For marketers, one of the great opportunities presented by smartphone technology is the use of geolocation to offer consumers real-time discounts and incentives. Already companies such as the clothing retailer H&M and the gourmet grocery chain Central Market employ GPS and wireless triangulation to learn when a consumer is in the immediate vicinity of a store—or inside it—so that they can transmit promotional offers on the spot.
A version of this article appeared in the May 2014 issue of Harvard Business Review.
