New things always have a hype as they promise improvements to the society and the people living around. One thing that made a huge turnover in 2015 was the beacon devices. They started playing a very vital role in the improvement of the Information Technology (IT) infrastructure and also in the enlargement of business ideas. Even though Apple Inc. launched their first beacon device in 2013, the devices took control of many companies only in late 2014 and the whole of 2015. A couple of months back Google launched its very own beacons named as Eddystone after the name of a British lighthouse. It shows many improvements like a separate module to monitor the battery status of the beacon device. Still the beacons are getting stabilized, and many companies and institutions have started using it as they unleash multiple opportunities and will be the best in the Internet of Things (IoT) lineup.
A beacon is a small device that operates on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology. It transmits information in the form of small packets to the nearby Bluetooth enable devices. The information can be anything like a customized message to the buyers about discounted offers. A message is triggered only when a Bluetooth enabled Smartphone hits in the hotspot of the beacon. There are two major versions of beacons namely iBeacon from the tech giant, Apple Inc. and Eddystone from the search giant, Google. You can have a look at the difference between the two in our previous article, “iBeacon Vs Eddystone: Transmission war between the small yet powerful devices”
Many major business and even small retailers have started using beacons and apps for their business as the small devices promised a compiled return on investment (ROI). Enterprises starting from McDonalds to Virgin Airlines are using beacons actually to help their customers benefit from their services. The cost to implement beacons devices and software are not much as the beacon device cost falls around $20 to $40. Studies suggest that implementation matching best practices is sure to turn high ROI. Beacons help is recording customer activities with which the business can target customers with customized offers.
As stated earlier, beacons are becoming a promising device as they help retailers and other industries to achieve great ROI. In the retail industry, the offline payment with the assistance of beacons turned the people thought about mobile payments. Since more than 85% of the younger generation use Smartphone, retailers industry started targeting those youngsters. They started using the beacon apps inside the store to shop the desired products with discounted rates.
The role of beacons in retailer industry is vital and even a minute mistake in the mobile application might result in a massive data loss. Here are few points on why you should hire a professional beacon apps development company to develop a beacon mobile app for your retailer industry.