Beacon Technology: The Future of Retail Marketing

With the growing penetration of the internet and smartphones, the consumer buying behavior landscape has changed significantly. Consumers are more inclined toward online shopping – a new way for hassle-free shopping as compared to online shopping. Therefore, it is safe to say that long before the pandemic, many consumers have shifted their preference from in-store shopping to online ease. This changed consumer behavior has forced brands to strengthen their digital presence.  Ravaged by the pandemic, an approximate 12000 stores in the USA have been closed in 2020. However, as we stepped into 2021, store openings are outpacing store closure. According to a study, approximately 80% of the shoppers prefer shopping in stores with touchless self-checkout options. This has encouraged retailers to adapt to new technologies in retail such as beacon for a more personalized shopping experience.   

A sneak peek into the Beacon Technology and Proximity Marketing    

Most beacons are like small computers such as roughly the size of the standard Wi-Fi router. Beacon technology is part of the indoor and outdoor positioning systems used to detect the human presence nearby and trigger push notifications to deliver personalized retail messages to the consumers. Beacons are a cost-effective way to engage customers in a non-intrusive way.

Leading retailers are using proximity marketing to advertise to the customers located/staying in a particular vicinity. Concerning proximity marketing, beacon technology focuses on absolute specificities such as targeting a particular location and specific customers.

Beacon technology was first used by Apple Inc. in 2013 to collect data on users entering a particular location. After a user opt-in to receive these notifications, the brands send the personalized alters to the customers with smartphones with the end goal of converting them into the sales funnel. On top of that, the user also gets to feel the personalized customer experience via this digital disruption.  

3 Ways Beacon Technology Reshapes the Future of Retail  

Here are the three ways that can reshape the future of retail amid the new normal and engage customers in a non-intrusive way.

1.      Personalized Consumer Experience      

Large successful retailers personalized the journey of their potential and loyal customers. Once the customer enters the store – they start receiving the notification about the new products, sales on their most loved items, etc. The beacon also assists the customers with the large retail layouts, it can guide the customer via alters about the positioning of the products and other contextual information regarding a range of products.

2.      Better User Data for Reporting  

The more data leads to the more accurate decisions. Beacon technology facilitates the data analyst/retail managers in obtaining data on the consumer shopping behavior such as how long a customer has stayed in a particular shop or any part of the store. Performance of the discounts on any specific days of the week. Finally, does it make any difference if consumer shops alone or with others? Beacon technology captures all this sort of data to help you with better decision-making about product positioning on the shelves and on giving discounts.

3.      A New Avenue to Drive Sales  

Once you collect the data from the consumer buying behavior via beacon technology, retail managers are in a better position to run personalized location-based sales that can drives sales. Moreover, you also got to know about the discount offers on which product can drive more sales. The kind of products customers find attractive – you can offer more of that variation. Precisely, you can track all the significant sales-driving factors and can offer customers a highly personalized sales experience.  

In a nutshell, to increase the consumer base, retailers need to deploy beacon technology to capture the attention of prospective consumers. It wouldn\’t be wrong to say that the future of retail looks a lot brighter with the help of beacon technology.   

Agile District can help you with the deployments of the innovative technology solutions such as beacon technology. Amid the ever-evolving digital disruption, it is imperative to stay put with the latest technological solutions to keep up the competitive edge within the market.

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