B tests based on real-world behavior.
  

This helps you understand what's driving in-store traffic, and what's not, with more precision than click-through rates alone.

Why Radar is the leading geofencing platform for retail

Radar is built for modern digital and marketing teams who care about performance, scale, and speed. Here's why they choose Radar:

• Unmatched accuracy: Radar is up to 10 times more accurate than built-in iOS and Android geofencing, thanks to proprietary algorithms and a battle-tested SDK.
  
• Battery efficiency: Real-time tracking without battery drain.
  
• Flexible geofencing: Support for circular and polygon geofences, overlapping zones, buffers, and complex shapes.
  
• Remote configuration: Update geofences server-side without requiring app updates.
  
• Enterprise scale: Radar handles over 1 billion API calls per day with enterprise-grade uptime and reliability.
  

Radar also offers address validation, maps, and routing APIs, allowing you to consolidate your entire location stack on one cost-effective platform.

The bottom line

If your app doesn't know when a customer walks into a store, you're flying blind.

Geofencing provides the real-time visibility, automation, and intelligence needed to compete in today's hybrid retail world. And Radar helps you build these capabilities quickly, with the performance and support to scale.

Explore our geofencing API docs to get started, or contact our team to learn how we can support your retail use case.