Attention: Holiday shoppers scrambling to make those last-minute purchases, have you ever stopped to wonder what’s driving that impulse purchase? Perhaps while listening to music on Pandora, you came across a banner ad for a certain luxury goods company, which says “join us for an event in a location near you.” Or maybe you received a text message from your favorite store, alerting you of a sale going on right now as you walk around the mall. Or maybe a Facebook banner ad caught your eye without you even realizing it? Are these stores psychic or are you being tracked via your mobile device?

Today more than ever before, retailers are finding innovative ways to target shoppers to their nearest locations. Internet and radio service provider, Pandora has been extremely popular among luxury brands, department stores, and retailers alike. Tiffany & Co. unveiled their new “Some Holidays Are Unforgettable” ad campaign targeting consumers through banner ads on Pandora. Target relies on Pandora to run location-based banner ads for a 3-day sale in order to increase in-store traffic. Department-store Nordstrom was quick to realize the benefits behind running a location-based mobile ad campaign, which told consumers about a promotion happening right near them, which directs consumers to the Nordstrom mobile site. Luxury retailer Bergdorf Goodman benefits from the popular iPhone game, Words with Friends, to run a location-based banner ad for an in-store event.

Meanwhile, Luxury brands such as Tory Burch, BMW and Fendi are relying on Facebook ads to build online traffic.  These targeted ads run on the right-hand side of a user’s newsfeed. Facebook allows retailers to specifically target consumers by zeroing in on age, gender, location, interests and brand affiliations.

Finally, Kiehl’s uses a more direct approach through SMS text messages. For its holiday ad campaign, when an opt-in mobile user steps into the range of a Kiehl’s store that has a special promotion happening, they are immediately alerted by an SMS text.

In short, marketers have an array of devices at their disposal, which enables them to use location-based marketing to target consumers and create personalized ads cleverly tailored to fit the sophisticated shopper.