One of the early uses of iBeacons was in Major League Baseball (MLB) for helping people to find their seats in stadiums.
With the recent announcement by Hillshire that iBeacons showed at 20X increase in purchase intent (intent to purchase) products it really shows that iBecons will change retail. It will give the retailers the motivation to adopt the technology as well as the great features that will change shopping experiences. It has already been adopted by Macy’s and adopted in various forms by other stores.
iBeacons are a technology that solve the problem of knowing exactly where a user is in a store. It is fully compatible with iPhone and Android phones and is already supported in 200 million devices.
The video below shows a good example of iBeacons in use:
Using iBeacon a user can get notifications of sales and coupons based on where they are in the store and what items they are near. They can also find out more information about products such as where a piece of clothing was made for example by holding up their phone near the iBeacon.
It will change retail and allow things like helping people find what they need quicker, get more information about a product including if it is on sale.
But more than that it is a way for the retailer to speak directly about a customer about a particular item. For example to show recipes that are used with this type of food. To make the shopping experience more interactive then it has been in recent memory.
Related link:
Apple’s iBeacon Is Gaining Momentum
