POTENTIALS OF BEACON TECHNOLOGY IN INDIA – ATTRACTING SHOPPERS WITH BEACON TECHNOLOGY

Beacons are battery-operated devices that transmit Bluetooth signals to nearby smartphones. The technology success of beacon is due to increasing smartphone users. India has huge potential to adopt this technology due to the presence of its higher number of smartphone users.

The content of retail beacon can reach to customers who have Bluetooth enabled and with right retail apps downloaded in their mobile. While the Bluetooth device is on, and the mobile is in the broadcasting distance of a beacon, the app can receive a beacons unique id. It doesn’t track the mobile phone but will only send signal from one point to another. Such shoppers can be given additional incentives with coupon or rewards to purchase such selected products.

According to the Global Market Research, global beacon technology market will surpass $15.3 billion by 2023, which is $1.05 billion in the year 2019 with a CAGR of 95.3% in the forecasting period. The higher penetration of smartphones around the world will be the vital factor behind such expected growth. The healthcare segments anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 100% from 2019-2023. Also, the Apple’s iBeacon will account for more than 50% market share by the year 2024, owing to large-scale early adoption of the platform. Apple was the first company to introduce a beacon standard called iBeacon in the year 2013. It has received rapid adoption during the past five years thereafter.
Google’s Eddystone is largest player in the industry which projected to have high growth between 2017 and 2024. Such expected growth is mostly due to extensive android user-base and the company’s consistent upgradation of the platform.

Through beacon technology retailers can gather more reliable information on how and where the customer is moving throughout the shop. They can further use this data to improve their product listing and in store layout. Ultimately this data could help retailers to tailor future Marketing and Business Promotion campaigns and boost in store conversions.