Does anyone here know of any successful case of using Beacons for retail?

Renan Prado Head of Sales and Business Development at Novidá

November 22nd, 2016

Hi everyone,

Please, anyone here have some data or business case about Beacons in the retail stores? And what you guys think about the potential of this technology?

Many thanks!

Stuart Silverman

November 22nd, 2016

The opportunities are huge. Anytime retailers or other service providers can create an easy communications channel to their shoppers, its a good thing.

I think the barrier to widescale adoption so far has been the need for iBeacons to communicate with an app on users' phones. People don't want to download another app if they don't really know what it will do for them. A number of retailers will have their own branded apps on which they could add beacon support - but again, users have to turn them on when they go into stores.

With the introduction of Eddystone beacons and Google Nearby all that is going to change. Google has created an environment where you do not need to download an app to receive a beacon alert. Its still early going and I'm concerned that there will be a bit of a learning curve for users. But the technology will open up all sorts of opportunities.

We're building a tool with this new technology to aid retailers in managing and tracking customer experience. If you want to discuss, we can take this off line

Here's an interesting resource to get a handle on the market opportunity for beacons in retail - they have a publication specifically targeted to the retail industry https://www.proxbook.com/

Dane Madsen Organizational and Operational Strategy Consultant

November 23rd, 2016

I have seen several pieces about use of beacons in retail by predictive analytics companies. They are useful for the obvious, but also to track traffic patterns for merchandising to assist store arrangement, test walk-in versus walk by traffic, and more. Not all beacon technology requires an app. It can be tracked by just MAC address. A discussion I had recently was with a parking company that uses beacons on the in/out gates of their lots then tracks (by MAC address) the users both by mobile or by car (if it has a Bluetooth enabled interface). Very exciting.

Renan Prado Head of Sales and Business Development at Novidá

November 23rd, 2016

Hi Stuart and Dane,

Thank you so much for the replies. Was very insightful.

I'm from Brazil and we are implementing a Beacon Technology here using these kind of comunication with MAC adress or social Wifi in some cases. The opportunities are definitely huge, but we have some obstacles for the massive use by customers, because is still a new technology.

What do you guys think about a better "go to market" strategy: focusing on a retail store; food courts in shopping mall or another vertical like transportation, etc?

Thank you so much!

@Stuart, the report is awesome! Thanks for sharing!

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