Proximity Marketing has unlocked a new door in the Retail world. Be it India or abroad, Location-based marketing is steadily making its place in the business world.
Retail world with the use of Beacons
Retailers with the help of “Beacons” can push appropriate advertisement content to customer’s smartphone based on his/her location in the retail outlet. The future prospect of beacons will be discussed, but let us go through its feature and let’s check how beacon can interact with applications in smartphones.
Beacon use radio waves to transmit signals to the smartphones in a short range up to 70 meters by using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology. It accesses a CRM database to get a detail report of the customer profile and hence can send customized offers judging the past buying behavior of the customer.
The customer needs to install the apps of the retail in their Smartphone and keep the Bluetooth ON to receive the offers. It can range from Promo–codes, Coupon–codes, Gift vouchers, Discount offers and Product information.
Beacon Engagement Facts
Proximity sensors can engage your customer for a long time and provide a great shopping experience for your customers. Understanding the previous shopping experience a more personalized discount offer or promotion voucher can easily be sent.
Use Cases in “in-Store Retail”
Consider these scenarios mentioned below and discover how beacons can help increase in-store customer engagement and provide insights to drive sales.
Beacons installed counter can help feed data for in–store analytics. It gives perfect research result for the products bought, displayed product, the launch of new product and stock clearance report generation.
Data can also be collected based on the stores visited by the customers, products having a good sale without any discounts and products are not getting many sales with good offers and discounts.
After the purchase is made by the customer, a loyalty program can be sent to the customer that can benefit him in his future purchase and help him to stick to the retail shop. With the installation of the apps, the customer can share feedback and avail redemption offer sent as notification.
Thanking the customer for shopping, discount vouchers or codes for future purchase or codes they can share with friends and families can be sent. This will again be an attempt to encourage sales.
Marketing Cost: Traditional Marketing VS Proximity Marketing?
With strong competition from the online sellers, brick-and-mortar retailers are looking for innovative methods to share promotional offers with buyers.
The Recent recurring cost of Retailers for advertisement are like printing pamphlets, advertise through big and bright hoardings, Television Advertisement and many more! Use of Beacon Technology can be a suitable yet inexpensive tool that can offer best promotion 24/7. It is free from any random maintenance. The only investment you have to make is to buy batteries that too last for 2-3 years.
Data Speed in Beacon Technology
Beacon device uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology for proximity marketing, so customers are not in need of any internet access. They just need to use Smartphone with Bluetooth option, and they should keep it ON. For the retail outlets normal 2G and the 3G connection are just enough for proximity marketing using the beacon technology. In addition to this, more and more users are getting accessed to the internet every day and 4G is about to blast the market, so there should not be any annoyance caused by lack of speed.
Outcomes and Benefits of Beacon Technology
Beacons has already been implemented by a plethora of retail giants. Apple, Coca-Cola, LORD & TAYLOR, Levi’s, Virgin Atlantic, MACY’S are some of the beacon’s clients wherein beacons have been successfully implemented and where shoppers are enjoying benefits.
Our Recommendation for Beacon usage
Beacon Technology is accelerating in India. Retailers should look at embracing this technology to create a proximity environment to get an early player advantage and increase business before the opposition catches on.
India is to become the second largest smartphone market in the world by 2017. Users are sure to lap up data services in smartphones with the proposed low rate of 4G net service. This makes smartphones a tool for omnichannel marketing of retail products.
So don’t stay behind, run the race of success.
content source: retailstoreanalytics.wordpress.com