Commentary
60% of Shoppers Welcome Beacons, 30% Redeem Offers
- by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, November 25, 2014
Shoppers who receive beacon-triggered messages
appear to be OK with getting them.
And in-store beacon campaigns also are impacting shopper behavior, based on a new analysis of tens of thousands of beacon-triggered interactions at a number of retailers.
More than half (60%) of enabled shoppers open and engage with beacon-triggered content, according to the analysis by Swirl Networks. Almost a third (30%) of shoppers redeem beacon-triggered offers at the point of purchase.
The data was derived over a three-month period from the total number of opted-in consumers who had an app that could be beacon-triggered and had Bluetooth turned on.
The consumers shopped at U.S. and Canadian stores with Swirl beacons installed, including Lord & Taylor, Hudson’s Bay, Timberland, Urban Outfitters, Alex & Ani and Kenneth Cole.
It also appears that shoppers at these stores are willing to accept more than one beacon-triggered message per shopping trip. Swirl found that shoppers viewed an average of 2.5 pages of content per shopping trip.
At Lord & Taylor, for example, shoppers entering the store receive a welcome message and then receive various full-page mobile messages as they enter certain departments or walk near certain products.
At the recent MediaPost IoT: beacons conference, a Lord & Taylor executive said the retailer has learned that limiting the number of messages per shopper to three seemed to be optimum.
Separately from the data analysis, Swirl created a survey questionnaire and received responses from 307 shoppers who received beacon-triggered content. The survey results showed:
- 73% -- Beacon-triggered content and offers increased likelihood to purchase during store visit
- 61% -- Would do more holiday shopping at stores that delivered mobile content and offers while they shop
- 61% -- Would visit a store with beacon marketing campaigns more often
- 60% -- Would buy more as a result of receiving beacon-triggered marketing messages
Though beaconing is still in its infancy, early results from numerous trials are showing positive and measurable results.
As is the case with millions of consumers, the beacons are getting ready for the holiday shopping wave.
Chuck Martin is Editor of the AI & IoT Daily at MediaPost and writes the daily Connected Thinking column. He is a NY Times Business bestselling author and his latest book is “Digital Transformation 3.0” (The New Business-to-Consumer Connections of The Internet of Things.) He is CEO of Net Future Institute and a frequent keynote speaker internationally. Follow him on Twitter @chuckmartin and contact him at Chuck@MediaPost.com.
C- did retailer give customer a heads up? Pave the way for engagement or wing it? Are all case studies proprietary app based? Thanks
Happy Thanksgiving!
The research was anonymous and in the aggregate,Brian. Different retailers use different apps they select for their beaconing, Hope that helps.
"The data was derived over a three-month period from the total number of opted-in consumers who had an app that could be beacon-triggered and had Bluetooth turned on."
What was the sample size? What apps work with Swirl beacons, and how many people use those apps?
As stated in the column, tens of thousands of interactions, Peter. The app users are in the millions, You can search previous MobileShopTalk columns detailing them.
Any grocery store retailers and results from the study?
Not included in this particular study, Bob. There was different one including some grocery stores that I wrote about here recently.
Notice the power of opt-in, app-based campaigns with relevant content. Apps have completely changed location-based advertising both with significant user opt-in and results tracking. Thanks for posting this.
You are most welcome, JA. And that is likely to increase even more, with the value proposition in apps increasing over time.