How Proximity Marketing Solutions are helping Shopping Malls to grow their business & revenue ?

Henote Technologies
Sep 6, 2018 · 8 min read

Beacon Technology for Shopping Malls — Boosting Business with Proximity Marketing Solutions

Modern retailers should be indebted to Austrian architect Victor Gruen for designing the first, completely enclosed, climate-controlled retail space, thereby introducing the concept of contemporary shopping malls. Victor’s Southdale Centre in Edina was the first to gather numerous top-tier retail establishments under one roof and is considered the forerunner of modern mall motifs.

The mall culture has become a big business. Shopping malls have evolved with time and have now become vibrant centers for small retail outlets, entertainment venues, and restaurants. They have also altered the consumers’ buying behavior and shopping orientations. And by coupling shopping malls with modern marketing solutions, retailers are inching their way towards providing the ultimate shopping experience to customers.

Talking of modern marketing solutions, one that has created a worldwide buzz is proximity marketing through beacon technology.

Ever since Apple introduced Bluetooth beacons to the market back in 2013, big and small retail businesses have tried to leverage on this hi-tech marketing technique to boost their business. The growing popularity of proximity marketing solutions offers a promising future for brick-and-mortar retailers, enabling them to provide well-tailored shopping experiences to customers. Adding to that, it also provides retail business owners with the competitive edge they need, as the world of ‘bricks’ and ‘clicks’ collide.

BEACONS: What They Are and How They Work

Beacons are small battery-powered devices that employ Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), a power-efficient Bluetooth technology, to transmit messages or prompts directly to a smartphone or tablet. Beacons are roughly the size of a standard Wi-Fi router and by using proximity technology, they trigger actions set in advance to deliver informational, contextual, and personalized experiences.

With the help of Beacon technology, mobile apps listen for signals from beacons and act accordingly. What makes the process even easier is that the app doesn’t have to be running to be alerted by the beacon signal. When a mobile user is in the vicinity of a Beacon system, a coded message is directed to their mobile device.

This coded message, received in the form of a notification, can only be viewed with a mobile app (brand mobile app or third-party app). The mobile app employed is basically an application that supports beacon technology and is installed on a mobile operating system of the user.

Hence, any shopping mall willing to use beacon technology for proximity marketing will need the following -

  • At least one beacon device
  • A mobile app (could be a third-party app)
  • The mobile user’s permission

Beacon-based opportunities for Shopping Malls

Retailers are experiencing one of the most competitive environments in decades. And it is evident that the shopping malls that can deliver the most exciting and attentive services are the ones that will thrive. As such, business owners are leveraging proximity solutions and beacon transmitters to establish real-time communication with customers. Proximity marketing, done with the help of Beacon devices, is the future of mobile marketing.

Following are a few Beacon-based opportunities that can help boost the shopping mall business.

Location-based campaigns

Location-based targeting is a major opportunity for shopping malls to enhance shopper engagement and to drive sales. Beacons can elicit location-based notifications in specific apps on customers’ phones. These notifications are personalized and inform customers about special promotions, discounts or new products available within the store where the beacons are placed. Location-based campaigns can be used effectively by retail establishments in shopping malls. They can use it to prompt customers to visit a nearby store, send welcome messages as they enter a store, and offer discounts or special coupons to encourage them to come back.

Local and personalized advertising

Beacons have created new, lucrative opportunities for retailers across the globe. What banners and hand-distributed brochures did in traditional marketing, proximity marketing has provided a way to do the same with more personalized and situation-dependent messages. And text messages are not the only thing that can be sent via beacon technology. Eye-catching multimedia advertising messages, special offers or coupons, and even guided tours of the store can be sent to the customers as soon as they enter the store.

Data collection

Beacons can help gather important statistics about users’ preferences and actions as a result of interacting with the mobile apps used by customers wandering within their radius. This data has proven to be a helpful source of information which can be used to re-target customers with even more personalized campaigns.

Collaborating with App Owners

One major Beacon-based opportunity for retailers is the collaboration with developers and app owners. Retailers could enable app owners to have free access to their beacons so as to escalate foot traffic to their store. For instance, food and dieting apps could notify users when they are within the range of a specific beacon to inspire them to enter the store and purchase a product as per their diet plan.

What Beacon Technology in Retail Looks Like

Leading supermarket businesses Walmart, Target, Amazon Go, and so many more have run successful proximity marketing campaigns to prove its amazing benefits for retailers and shopping centers.

Walmart’s unique iBeacon trial in association with GE was one such example. GE produced light bulbs that also house beacons. These light bulbs were used to send push notifications of special offers and discounts to customers inside the Walmart’s premises. Not only did these LED help the retail giant to notify customers but also eliminated the need for buying separate beacon-related hardware.

Fashion and housewares retailer, Urban Outfitters, was one of earliest to try their hands on proximity marketing after Apple’s rollout of iBeacon. As a popular name with millennial shoppers, a segment of the human population that is constantly looking at their smartphones, Urban Outfitters fixated on providing the best in-store experiences rather than using the platform for aggressively advertising promotions. Using their loyalty programs to offers rewards and access to in-store events, beacons were effectively used in three specific areas of the store — the entry point, trial rooms, and the checkout lines.

Another department store that realized the benefits of incorporating beacon technology into its marketing strategy is Target. In its trial phase, Target launched beacons in 50 locations across the US. Whenever a customer would arrive in the vicinity of a beacon, he/she would be prompted to “opt in” to receive their push notifications. Target also assured customers that they would receive only two notifications per shopping trip so as to avoid bothering or overwhelming customers with constant push notifications.

After heading the e-commerce leaderboard for quite some time now, Amazon too launched its own brick and mortar store in Seattle this January. Amazon Go is its very own mini market stocked with food and technology. The store uses state of the art tech innovations such as the latest cameras, beacons and various other proximity sensors to provide customers an exotic shopping experience. What is even amazing is that the store has no checkout points. Proximity marketing, using beacon technology, is used to track the commodities being picked up by customers.

These shopping malls retailers have set the benchmark for retailer across the world. Now, brands like Nike and Walmart are remodeling their marketing strategies to compete with the new Amazon Go stores!

Boosting the Shopping Mall Business

Proximity marketing, with the help of beacon technology, is a boon for retailers and shopping mall owners. It has provided new opportunities for shopping centers to enhance customer engagement as well as build revenue through the mobile channel. Since the retail ecosystem is constantly evolving and the market growing fiercer, understanding customer buying behavior and using relevant and contextual communications to engage with them has become important in running a successful business.

The question, however, is that what makes proximity marketing and beacon technology an optimum solutions for shopping malls in running a profitable business?

Let’s begin by talking about how beacons help gain a better understanding of customer preferences and habits. By setting up beacons to track footfalls, business owners can get an idea about the sections of the mall that attract the most footfall and those that are failing to draw customers. Getting answers to questions like how many app users that shopped at specific stores, how much time did they spend at the mall, and whether they enjoyed their shopping experience or not, can help mall owners build up a rich customer profile. This data can further be employed to target customers with personalized product endorsements and influence them to visit again. Business owners can also make well-informed decisions and adopted marketing techniques to increase sales and promote customer loyalty.

Proximity-based engagement enables malls to send personalized app engagement based on user preferences and their proximity to the points of interest. Sending in-app ad push notifications about deals, discounts, newly launched products, and store openings helps retailers literally place their offers in the customers’ hands. Proximity-based engagement is real-time, and mall owners can build a strong relationship with customers with this innovative approach.

Apart from improving direct revenues, proximity marketing solutions also help in building additional revenues for the shopping mall. By offering to rent their beacon technology to existing retail leaseholders, mall owners can not only benefit from monthly revenues but also be in charge of the proximity data gathered in the process. They can further resell the obtained customer data to advertising networks at a premium.

Proximity marketing is a beacon of hope for shopping malls. By giving them an unparalleled opportunity to streamline shopper experience and increase customer loyalty, beacons are helping drive traffic and assisting brands in exploring new advertising revenue opportunities. This single piece of technology is a promise of a better future for both buyers and sellers.

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Originally Published at www.henote.com

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