iBeacons – Fad Or Trend? 23 slides on the use-cases of Apple's BLE – Bluetooth Low Energy – beacon technology that allows for the first time to precisely locate a person within pre-defined proximity of a sensor and to communicate with that person contextually. But where's the beef? NFC, QR-codes and WLAN tracking were promising that before and never caught on. The slide-deck provides an answer to that question by addressing the most important use-cases as well as dealing with privacy and technologies issues of the nascent technology.

1. technology for real world retail

2. your retail sales with a marketing utility that
enables you to effortlessly communicate with
customers as they discover and interact with—and
as you encourage them to discover and interact
with—your products in the real world
deployed using unobtrusive and broadly supported
mobile Bluetooth®
technology embeded within
inexpensive and practically invisible signal emitting
devices referred to as ‘beacons’
improve

3. every year, more and more people make their
purchasing decisions online
real world retail
is becoming
less important
to consumers

4. total retail visits in the US for the months
of November and December
Stores confront new world of reduced shopper traffic. Published by the Wall Street Journal, 2014 January 16. Data regarding retail visits was collected from 60,000
tracking devices installed at shopping malls and large retail stores in the US (source: ShopperTrak). Data regarding the opening of retail spaces was compiled from 54 of
the largest US markets (source: CoStar Group).
http://bit.ly/beacon-2014-01-16-001
amount of new retail space opened
in the US annually
40 400billion visits million square feet
0
10
20
30
0
100
200
300
43.8
million
17.6
billion
2010 2011 2012 2013 2001 2005 2009 2013

5. your opportunity to influence their decision is lost
consumers making
purchase decisions
online increasingly
complete their
purchase online

6. ecommerce as a percentage of US retail sales
The tipping point (ecommerce version). Published by Jeff Jordan, Partner, Andreessen Horowitz, 2014 January 14. Data collected by the US Census Bureau.
http://recode.net/2014/01/14/the-tipping-point-e-commerce-version/
20%
25%
0%
5%
10%
15%
2001
of all retail sales
media, sporting, and hobby goods
electronics and appliances
furniture and home furnishings
clothing and accessories
health and personal care
food and beverage
total retail ecommerce
2003 2005 2007 2009 2011

7. ecommerce deletes
opportunity
ecommerce takes away the opportunities created by a real world retail presence
• the potential for serendipity
• the convenience of proximity
• the influence of salespeople
• the persuasiveness of touch
• the immediacy of gratification

8. Giving customers a reason to rediscover your real world retail presence ensures that you keep all of the
opportunities of that presence. With beacon technology, you increase your marketing capacity within
the physical space surrounding your real world products or retail environments.
A beacon technology deployment consists of a mobile application in the relevant app stores, and a
series of inexpensive and practically invisible signal emitting devices referred to as ‘beacons’. When
customers who have your application installed on their devices are near, your beacons trigger
customizable notifications—alerting these customers to your presence, and giving them a reason to
enter the premises and try (or return to) your product.
But beacon technology is not just about increasing traffic—it’s also about improving your customers’
experience of your brand by creating more regular and more frequent and more personal relationships
with them. With a beacon technology deployment, you can individually identify customers, provide
information and purchase options for products on display or in a customer’s hands, personalize your
offers, compete for every purchase decision, and expedite every sale. All within the scope of your
mobile application and the signals emitting from your beacons.
beacon technology
gives it back and
improves upon it

9. • capture new customers and window shoppers by promoting a free mobile application and associating
use of the application with special offers or membership benefits
• notify customers of your presence when they are near your real world products or retail location
• identify customers individually and passively in order to monitor interest, direct salespeople, or
interact with welcoming messages and queries
• guide customers to the products they’re looking for with text, voice, video, photographs, or maps
• promote retail purchases in store by offering personalized coupons or discounts valid for the duration
of a customer’s particular visit
• provide assistance and information electronically, to the customer’s mobile device, while your product
is in the customer’s hands
• customize promotions to customer preferences so to increase the likelihood of your product being
sold
• compete for purchase decisions when customers are comparing your product to a competitive offer
• support contactless payment by making the checkout process available on your customers’ mobile
devices
• switch customers to online ordering in the event the product they’re looking for is out of stock, and
schedule a notification when the product is once again in stock at the same location
offering nearly
unlimited potential

11. features:
• size
• range
applications:
• proximity notifications
• guidance
• contextual information
• personalization
made possible by
simple features and
broad applicability

12. at least
20 millimetres1
at least
3 millimetres1
size
features of beacon technology
Beacon technology deployments are made possible by the placement of small,
battery powered Bluetooth®
signal emitting devices referred to as ‘beacons’.
Depending upon the design of the beacons you choose, and for the most part
relative to predictable battery life, the width and height of each beacon can
vary—with the smallest measuring just millimetres in both dimensions.
1. Actual size varies by manufacturer. These dimensions are the smallest that
we know of currently available for a beacon with a 1 year battery life.

13. 100 metres
range
features of beacon technology
A single Bluetooth®
signal can be detected at a range of up to 100 metres
depending upon the design of the signal emitting beacon, your customer’s mobile
device, physical obstructions, and radio interference in the 2.4 Ghz band.1
1. http://www.bluetooth.com/Pages/Fast-Facts.aspx

14. proximity
notifications
applications for beacon technology
A range may be defined around any particular beacon within which
customers who have your app are automatically notified.
Welcome to our shop!
Are you looking for
anything in particular?

15. guidance
applications for beacon technology

16. contextual
information
applications for beacon technology
IDID
product
or display
internet

17. personalization
applications for beacon technology
Hello Mary,
50% off
your special offers for
today are:
FREE
Hello George,
2 for 1
your special offers for
today are:
10% off
Hello Jane,
20% off
your special offers for
today are:
10% off
Using beacon technology, you can individualize your retail promotions to specific customers according to their
purchasing patterns and in-store history. With stored credit card information, your customers can skip the
checkout counter and make their purchase as soon as the product is in their hands.

18. building a mobile
beacon application
will help you achieve
new retail successes

19. beacon technology
is already installed in
a majority of smart
mobile devices
Beacon technology capitalizes upon the ubiquity of Bluetooth®
, the wireless standard built
into almost every mobile device in use today. It is a feature of the newer operating systems
installed in these devices.

20. worldwide support for beacon technology in consumer mobile devices (Mar 2014)
1. CNET News (Jun 2013) http://cnet.co/1ebIPjF
2. Apple (Mar 2014) https://developer.apple.com/support/appstore/
3. Telecoms.com (Jan 2014) http://bit.ly/1kDA2yv
4. Google (Mar 2014) http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/
2,000 total devices in use (millions)
0
500
1,000
1,500
Google AndroidApple iOS
version 7 (released Oct 2013)
earlier versions
version 4.4 (released Sep 2013)
earlier versions
support for beacon technology
no support
600million1
devices in use
with support for
beacon technology
82%2
1.9billion3
devices in use
with support for
beacon technology
2.5%4

21. alternative
technologies
aren’t as good
Other identification technologies are obstacles. Because it’s invisible, beacon technology is not.
RFID NFC QR codes

22. consumer adoption
and privacy
Technically, anybody who carries a smart mobile device
featuring Bluetooth®
wireless capability—and who updates
their device at least occassionally—has already adopted
beacon technology.
More practically, to get your customers to adopt beacon
technology specifically for your brand, you will need to give
them a reason to install your mobile application, and—in the
interest of providing them an experience that doesn’t
require your application to be open—allow it to display push
notifications.
Because beacon technology gives you the ability to
uniquely identify your customers and their physical location,
there are valid concerns regarding privacy that you will
need to address. However, any relationship requires some
level of reciprocity, and if you can reward your customers
for placing their trust in you it’s most likely that only very
few will have any concern about allowing themselves to
become known to you.
Bluetooth®
must be on
Customers must have Bluetooth®
turned on
for your beacons to have effect. The most
modern of the smart mobile operating
systems—including both iOS and Android—
give people the option of turning off
Bluetooth®
. This was done because of the
now false perception that Bluetooth®
is a
significant drain on battery life. Although on
by default, people who turn off Bluetooth®
will need to be reminded that it should be
kept on in order for them to receive the
benefit of interacting with your (and any
other) real world beacons. Push notifications
may be used to provide such reminders.

23. practical
considerations
Security
Beacons may be stolen. The signals emitting from
your beacons uniquely identify you and each of your
beacons. If a beacon is stolen and not immediately
removed from your system, your retail presence
could be misrepresented and your customers could
be made to be confused. The seriousness of this
depends on the services and functionality you
provide through your mobile beacon application.
Durability
Beacons are battery operated. The durability of any
particular beacon is directly related to the size of its
battery. Although most beacons currently on the
market are provided batteries sufficient to power the
device for not less than 1 year, these batteries are
not rechargeable, and it’s entirely possible that
malfunction or water damage could take any of your
beacons out of service without warning.
Programming
Each beacon—and each of your customers’ mobile
devices—broadcast a uniquely identifying number. As
many customers are likely to change devices or even
carry multiple devices, it’s necessary to maintain a
database using intelligence built into your mobile
beacon application that can associate multiple IDs to
a single customer. This is most easily achieved by
providing customers with personal accounts and
giving them a reason to not create more than one.

24. start your beacon
technology project
by contacting me
Stefan Wolpers
stefan@wolpers.com
+49 171 303 0321