• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, February 10, 2015

While beacons are popping up in many different industries and locations, the most significant impact this year likely will be in retail.

While still a small percentage of the overall numbers, $4.1 billion worth of in-store sales for the top 100 retailers will be influenced by beacon-triggered messages this year, based on a new report.

That’s less than a tenth of a percent of total store sales but will grow substantially next year, according to The Beacons Report by research firm BI Intelligence.

Next year, beacon-triggered messages will influence about $44 billion in retail sales, according to the report.

While research around other areas of mobile commerce, such as payments, mobile wallets and overall mobile sales is plentiful, research on beaconing is still in its infancy.

That’s partly because beaconing, so far, has been just getting off the ground with many trials in many locations and partly because no one wants to share any information about the scope of their beacon implementations.

So the beacon forecast may ultimately be overshadowed by a massive beacon implementation at a major retailer, which could cause many others to follow.

But for now, the projections of beacons at retail are relatively low.

One of the reasons the number may seem low is the many hurdles a marketer has to go through to get a consumer to interact.

For example, this forecast takes into account the rate of beacon adoption among retailers, the number of shoppers who have Bluetooth low energy compatible phones, the number who have Bluetooth turned on, the number of shoppers with a beacon-friendly app, the number of people who opt in to push messaging and the number of people who actually open and engage with beacon-triggered content.

The main drivers of beacon adoption by consumers will be coupons, innovative loyalty programs and personalize messaging, according to the report.

This and many other topics around beacons will be discussed in the course of the day today, at the MediaPost IoT: Beacons Conference being held in Chicago and being streamed live.

If you’re not coming, we hope you get a chance to tune in.