If your retail store doesn’t have an app, you’ll have to put your beacon technology strategy on hold until the app is built. In fact, 80% of people have used their mobile devices inside of physical stores to improve their shopping experiences. Once the app is installed on their mobile devices, you’ll be able to use beacons to drive sales. Take a look at how Target puts a creative twist on this simple feature: Its customers can use this tool to create a shopping list before they arrive at the retail location. If you send them a push notification or message that’s for something other than a discount, it’ll annoy them. You can do the same using beacon technology. When a customer with your app goes to the beach, they’ll get a notification about those types of products. The promotions are still timely and relevant, improving the user experience. First, you need to make sure as many customers as possible download your mobile app. Use this information to send them timely, relevant, and personalized messages that will improve their shopping experience and drive sales.
With online shopping growing in popularity, retailers need to come up with new ways to keep their customers engaged to drive sales.
Retail stores are no longer just competing with other neighboring shops. Consumers can shop for virtually anything from the comfort of their own homes or even on the go from ecommerce shops.
If your retail business can’t adapt to new technology and the latest trends, you’ll struggle for survival in the coming years.
Beacon technology is definitely something your business should consider using. While the term may sound futuristic and complex, it’s actually quite simple.
You’ll be using beacons to track your customers, similarly to GPS. Although beacons and GPS are often confused and associated with each other, they’re not the same.
GPS technology needs three major components to work:
- satellites
- ground stations
- receivers
Receivers, such as a cell phone or a car, send signals to satellites that calculate the distance between each one. As a result, these calculations can pinpoint exactly where the receiver is located.
Beacons are far less complex.
These devices are small and not very expensive. They run on battery power.
Instead of broadcasting their locations to multiple satellites, beacons simply share their locations with devices capable of receiving their identities.
It’s easy to install beacons throughout your retail store locations. Implementing this technology in your retail shops will help you increase sales by personalizing the customer experience.
If you have never used beacon technology before, this is the perfect guide for you. I’ll show you how to leverage this technology to drive retail sales.
You’ll even learn how beacons can help generate revenue for ecommerce businesses without physical locations.
Encourage customers to download your mobile app
The first thing you need to do is get people to download your mobile application.
If your retail store doesn’t have an app, you’ll have to put your beacon technology strategy on hold until the app is built. Your app is a great way to increase sales by encouraging mobile spending.
I’ve spoken to many business owners who are hesitant to launch apps for their retail stores. They don’t think it’s necessary because their clientele would rather shop in person than online.
Sure, some people would rather see, touch, feel, and try on items in person as opposed to online, but the reality is they are still using mobile devices during the process.
In fact, 80% of people have used their mobile devices inside of physical stores to improve their shopping experiences.
This is how consumers are using their devices:
If you think your app needs improvement, you should read my guide on the top successful features of a mobile commerce app.
People won’t want to download your app unless it improves their shopping experience. But if your app does all of the things on the list above, it will be easier for you to get more downloads.
But you can’t just assume your customers will download the app simply because it’s available.
You need to promote it on all your distribution channels.
Share a link to the app store on your website. Talk about it on social media. Include a download link in your email campaigns.
Give your customers an incentive to download it, such as a coupon or discount off their next purchases.
Once the app is installed on their mobile devices, you’ll be able to use beacons to drive sales.
Monitor customer movement in your stores
If you have beacons set up throughout your retail store, you can track the way users shop.
It’s simple. When a customer who has your app walks past a beacon, the beacon transmits a signal.
Here’s a visual representation of the way this works:
As you can see, the example above ends with the customer receiving a targeted, personalized message.
But you need to make sure there are specific parameters set up before a message gets sent. Here’s what I mean.
Let’s say your retail store sells clothing.
A male customer who has your mobile app on his smartphone comes in to buy a new pair of jeans. But in order to get to the men’s jeans section, he needs to walk past the baby clothes and footwear.
If you have beacons installed in those locations of the store that automatically trigger a message about those departments, it’s ineffective. In fact, this strategy will probably backfire.
We know that 52% of app users find push notifications annoying and distracting.
Further, 46% of people will disable push notifications if they receive more than two from the same app in one week. And 32% of users will stop using an app altogether if they get six or more notifications a week.
Make sure your message is relevant and timely, which I’ll discuss in greater detail shortly.
You can send the user a message if they are spending long periods of time near a certain beacon.
For instance, if that shopper in the above example is spending 15 minutes in the men’s jeans section, it’s…
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