We recently discussed social media as a tool for understanding our users and building meaningful experiences, but there are various ways to identify our audience. Another factor that can impact people's behavior and their interaction with a product or service is geographical location.
Now, we'll address how to leverage customers' geographical information to learn more about them and boost our business. The idea is to use this data to improve the user experience on our platform.
The basic principle is that people tend to be similar (sometimes, they even want to be similar) based on where they live. The simplest and most obvious way to find out where our users are located is by asking them for this information when they register with us.
Before discussing the data itself, we need to consider a few things when collecting it: to make the process less cumbersome and easier than it should be, we must try to standardize the address format at the time of registration rather than later. This will largely prevent the need to review the validity of each entered address one by one.
For this, some ideas are suggested, such as encouraging users to pinpoint their location not only by typing the address but also by marking a spot on the map.
As we mentioned in a previous post, social media can also be useful in this regard, as we can find our followers' geographical location and data about their behavior (which businesses they check into, at what time, etc.).
Once we have the data organized and have discovered where our users are located, we can begin to work on identifying who they are.
For example:
It's not uncommon for people living in the same building to have certain things in common: they are willing to pay similar rents or mortgages, likely have similar incomes, and live with the same number of people.
This data can be especially useful, particularly for e-commerce companies. Here are some of the advantages that knowing this data can bring us:
1. Ideas for new products: People who share the same geographical space tend to have similar lifestyles. Are we meeting our users' needs, or are there products and services we are not offering?
2. Lines to better segment the product catalog: If we know the geographical location of our users, we will have a better idea of which products they need most and which products should be the first they see when they enter our platform. Do they easily find all the products they need to satisfy their needs, or do they have to browse longer than necessary to find them?
3. Identify behavioral patterns: Tools like Google Analytics allow identifying aggregated traffic data in specific segments. Analyzing the behavior of each segment allows us to identify patterns and trends to better understand our users and customers, compare the performance of different traffic sources, and make decisions about future tactics to optimize investment and increase conversion. Geographical information is one of the segmentation variables that can help to better understand behavior to improve the online experience.
4. Improvements to our home delivery and in-store pickup system: The experience that users of e-commerce platforms have also includes what happens once they have made a purchase. Just look at the results of a study we conducted on online shopping habits and experience:
- For 70% of respondents, free shipping is important or very important, and half of the people are even willing to wait longer for their product if shipping is free. By clearly knowing the geographical location of our users, we can create an efficient shipping system that benefits both them and our business.
- 32% of respondents are willing to go pick up the product at the store if there is a free shipping option. This percentage is not insignificant, and therefore, we must be clear about where our users are located so that it is as easy as possible for them to pick up at the store.
- 36% of respondents stated that they had abandoned a purchase process because shipping was not available for their address. If we want to provide a complete service, avoid in-store pickup, and limit breakpoints in the customer experience (such as delays), we can streamline the shipping system by locating warehouses at strategic points according to the geographical location of buyers. If the user abandons a purchase for this reason, they will look for other options and stop visiting our site.
Finally, as with social media, thanks to the geographical variable, we might discover that there might be interest in our brand from groups we hadn't considered, which could translate into new business opportunities.
By 
