Many types of establishment taking interest in beacon technology and using them for optimization of their current operations and giving exceptional user experience to their customers.
People start knowing about the beacon technology as a next big thing when Apple first launched in the year of 2013 as “ibeacons” but it starts taking momentum very slowly and from the year 2016 it becomes more popular in the retail industry and now it is in practice and many businesses using it in different business scenarios. In 2016, beacons are driving enhancement in retail sales for around 44 billion dollars and more and more companies are diving to get this technology in their business. Ranging from the retail industry, hospitality, food establishment, manufacturing business, payments, etc. Each one of them taking benefits from the adoption of beacon technology.
By seeing the popularity and usage of ibeacons by Apple. Google founded another beacon protocol called Eddystone which works similar but in a different way than ibeacons. iBeacons needs an app installed in the smartphone to take action which is precoded in the app on detection of the event whereas Eddystone has no such restriction it works over web protocol and can broadcast URL based push notifications on just detecting the smartphone which has Bluetooth and its location ON.
What is beacon technology? Some basics need to understand how it works.
Beacon is a button like chip which can be installed or manufactured into any type of physical hardware like a sticker, wall mount batch, silicone button, wearable, hanger attachment, etc. It has a unique identifier which helps system to know its location, name, etc. It tracks the smartphone when any phone comes in the range of it or exit from its range. How far it is from the actual beacon and what action needs to be done as precoded in the system on detection of the beacon signals. It’s a mini-broadcaster which can broadcast signals up to 100 or more meters. Some beacons are powered through USB but generally, all are powered through button cells which has a longer life due to the usage of low energy of Bluetooth technology which recently equipped in all smartphones.
Best Use Cases of Eddystone beacon technology mobile app development.
- Museums / Exhibitions: Eddystone beacons can be installed at each artifact and as soon as smartphone user passes through the artifact, they get the notification on their phone which contains a URL to show information about the details of that particular artifacts. By this, we can get the stats like which artifact get most visitors stays, how many users pass through it, how many users take interest in that, which artifact more visited etc.
- The personal broadcast device at seminars & conferences: Users can configure an Eddystone beacon with their personal business information as a visiting card. Where they go to seminars and conferences each user in the room gets their marketing information including visiting cart info on their smartphones. This will be used as a Business 2 business networking tool.
- Instant offer tool: In a restaurant, retail showroom, or any crowded store. Business can run an instant marketing campaign for a particular time for all in-house customers. These instant & ad-hock offers to boost the business sales by taking advantage of impulse buying of the customers.
- Social Networking: Eddystone Beacons can be installed at bars, clubs, casinos etc that send notifications to other app users who match their interest and is in the same location as they are. Other users can accept the request and can start further communication based on their mutual interest.
- Restaurants: Eddystone beacons can be placed at different locations of the restaurant. When a customer comes for a dining they can simply switch on their Bluetooth and get a link to digital food menu to select their favorite food and make the payments when they finish their meal.
- Indoor Locations: Multiple Eddystone beacons will be placed inside any big establishment like event places, etc which helps to draft an indoor mapping of the place where a customer can navigate through the mobile app similar to Google navigation for outdoors.
Conclusion.
Google laying down the Eddystone beacon plans for 2016 states that Google’s core premise is that smartphone users should be able to walk up to any ‘smart’ physical object like a vending machine, a toy, a poster, a bus stop or a rental car and interact with it easily without downloading any particular app for the purpose. The greatest challenge now, in front of Beacon manufacturers and marketer ’s is to explore and exploit the more advanced use cases of beacons using the possibilities offered by the cross-platform and open format of Eddystone beacons.
If you have some sort of new idea to take this technology to next level, You can reach Fablian, An Eddystone beacon mobile app development company India.