Interested in beacons? Looking for interesting beacon use cases for your industry? Like every other month, yet again, I am in awe of the creativity and intelligence of marketers and business owners with beacons! I’ve got a power-puffed lineup of real beacon use cases from around the world – from retail sector bringing mannequins to life to millennials discovering location-based news in Manchester and so much more. So sit back, and let your creative juices flow around beacons. By the end of the article, you are sure to find a powerful beacon use case for your business!

1. Ted Bakers, a global fashion retailer brings mannequins to life with iBeacon technology

Retail has always been ahead of the curve with beacon use cases. Another interesting retail use case is – Ted Bakers, a global fashion retailer in Westfield White City, London that employees their mannequins as sales-persons and thus enhancing experience and engagement with customers.

Imagine a non-living mannequin talking to a lady who is silently admiring the mannequin’s attire – Just the thought of it shudders WOW moments!

How does this work?

Ted bakers have installed beacon hardware inside mannequins. These beacons detect any smartphone in the range and push notifications to already downloaded apps on the customer’s smartphone.

These notifications are smartly being used for –

1. Sending information about the dress, accessories, shoes and everything the mannequins is wearing.
2. Giving access to store items directly on the brand’s website – in case the customer wants to order it online and have it delivered at home.
3. Also, locate the closest brand store.

Benefits to the store

Apart from inciting amusement in customers, in-built beacons have more to offer for the store owner. Here are few of them –

1. Enhanced in-store experience and engagement with customers.
2. Boost the store sales number by giving customers the access to deals, rewards and additional offers.
3. Virality of the store – Ted Bakers also had a good success with spreading the word about the store. Customers used the material on the notifications to create lookbooks, share inspirations with friends, pass on referral codes and more.
4. Attract more people into the store by helping them navigate to the store.

2. A Google-backed startup uses Eddystone beacons to provide location-based news.

A survey in the UK showed that millennials are enthusiastic consumers of news. But not many are interested in the local news. And studies suggest that it’s the medium that matters.

Otherworld, a project by a startup – Like no other (Google-backed startup), is using the latest Eddystone beacon technology to create magical location-based storytelling experiences, helping people to explore the world around them like never before.

How does this work?

To bring the mechanism to life, this startup placed a network of Google Eddystone beacons across the city of Manchester. These beacons beam stories to smartphones of the passersby. A fleet of beacons are helping people of Manchester discover the latest local news, events in the city, ongoing offers, information about its history and more.

When passersby exit the range of the beacon, the stories disappear from the user’s device. Here’s a video of how beacons are helping tourists and citizens explore Manchester – WATCH VIDEO.

The best thing about this beacon project!

The beauty of this approach is that the passersby do not even need an app for it – All thanks to Google’s Eddystone prototype! All passersby need to be a part of this local journalism is Google Chrome installed on their phones and have their Bluetooth on.

It’s an experiment that is running in Manchester city from July 25th to the end of 2017. What if this succeeds? Imagine how interesting travelling and exploring new places would become!

3. The Walk of Honour incorporates beacons to enable a powerful visitor experience

There have been quite powerful use cases of beacons in museums. Here’s a similar one – Woodlea, in Australia has incorporated beacons within the memorial structures to enable an experience for the visitors to The Walk of Honour.

How does this work?

Beacon hardware is deployed within the memorial structures. As soon as the beacon detects the “Hello Local app” on a visitor’s smartphone, it automatically beams a notification about the rich history and narrates the story of each monument.

4. MARTINI smart ice cube that automatically informs the bartender when you need a new drink

Imagine sitting in a bar and a bartender knows exactly when you to refill! This use case of beacon was quite dreamt of and now executed. With the smart ice cube dropped into the martini, the bartender knows exactly when to refill your glass!

How does this work?

When serving the first drink, the barman places an ice-cubed shaped device into the customer’s drink. This device floats around in the glass until the drink is finished.

When the device recognizes the empty glass, it automatically alerts the bar staff and places an order for a fresh glass! Here’s unfolding the magic trick – the moment the sensor detects that it’s not submerged in a liquid, it raises a signal that the bartender’s smartphone receives! That’s how the bar staff knows!

The smart ice cube is using the iBeacon technology.

If you are looking to get started on a short pilot, head to our Beaconstac store page and invest in a set of beacons and our Basic subscription plan. You can have the campaigns up and running in less than 15 mins!