Consumers and fashion industry professionals are just getting the hang of checking in on Foursquare, Gowalla or Loopt.

Brands are just getting the hang of incorporating geo-social promotions and location-based marketing into their online marketing plans. And now, guess what? We are all going to have to learn how “GEO FENCES” come into play; keeping up with location based technology is harder that hauling yourself across Bryant Park for Fashion Week!

What Is Geo Fencing?

According to Wikipedia, a “Geofence is a virtual perimeter for a real-world geographic area.” When this concept is applied to mobile phones, it refers to a device’s ability to receive automatic alerts or notifications when entering, leaving or moving within a specific geographic area, and “The geofence notice might be sent to a mobile telephone or an email account.”

Location Labs, providers of location services for mobile developers, announced earlier this week the release of its library that will allow iPhone developers to build geofencing apps.

As the company points out, location services on mobile devices have been hindered both by differences in location technology standards, and the significant drain on the device’s battery caused by its use. According to Location Labs, with the introduction of background applications with iOS 4.0 and increased battery performance in the new iPhone, Apple has created a fitting platform for geofencing apps.

What This Means for Location Apps

If Foursquare and Gowalla added geofencing to its applications, their users can automatically check in to particular location. Have you ever been at Nordstrom, The Apple Store or some ultra hip place you want everyone to know you’ve been to and you’ve forgotten to check in? Well, that would be a thing of the past with geofencing.

Read Write Web also mentioned an additional interesting use for geofences.  They reference a feature that Robert Scoble advocated for earlier this month when he said, ”It is helpful to location app users if they can tell if their friends are still at a location, and determining how long users spend in businesses can have a significant impact of location-based marketing.” Geofencing, then, could help bring friends together in real life and could also be used to understand consumer behavioral patterns.

Geo Fencing: Nordstrom – Make Me Shop Your Stores!

What if Nordstrom could send notifications to a customer within a certain radius of their store or location-based marketing could help track in-store customer patterns? And it could be done automatically?

Could this mean that Nordstrom could immediately find out that I came into The Grove, got a double espresso and spent 40 minutes in the store between the lingerie and shoe departments? And then could they trace my movements when on another visit, I didn’t go to the cafe, spent 10 minutes in the store and left?

The benefits of location marketing is that, based on the data of my behavior, I could get offered a discount at the coffee shop or a free double espresso to increase the time I spent in the store by 75% and thus increase my likelihood to buy things. All in the name of free coffee.

Oh, how wonderful a future of Big Brother (oops, I mean Nordstrom) is!  I could shop happily and caffeinated, all via a little message from my iPhone.

So What Does This Mean For The Fashion Industry?

Could big retailers or indie boutiques automatically know when their best customers are in their locations or on their way? We know so.

Could those retailers or boutique use  promotions to incentivize those customers? We think so.

Please geo-social, location-based marketing technology, keep bridging the online to offline divide for retailers and etailers.

Seamless brand experiences, here we come!

You can follow Location Labs on Twitter.

Photo: Eric Bakken