Best of Beacons: Expecting $4 Billion Worth of US Retail Sales in 2015

How can marketers make the most of beacon-powered retail strategies? How can museums use beacons to retrieve visitor insights that help make informed decisions on interactivity enhancement? Why do experts think that Facebook’s move into proximity marketing could implicate ground changing results for brands? Our latest beacon roundup answers these questions and more. So read away!

1. Beacons to have a direct influence over $4 billion worth of US retail sales in 2015

Over the past year, retailers warmed up to beacons in a big way. We saw major brands like American Eagle and Urban Outfitters dive deep into beacon testing, and others like Macy’s and Lord & Taylor roll out beacons in all of their store locations. This year, hundreds of big retail chains are turning to these proximity-detection devices to collect data, push coupons, and generate billions in in-store sales. Check out this article to gain deep insights on the future of beacon-powered retail strategies.

2. How Beacons can add Interactivity to Museums

Beacons offer museums an opportunity to provide context to visitors like never before. For example, with beacons in place, rather than searching through an audio tour for the right section, visitors can instantly watch a video highlighting the artist’s life on their mobile, and learn more about the particular painting in front of them. Our upcoming webinar on “How Beacons can add Interactivity to Museums” talks about the myriad ways in which beacons can be used in museums to enhance visitor experiences.

We will also discuss how beacons can be used to gain insights on visitors’ behaviour, like how often they visit, which art section they spend more time in etc., and make informed decisions on everything from exhibit design, to donor outreach to gift-shop marketing strategies. Register Now.

3. Facebook’s beacon play could accelerate seamless mobile moves

Most consumers today are already being inundated with push notifications from different brands on a daily basis. That being the case, the relevance of the content (sent as a notification) to the current context of the consumer is of paramount importance. This is where Facebook’s new service ‘Place Tips’ comes into the picture. With a total of 1.19 billion mobile monthly active users, Facebook’s move into proximity marketing could definitely be game changing for brands that are looking for a wider audience reach. Check out this article to learn how Facebook beacons can help brands build a strong foundation for highly targeted and effective proximity marketing.

4. Apple Watch: Tracking Customers with Digital Ads

With Apple’s much anticipated smart watch all set for an early 2015 release, digital marketing firms are already experimenting with ways to place ads on users’ wrists. Early this month, mobile ad exchange TapSense released their Apple Watch ad-buying service at CES 2015. The product, it said allowed marketers to place ads in applications created for the Apple Watch by third-party developers. Meanwhile, inMarket, another mobile shopper marketing company, has announced that it will now help marketers deliver offers to consumers on their Apple Watch devices based on exact location of the consumer within the store. Read on to learn how marketers can make the most of what Apple Watch has to offer.

5. Three Proximity Marketing Trends that Retailers should Watch Out for

According to a recent ‘Mobile Audience Insights Report’ released by NinthDecimal, a leading mobile audience intelligence company, there currently exists a huge gap between the the type of proximity marketing messages that shoppers prefer to receive and the type of messages currently received in-store. For example, while 61% of shoppers prefer to receive proximity marketing messages on offers in-store, only less than half receive such messages. With beacons being predicted to influence one in every four dollars spent in retail stores by 2016, it is highly critical that retailers follow beacon UX strategies that enhance consumer shopping experience. Check out this post to learn more about the proximity marketing trends that retailers should watch out for in 2015.

If you are planning a beacon pilot, take a look at Beaconstac, that includes everything you need to get started. Using Beaconstac you can set up your own campaign, without a developer’s help!