We all are aware of the traditional use of beacons such as in lighthouses, police car lights, etc. But with the advancing technology, beacons are nowadays widely used by the retailers for the purpose of advertisement and marketing of their products. Beacons are usually small and they can be placed on the walls of the stores, both in and out. They produce signals which travel one way to nearby mobile devices. They transmit relevant information and targeted messages to likely patrons.
Retailers are using the beacon technology to gain insights about the customers’ behavior in the stores and then instruct them to perform certain actions using the mobile app.
The position of the customer is detected by the beacons and the coupons are sent to their mobile devices for their specific product, which they might be looking at.
Moreover, if the store’s app is on the customer’s device, the beacon can send special offers for items in the store that they might be eyeing in-store.
In some stores, the beacons are even placed inside the mannequins in the window display, which could be used to encourage the passersby to enter inside the store.
Let us explore how beacons are being used by the retailers to transform their business strategies to gain the maximum out of this technology.
Beacons reshaping the retail business
Beacons will facilitate the marketers by helping them track a shopper’s behavior. This will eventually help them determine the necessary changes that they need to accommodate in the store layout, as well offer discounts to loyal clients. Further, the retailers can even observe the overall activities of their staff members and can make suitable changes in the store so that it is maintained according to the latest industry standards.
And for the part of the consumers, the beacon technology can offer unparalleled experience because it allows the retailers to offer specific suggestions and different discount offers. This is done using the Bluetooth in the mobile devices of the consumers and the beacons installed in the stores. As the customers move around in the stores, they are bombarded with highly relevant and personalized brand interactions. We are jotting down some of the ways in which retailers are leveraging their businesses using beacon technology.
1. Enhancing the probability of Additional purchases:
- Beacons are prevalent in a market where most other marketing and sales ploys can’t, i.e. proximity marketing. These small devices are capable of detecting human activity nearby and they execute a series of coded actions when they are triggered. These devices perform actions based on the recent activities of the consumer.
- Say, for example, the customer was recently looking for a particular product on the mobile app. The beacon will sense the recently browsed objects and will send a series of offers that would be most relevant to the consumers.
- With the help of beacons, a deeper level of brand saturation is achieved which has encouraged the customers to do additional purchases that were beyond their original intentions.
- The customers nearby will receive push notifications based on the purchasing history or about the items that are in the close proximity to them.
2. Unveiling New Business Intelligence
- Beacons help the retailers in gaining useful insights into the customers’ behavior, relating it to the purchases, regions and different demographics. Also, they can know about the consumers’ response to different ad campaigns and retail products in real time. The retailers can even gauge the effectiveness of their current branding initiatives.
- Beacons have given answers to a variety of questions that the traditional marketing methods have left us fumbling over. Such as how the customers respond to impromptu offers? Which types of offers are ineffective? Which product lines are the consumers interacting with most aggressively? When these questions are answered, the retailers get the opportunity to identify what works at zero in and adjust accordingly to apply the model in other contexts.
- With the help of beacons, retailers get the opportunity to obtain abundant data that can be helpful in compiling the consumer profiles which could be further helpful in customizing the experience for each buyer.
3. Increasing Customer engagement
- Beacon technology supports the very popular omnichannel model of marketing. The retailers can easily expand the interconnectivity of their system making simple the mobile to in-store transitions. Also, it encourages in-store customers to do more and more mobile interactions.
- This omnichannel system allows the retailers to have control over the interactions, making sure they maintain the company’s image. Beacons help the retailers to retain the dialogue with the consumers by engaging them through the apps that they have downloaded in their mobile phones. For the new customers, the beacons can prompt them to download the apps as they pass by the stores.
- It is observed that personalization has become the top priority to a successful customer engagement model. Buyers always desire for an experience that is beyond just buying the product. Beacons help in simplifying the transition by giving a personalized experience to the customers, thereby building a relationship between the brand and the consumer.
Conclusion:
Undoubtedly, the beacon technology has so far benefitted the retailers in many ways and will continue to do so in the near future. The retailers can easily manipulate the in-store experience beyond the customer services and different product offerings. Installing beacons can help the brands to move along with the customers, facilitating them to easily navigate through the sales funnel.
We offer Beacons Solutions that can cater to all the needs of the retailers and help them enhance their brand awareness; thereby, helping them to increase their business.
