Product update: new location variables for richer segmentation
At Croct, we believe that great personalization starts with great context, and geolocation plays a key role in that. That's why we've just rolled out a major upgrade to our location data, making it more structured, detailed, and versatile for location-based segmentation and personalization.
Let's walk you through what's new, what's changed, and how you can start using it to craft even more relevant experiences.
What's changing?
We've deprecated the location's district variable and standardized how geographic properties are structured to make them more expressive and intuitive to use. This change allows you to access more granular data, including both the name and code for each region, and opens the door for future new variables.
Continent
This variable's structure changed, and now we have new aliases:
- location's continent is now an object with name and code, instead of a string
- Now you should use location's continent's name or location's continentName
- Besides the existing locations continentCode, now you can also use location's continent's code
State or region
This variable's structure changed, and now we have new aliases:
- location's state is now an object with name and code, instead of a string
- Now you should use location's state's name or location's stateName
- Besides the existing locations stateCode, now you can also use location's state's code
Since state is an alias for region, you can choose your preferred notation form.
City
This variable's structure changed, and now we have a new alias. Instead of a string, location's city is now an object with a name, so now you should use location's city's name or location's cityName.
What's new?
We're adding powerful new variables to give you a richer understanding of your visitors.
Geographic coordinates
When available, you will get precise location info for latitude and longitude:
location's coordinates' latitude // 36.7783location's coordinates' longitude // 119.4179
Negative latitude means south, positive latitude means north, negative longitude means west, and positive longitude means east. So to segment people out of the northern and western hemispheres, you should use:
location's coordinates' latitude is greater than 0andlocation's coordinates' longitude is less than 0
Currency information
Understanding your users' local currency for pricing or payment is extremely important when displaying products and plan prices. Now it is as easy as:
location's currency's name // "US Dollar"location's currency's code // "USD"
Phone code
If you work in the B2B business, you're probably used to contact and sales contact forms. For phone number input fields, you can now automatically detect the user's location and pre-fill the appropriate country code and formatting.
location's phoneCode // "+1"
Languages
Understanding your users' local languages is as easy as:
location's languages // ["en-ca", "fr-ca"]
Elevation and population
Craft experiences based on geographic traits:
location's elevation // 1500location's population // 100000
Postal code
Useful for regional promotions or logistics:
location's postalCode // "90210"
Introducing location tags
This is the biggest update in the release! Semantic tags describe the type of place a user is in, making segmentation easier than ever.
Instead of dealing with complex geographic logic, you can now work with these meaningful labels:
- Place: urban, residential, rural, remote, park, island
- Society: government, politics, military, religion, education
- Economy: business, industry, agriculture
- Infrastructure: transport, facility, waterway, airport, road, railway, seaport
- Sport: fishing, surfing, swimming, hiking, skiing
- Attraction: entertainment, scenery, landmark, recreation, tourism
- Nature: mountain, lake, river, canyon, desert, ocean, coast, beach, forest
- Weather: warm, cold, snowy
If you run an e-commerce, for example, and want to segment users on the beach, it is now as simple as:
"beach" is in location's tagslocation's tags include "beach"
Location information relies on data from GeoNames, a free global geographical database trusted by companies like Apple, Microsoft, Accenture, BBC, New York Times, and others. Tags are categorized using their feature codes, meaning Croct has no control over how places are labeled.
Start personalizing with richer context
These new variables are now available for every Croct account, even in the free plan!
Whether you're offering location-based experiences, optimizing forms, or running AB tests for a specific location, you'll find these enhancements powerful and intuitive to use.
To explore all the new expressions, check our updated location data reference.
Happy personalizing!