Whole Foods Market Picks Astralcom to Help Cultivate Customer Loyalty

Whole Foods Market in Long Beach, Calif., will implement a geofencing application from Astralcom to help implement a customer loyalty program that rewards customers on their handheld devices before they arrive at the market.

Whole Foods Market Long Beach will be one of the first markets in the country to implement geofence technology to reward customers on the go right from their mobile devices. A geofence is essentially a virtual perimeter around a building, location, or geo-coordinate using a location-based service. Consumers who cross that virtual perimeter receive an instant message relative to that business, location. or coordinate right on their mobile devices and in real-time.

In the case of Whole Foods Market, customers who opt-in for the promotion and who are within proximity of the market receive an introductory notice offering a free Support Local reusable shopping bag when they spend $35 or more inside the store.

"We were looking for a way to reward loyal customers by enabling them to receive location-based incentives on their way into the store or when they are nearby, and the solution that Astralcom has meets this objective nicely," explained Adrienne Peters, marketing supervisor at Whole Foods Market Long Beach. "We're looking forward to being able to build stronger relationships with our customers, and a geofence helps us build stronger relationships with our customers by inviting them in for special rewards."

"Using proximity-based marketing tools like the geofence helps create unique experiences that engage customers and that can reward them," stated Richard Berger, vice president of e-business at Astralcom.

Whole Foods Market is the latest local business to adopt Astralcom's geofence business development tool. McKenna's on the Bay and Delius Restaurant are recent adopters, and in late 2010, Astralcom worked with the City of Long Beach Parking Division, the Long Beach Airport, The Westin, the Aquarium of the Pacific, and several other local businesses in a city-wide location-based geofence program.

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