As technology continues to permeate our lives, it’s not surprising to see people begin shopping and researching for product information online. However, as the future of retail heads towards the internet, a study by IBM shows that it still has a decade to go before we get rid of brick and mortar stores all together (Gaudin, 2016). To bridge this gap, companies are looking to in-store beacon marketing in order to adapt to the increasingly omnichannel retail environment (Cohen, 2015).
Beacon marketing can tailor personalized promotions and advertisements to customers according to the collected data. Thus, beacon marketing allows the company to reach targeted customers with offers matching their needs and interests, leading to an increase of sales. Moreover, beacon costs approximate to $20 – $40 (Roesler, 2015), which is low enough for companies to easily incorporate this new marketing strategy.
However, since beacons communicate with smartphones via Bluetooth, customers must enable Bluetooth functions in order to receive offers (Till, 2015). Besides, beacons also require customers to download a branded app to receive the Bluetooth signals (Till, 2015).
Macy’s and American Eagle Outfitters are using beacon marketing to send promotions and recommended products through an app called Shopkick (Charlton, 2014). Apple’s iBeacon software was launched in US stores and are used for notifying people when their orders are ready and their eligibility of upgrading iPhones (Reddy, 2014). American Airlines send guiding messages to their passengers through iBeacon, such as how far the gates are and boarding status (Reddy, 2014). By locating staff and allocating tasks to them, Japan Airlines implements iBeacon on their staff instead of directly on passengers (Moth, 2014).
Beacon Marketing 