When it comes to machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, the retail store environment has been trying to harness the power of all of those smartphones in store visitors’ pockets for some time. While previous efforts have had minimal success on the marketing front (remember the location-based services craze?) and have been plagued with privacy concerns, a new era of beacons may offer new hope.
Beacons are small, battery-operated, low-cost wireless devices that continuously transmit a simple low-energy Bluetooth signal. Smartphones can pick up these signals, perform various actions based on the beacon’s ID, micro location, proximity, time and user’s context. For retailers, a compatible mobile app becomes another conduit to deliver contextual and personalized experiences.
According to Interaction One/Mobmerry, a full 95 percent of retail business still happens at the physical store. So finding ways to engage the consumer in a deeper way remains important.
“We see an emerging trend, a world where online and offline shopping coexist rather than compete,” said Krishna Prasad, CEO and co-founder, Interaction One/Mobmerry, in a blog. “If technology were to be blamed for the online vs. offline divide, it is now bringing the consumer and retailer together like never before. Retailers have an opportunity to explore how technology can be used to supplement offline shopping experiences, help consumers discover products from retail, and create consumer experiences that adapt to the changing consumer behavior and trend.”
More specifically, beacons and their related apps can do a number of things, in an automated way. For one, they can spot nearby previous customers—at least, those people that have the store’s app—and greet them. And based on previous purchasing or opt-in behavior they can use the consumer’s taste and preference to deliver relevant information on products, special offers and deals.
“Communication should be in sync with the brand’s overall marketing strategy and should seamlessly integrate to take advantage of the devices in proximity, use familiar communications platforms to make sure that the consumer feels comfortable, and is able to shift the focus away from the device to the message,” said Prasad.
Also, there’s a concierge element that’s possible: based on previous interactions, or perhaps tied in with a search that the consumer inputs into an app, beacons can guide customers to find specific items with in-store navigation. Other functions can be to simplify and ease checkout processes, and reduce waiting lines with digital payments and receipts. Integration with a customer relationship management (CRM) system and billing process can make shopping –both in-store and online, more effortless for the customer.
Then there are the analytics to consider—and it’s here that previous attempts at tracking customers have run afoul of privacy advocates. Beacons allow retailers to understand footfall patterns, entry and exit data, amount of time spent, visited locations, heat maps, trends, repeat visits, and purchase history all in real time—in short, they can capture actionable shopper insights. However, beacons themselves don’t collect any data. This is rather the purview of the associated app—and is completely within the control of users.
“Apps using location must do an effective job in explaining why and what they collect and have policies to delete the history of a user’s location,” Prasad said. “It is important to have the consumer’s trust and have the apps deliver value for them to allow for location services.”
Edited by
Ken Briodagh
