Nearest Store FAQs
How does GEO-IP work?
IP-based geolocation (GEOIP) is the pairing of an IP address or Mac address to a real-world geographic location of an internet connected computer or mobile device. You can use GEOIP to identify where your recipients are when they open your email, display a map showing the nearest stores to them, and then direct them to your nearest store.
Litmus Personalize uses the GEOIP of the recipient at the time of open to serve a personalized image based on their proximity to a store. If the recipient is within a predetermined radius of a store they will see a map showing pins of the nearest stores to a city level. We use GEOIP to detect location as it does not require the recipients location services to be switched on. Upon clicking through on the nearest store section of the email, the recipient will be presented with personalized directions to their nearest store powered by GPS.
What provides the IP address when opening on a mobile device?
Every time the email is opened it is the email client that provides the IP but if the email is opened on a mobile device it will be the cell connection or the wifi connection that provides this information.
How accurate is GEO-IP?
Although it would be nice to detect the precise location of an email open, it is almost impossible to find the exact location of the recipient using the IP address. Accuracy of GEOIP varies, with accuracy decreasing as the scale is decreased. For example country based GEOIP is very high, whereas city based GEOIP detection is less accurate.
GEOIP location and GPS location abilities and accuracy:
Are there are inbox restrictions when using GEO-IP?
Yes. Some inboxes, such a gmail and hotmail, bypass GEOIP location tracking and therefore the default rule or default image will be displayed.
Do proxy settings affect accuracy?
Yes. In some cases a proxy location setting is used where GEOIP shows the corporate headquarters location, and not the location of open.
Can nearest store be used in the Rule Builder?
Yes. Using the Litmus Personalize rule builder you can create rules to determine what content should be displayed to the recipient. For example, for nearest store location you could show nearest store to the recipient's location when the email is opened on a smartphone as these recipients are most likely to be on the move. When a recipient clicks through on a mobile device they are shown personalized directions to the store nearest to them. For those recipients opening the email on a PC or tablet you could show the default image for ‘find your nearest store’.
Can you test a nearest store map with different IP addresses?
Yes. You can manually command an IP address to test the map by configuring the tag differently:
Tag: https://img.kickdyn.com/10050/WgXX3LymCgNA8gBgjMmd/imgns.png
Rearrange the tag to the following format:
https://img2.kickdyn.com/imgns.png?c=10050.WgXX3LymCgNA8gBgjMmd&test=217.91.11.27
Can I display the store addresses with the live map?
Nearest Store functionality relies on geo-location which maps the geo-ip of email open to a city. This means that if there are many stores in one city, it is not possible to accurately determine which store is the actual closest to the open location of the email. For example, if somebody opened in a city where there were 10 stores, it is not possible to display the actual closest store with the address information etc. Therefore we do not support of the addition of addresses into the live image.
Is it possible to use a store ID merge to generate a map?
Yes. This is something that we can support however it will have to be custom built. Please contact your Account Manager for more information.