Gimbal and NextNav Level Up Location Services to Meet Consumer Expectations

GRANVILLE, Ohio, April 8, 2021 (Newswire.com) - Gimbal, the leading location intelligence platform, and NextNav, the leader in 3D geolocation, have partnered to elevate the capabilities of location services for consumers. The partnership makes a new, vertical dimension - the Z-axis - available for brands and retailers within their mobile applications to more accurately understand how customers move through the physical world. 

Fulfillment options like curbside and in-store pickup were tested and adopted by a large portion of the U.S. population over the past 12 months. Continued usage of click-and-collect services are expected to stick around, driven primarily by their ease of use. According to the National Retail Federation's Consumer View Winter 2020 study, 83% of households say convenience is more important to their buying decisions than it was five years ago.

Gimbal's On-the-Way SDK enables seamless pickup experiences for consumers by letting stores know when their customers have left, if there is unexpected traffic, and when they've arrived on-site to pick up an order through real-time updates. The NextNav Pinnacle service improves the vertical accuracy of those estimates by including floor-level altitude measurements throughout the journey.

"Many brands are expanding their physical footprint right now with a disproportionate number of new locations planned in urban areas where GPS is less reliable. Adding NextNav's additional layer of location granularity will be a game changer for retailers and restaurants whose customers are traveling to and from their apartments and condos above ground level," shared Matthew Russo, Gimbal COO/CMO.

Understanding when a consumer enters a geofenced boundary and what floor they are on - whether a parking structure, in a building or a sports arena - sets a standard of convenience that is otherwise not possible with GPS coordinates alone. This layered contextual data creates marketing opportunities and operational efficiencies, including:

• In-Stadium and Venue Sales - Mobile merchandise or food orders can be easily delivered to fans at their seat via advanced vertical location detection.
• Improved Customer Service - Locating customers in a department or retail store with multiple levels allows store associates equipped with tablets to better service customers. This creates upsell opportunities and has a loyalty play, as well. 
• Product Discovery - Triggering notifications or in-app experiences as users pass by floor-specific products allows for location-aware engagement without the need for any additional hardware.

As the economy continues to open post-pandemic, location services will also serve as a crucial utility for consumers to safely navigate to and through the businesses they frequent.

Brands are also accelerating their brick-and-mortar strategies by partnering with larger retail stores on "store-within-a-store" concepts. For example, floor-level accuracy via NextNav Pinnacle will make it easier for customers to find DTC brands in multi-level stores like Target and Nordstrom. 

"This partnership paves the way for new innovations in customer experience that will benefit retailers and consumers alike. Gimbal's On-the-Way software and NextNav's Pinnacle solution are complementary products for development teams who are looking to create frictionless experiences for their customers," said Dan Hight, VP/GM for Data Partnerships at NextNav.

About Gimbal

Gimbal puts the power of location intelligence to work, enabling businesses to create frictionless experiences. Macro- and micro-location solutions turn physical-world data into action for operators, marketers, and analysts looking to improve their omnichannel strategies. Gimbal has been named to the Inc. 500 and Deloitte Fast 500 for four consecutive years and is widely recognized as a leader in location-based marketing technologies. To learn more, visit https://gimbal.com.

About NextNav

NextNav brings new dimensions to geolocation. NextNav Pinnacle uses highly accurate vertical positioning to transform location services so they reflect the 3D world around us. Our revolutionary TerraPoiNT system keeps critical infrastructure resilient with reliable Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) services in the absence of GPS. With carrier-grade dependability and a rapidly expanding nationwide service footprint, NextNav is driving a whole new ecosystem for geolocation applications and services.

Media Contacts:

Liz Weinsten 
VP of Marketing, Gimbal
(800) 882-5216 ext. 523
liz.weinsten@gimbal.com

Jen Holmes
Vice President, LaunchSquad
415-625-8555
jholmes@launchsquad.com

Source: Gimbal