Beacons : Blurring the Lines between Physical and Digital World

Hey Siri. Ok Google. Alexa? Is anyone there? Hello?

Today, the customer follows non-linear path when it comes to shopping. They research about the product; go to physical store to check that out; then buy it from the mobile requesting for delivery. As customer is taking the reins, this buyer-seller unpredictable relationship is getting increasingly complex; hence brick-and mortar store need to think of the ways to bridge the gap between physical and digital world.

With the new advancements in internet-connectivity; web technology has refashioned the complete retail landscape to enhance the customer in-store experience. This has provided new opportunities for the retailers to give edge to their business by offering seamless customer-experience. And this is only successful, if a right technology platform is chosen that can integrate different departments of a store and is robust enough to create engagement with customer. And the solution to this is beacon technology.

Beacons or the Bluetooth tag uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to fetch location information. This information can be used by the store owners to send special offers to the users who are visiting or passing by the store. It can be used by health-care provider to know where the valuable assets are located. Even when assets are misplaced, a beacon infrastructure can help to locate it. More importantly, beacons can be used to support the foundation of IOT.

BLE Beacons Play a Vital Role for the Growth of the Business Due to:

• High penetrations rates: More than 90% of smart phones are equipped with Bluetooth
• Long range: Beacons can broadcast up to the range of 100m
• Energy efficiency: BLE beacon is far more energy efficient than many other device

All of these factors make beacon – the smart device to shape the future! But how BLE device helps the business owners to bridge the gap?

• Serving Premium Customers

Isn’t it great, if bank, hotel or a super mall knowing when “platinum” or a “top-tier” customer walks-in!! When deployed beacon in physical venue, the process of greeting customers as they enter or leave the store becomes virtually automated. Customers who are unsure whether or not to enter will find themselves attracted to the shopping area with a short message encouraging them to come inside to take a look around. For instance: Thinks of a retail store greeting a customer with “Welcome Mr. Benjamin!! Thank-you for being our platinum member. Beacons helps to know who is the loyal customer and can also provide alerts to the all the sales associate to serve that customer in the best possible ways.

• Tracks in-store customer movement

Beacons helps in tracking real-time location. It can work inside the multi-story buildings or throughout the entire campus and tracks the whereabouts of the customer’s movements within the physical space. This enables to know which path they take the most, what parts of the store they visit frequently, in which area they spend most of the time; which time and day they preferred for shopping. This data helps the retailers to target their customers digitally by providing good offers and discounts on the products they liked the most.

• Location based targeting help increase engagement

Location-based marketing with beacons is the key to bridge the physical world with the digital world, providing contextually relevant content based on the user’s geo-location. For instance: Beacon based mobile app can co-ordinate with the beacon to send relevant offers when a person is a particular department of the retail store. Based on your location, beacon triggers tailored messages sequentially to improve shopping experience based on the specific criteria such as customer’s shopping habits, preferences, location and other details. It pushes relevant messages at the time of purchase which helps the customers to make their shopping pleasant and fast.

• Connects offline behavior to the digital activities

Rather than pushing an offer directly and immediately, it is always better to push ads as per the customer’s behavior; and proximity marketing works the best to get full insights. Whether you are in retail, bank, sports or stadium, beacons enables you to engage with the offline customers with relevant, targeted offers and service message.

• Provides smooth customer experience

In today’s world, no customer would prefer to waste their time by standing in the long queues to pay the bill in retail store, check-in or check-out in the hotel and much more. Brands always look for the new ways to improve customer experience. With beacons, you can blur the physical and digital space by greeting guest with their last name, accelerating check-in/check-out process, notifying the house-keeping if the guest are still in their rooms and much more.

Different Verticals Using Beacons that Blur the Lines Between Physical and Digital Space

Sports: Many sports team today make the use of Bluetooth device to enhance sports experience with in-depth information, gamification dynamics and much more.

• Education

With BLE device, students can navigate around school campus to check different classes, sports ground, activity room and much more. As beacons are contextually aware, it enables to set-up learning zones within each classroom, offering customized content to their student when they are in specific area of the classroom. With interactive apps, it is easy to experience your school in new and interesting way making the lives lot easier. Penn State University is taking attendance using beacons.

• Bank

Beacons enables banks to integrate physical and mobile channels with innovative communication and delivers customers a positive and personal experience. It helps in presence detection, customer ID recognition, Welcome Interaction, Desk and Clerk Allocation, Notifying Account Managers, Tailored Financial Offers and much more.

Since, digital world is constantly on the move; empowered customers, dynamic competitive landscape, new competitive model and evolving technology have created turbulent conditions amongst all players. The key to bridging physical and digital space are beacons which helps in creating meaningful customer experience. BLE Mobile Apps understands the best practices to deliver device-to-app communication which enables the business to fetch precise data, delivering jaw-breaking customer experience and generating higher ROI.

Check Out a Few of the Related Posts Mentioned Below:

1. Use of Beacon Technology in Retail Industry
2. Omni-channel Marketing Using Beacons
3. Using Beacons in Warehouse for Asset Tracking and Management
4. Revolutionizing Real Estate Marketing with Beacons
5. Top Reasons to Include Beacons in your Retail Marketing Strategy
6. Use of Beacons in Office – Making Workplace Smarter
7. Big Data and Beacons: The Power Couple of Retail Industry