Bluetooth beacons are offering traditional bricks and mortar traders a hi-tech interactive way to boost their customer engagement in the increasingly competitive world of retail.
Bluetooth beacons are offering retailers an interactive, bespoke solution that can transform the shopping experience on Main Street forever. Approaches like Powa Technologies’ PowaTag, which was launched in March this year, have
the ability to interact with cheap, low-energy Bluetooth beacons strategically positioned around stores to offer retailers a targeted way to engage with their customers through their smartphones.
There are now more mobile devices on Earth than people. One recent study from research firm Frank N. Magid Associates found that the number of mobile phone users in the US who owned or used a smartphone reached 74% late last year, up from 58% in 2012.
Tablet ownership saw an even larger increase, leaping from 33% of mobile phone users in 2012 to 52% this year. The study forecast that 80% of mobile phone users will use smartphones and 64% will use tablets by the end of 2014.
Another study by ForeSee highlights the extent to which smartphones are now used as an aid to shopping. According to the study, of the 70% of shoppers who used a mobile phone while in a retail store during the holidays in 2013, 62% accessed that store’s site or app.
E-commerce entrepreneur and CEO of Powa Technologies Dan Wagner spotted the advantages of using low-energy Bluetooth beacons combined with smartphones compared to other ‘near-field’ technologies early on.
“This technology has tremendous potential to improve the retail experience by creating a more immersive and engaging experience in-store via the consumer’s smartphone. Beacons also help retailers increase their sales by recording, understanding and reacting to consumer behaviour. Retailers desperately need to employ radical solutions to reverse the decline that we have seen on Main Street in recent years.
“They need to do far more than simply rely on their rapidly-eroding core customer base; they urgently need to start adopting many of the engagement-boosting, customer experience-improving strategies of the online sector and integrate them with the advantages that having a physical footprint offers.”
As a rule, customers get a much better experience online and the levels of engagement and personalisation are usually much higher. The advent of the smartphone however is allowing traditional retailers to redress this situation by
reshaping the way they interact with consumers.
Low-energy Bluetooth beacons can be strategically placed around stores, messaging shoppers as they approach special offers and making the whole traditional shopping experience much more interactive. This approach offers a more personalised service that is in tune with the customer’s preferences while retaining valuable data about their shopping behaviour.
Beacons on their own do not offer a solution to make payment easier. However, combined with technologies like Powa technologies’ PowaTag, they can offer a true multi-channel payment and engagement revolution as smartphones
increasingly take the place of the wallet in the consumer’s pocket.
Research from Carlisle & Gallagher Consulting Group suggests that within five years, half of today’s smartphone users will be using mobile wallets as their preferred payments method. Clearly retailers need to rethink and re-design their stores to exploit this shift in consumer behaviour.
“The use of BLE beacons combined with services like the smartphone-based, app-driven PowaTag will completely revolutionise and enhance the retail shopping experience,” says Wagner.
The beacons themselves increase and enrich customer engagement with their contextual and targeted advertising; this helps retailers adapt and improve their stores in a deeper and more personalised way than ever before. And right now retailers need all the help they can get.”