Various Applications Leveraging the Power of Beacons

Beacons can be used indoors or outdoors as an effective positioning and transmitting device. It is a system that stores the applicable information and triggers transmitters to send the information to compatible devices and smartphones nearby or within the precise range. It is developed to transform customers’ experiences by offering a new dimension to interaction and communication.

There will be more buzzwords, but the core of a beacon is a small-sized radio that sends out a constant repeating stream of bits to everyone within earshot. Although it might seem like a limitation, a shorter range is a strength for beacons. Read this blog to learn more about the benefits of beacon technology, various beacon based solutions and business applications.

Are you not aware of the potential of beacons? Well, read the following stat to understand the dominance of beacons, or in other words, BLE technology.

According to ABI Research, where beacons did not even emerge in the year 2015, it is now predicted that the overall Bluetooth LE beacon market will break 500 million units by 2021.

The rise of iBeacon app, beacon technology market, or BLE-based applications across various industries over the last 5 years has been remarkable. Let us understand the basics of beacon based solutions and ibeacon app development services.

What is Beacon?

Beacon, a low energy-consuming device, contains a low-frequency chip that sends and receives the signals. It then acts accordingly and displays programmed content on the devices that are in the range of beacons. It uses Bluetooth 4.0 BLE technology and has a searching range of up to 50 m. Beacons come in various shapes and sizes and can be customized too. Coin-sized Beacon can be easily placed indoors, and users can readily detect its UUID signal, RSSI signal, and battery life signal with smartphones.

The main objective of using in store beacon technology is to revolutionize customers’ experience by bringing an all-new dimension of interaction and communication.

How do Beacons work?

Beacons act as an indoor or outdoor positioning and transmitting system. It acts as a system where the relevant information is stored and triggers the transmitters to shoot the information to nearby or in-range beacon-enabled and compatible devices, usually smartphones. Beacon devices work well in the absence of Wi-Fi and Internet as Beacon-ready devices notify the users about any product from some distance even if there is no network inside the premises.

Various Beacon-based Business Applications

Retail

According to the statistics, beacon-triggered offers drive 60% more customer engagement in-store. Beacons help the business to attach to a customer at multiple points of sales.

We see the standard hoardings that decision us out for a legit discount that a store offers. It sure attracts the buyers. But what about the people that are working on their smartphones or are too busy to raise the gaze? For such people, beacon-based solutions and beacon technology in retail convince a whole new thanks to attracting them towards your availed offers. A notification on their cell phones through a mobile application can make them look from the phone activity and divert their attention to your business.

Moreover, the banners often tend to go off the walls after a short time which makes them non-visible for people passing by. It, however, occupies unnecessary space which may be utilized for displaying the products in your store.

Retail chains and supermarkets like Carrefour, Woolworths, Tesco, and a lot more are using beacon-powered proximity marketing campaigns to serve their customers. The worth of in-store retail sales influenced by beacon-triggered messages within the USA in 2015 and 2016 was $4.1 billion. Staggering, isn’t it?

Check out these couple of use cases of what beacons could do:

• Sending Push Notifications to the passers-by for availing their offers or for brand spanking new arrivals and more.
• Triggering a message to a consumer that’s in-store to select up a web or mobile order.
• Sending mobile coupons while within the proximity.

Check-in at the airport made easy

Long lines for check-in have always troubled frequent flyers. This also has created chaos for the airport management, especially on the days of flight delays. Few of the airports provide good hospitality in such situations but they fail to satisfy the needs of the commuters at all times which could possibly enhance their traveling experience.

Few of the main airports have leveraged beacon-based solutions to offer optimum customer experience to the passengers. Such solutions helped them with new strategies for customer retention and were empowered to get near the passengers digitally. This opened up new possibilities for the airport authorities to know the needs of the passengers.

Virgin Atlantic leveraged iBeacons along with software and mobile application to send its Heathrow passenger’s interactive notifications, which may facilitate the passengers for straightforward check-in without making them wait within the long queue.

Few of the features that beacon-based solutions are:

• Guiding passengers along common navigation paths like conveyance points, check-in counters, immigration, boarding/arrival gates, and baggage claim areas.
• Sending real-time notifications about flight schedules, baggage claims, and boarding gates.
• Allow passengers to simply search any section, store, or restaurant at the airport with only one click.
• Sending personalized welcome messages to passengers once they reach the airport lounge.
• Helping in precise staff allocation with accordance to the gang at the terminal.

Tourism

People have observed a manual at the front desk that asks them to write down down their contact details for sending messages about new offers or services in the future. Not every individual would be willing to write down down their personal details. Beacon-based solutions eliminate this by a secure method to stay a diary of the buyers.

Beacons help unguided tourists with ease. Philips Museum in the Netherlands has implemented a beacon-based solution to reinforce interactivity. The attractions are often embedded with beacon devices to research the footfalls and also to notify the audience about the place, history, and site.

Some of the core features that a beacon-based solution offers to cater to the audience for far better customer satisfaction are:

• Alerting the tourists about the information on the history of the place.
• Triggering messages about the transportation schedules, weather updates, and public services in multiple languages.
• Analyzing the height hour and top-performing art or place to allocate the duties of varied departments accordingly.

Hospitality

The hospitality industry faces an equivalent difficulty like the airports during vacations. An excessive amount of crowd at the check-in counter creates chaos for the management. At times, the delivery of laundry and food ordered from the associated restaurants are delayed due to the push.

Just like the retail stores, hotels and restaurants can use beacons to notify their customer about any ongoing offers or about the special offering for upselling or cross-selling. They will also analyze the information about their customer for building better relationships and a happy customer base.

Marriott hotels implanted beacons to urge feedback on their services in real-time and understand and serve their customers better. Starwood Hotels & Resorts has tested beacon-based solutions in two of its properties. The guests will receive a virtual key on their smartphone through a mobile application that permits them to unlock their room’s door by tapping a button.

A few of the advantages to rendering from the beacon-based solutions and ibeacon development are:

• Communicating route maps to key-less entry,
• Real-time feedback sharing.
• Sending a ‘check-in’ push notification on the hotel app for a digital check-in.
• Providing access to the in-room controls through a mobile app like AC, TV, lights, etc.

Final Say…

Industries like medical, transport, education, banking, etc. can also use it as an effective transmission tool. Recently, iBeacon technology has become part of a new SPT (Smart Public Transport) project in Bucharest. Big stadiums, museums, art galleries, etc. public places can also take benefits of this amazing technology.

As conclusive remarks, it is fair to mention that iBeacon technology is one of the most useful technological advancements. It can be seamlessly used without concerns about the size, space, and type of any industry. You may go for customized iBeacons app development and send various offers and information to targeted customers in ‘real-time’.

Integration of iBeacon SDK

A team of IoT engineers and mobile app developers at IndiaNIC will help you integrate iBeacon SDK into your existing or new system.

Our experts will help you build a web-based admin from where you can create, edit, or manage the content you wish to broadcast through iBeacons. It will also help you in managing and sending push notifications as well as various analytics (behavioral, operational, etc.) for making future strategies in marketing and inventory management.

Get in touch with our team if you wish to discuss a similar project idea.

FAQs on Applications Leveraging the Power of Beacons