Geofencing is the use of GPS satellites, Bluetooth or WiFi to create a virtual boundary around a specific location from which you can trigger an event for your mobile device.

This technology has been used in apps to help parents locate their child or lost pet and in professional environments to communicate location with employees working in the field.

Imagine you’re driving home from work, caught up in the details of what happened at the office, keeping an eye on traffic and you forget to make that stop at the grocery store to pick up what you need for dinner that night.

Here’s how geofencing can help. As you’re approaching the exit ramp to the local grocery store, your phone is tracking your location and it also gets a signal that a grocery store is nearby. Your phone then alerts you with a reminder to pick up dinner.

Grocery store owners, you can go a step further by sending advertisements for your store and specials as a prospective customer enters your geofencing area. A customer who would normally stop at your competitor’s store for those steaks for tonight’s dinner can see that your store is advertising KC strips for $5.99 lb. This catches their attention and they use their GPS app to find your nearby store instead.

Geofencing is used not only in mobile devices but can also be used in automobiles that are equipped with GPS and Internet services. When your car is running low on gas, most of you have an indicator to let you know the gas level is low. What if your car spoke to you to let you know you are low on gas AND it told you where the nearest gas station is? We may not be far from that concept becoming a reality.