One worry over the use of iBeacons in retail stores was the possibility that customers might weary of being bombarded with notifications while browsing through their local department of grocery store. However, it appears that hasn’t been the case, as inMarket, the company installing iBeacons in stores around the U.S. says app and ad engagement has skyrocketed since rolling out the platform.
inMarket, via 9to5Mac:
“Successful geofencing improves the consumer experience while increasing engagement value for brands. With today’s data release, we now have proof that consumers appreciate this value in a measurable way: They’re more likely to keep apps that use beacon messaging, and they’re more likely to interact with advertised products in-store thanks to beacons,” said Todd Dipaola, CEO of inMarket. “When we launched M2M in January, we set out to improve the shopping experience for brands, retailers and consumers. M2M is the first platform to showcase these exciting improvements at scale.”
inMarket iBeacons push notifications to a number of partner apps, including Conde Nast’s Epicurious and Gannet’s Key Ring. Since iBeacons were first enabled, inMarket says interactions with advertised products increased by 19x, that’s a huge increase in user interaction with advertised products, thanks to the location-aware iBeacons.
Consumers apparently feel the info supplied by the iBeacon/apps combo is useful when presented at the ideal time. inMarket also notes that app engagement is also way up since the iBeacon rollout, with app usage increasing at a 16.5x rate for users who received a iBeacon triggered message, versus those who did not.
Also of note, inMarket says user receiving an iBeacon notification are 6.4x more likely to keep an app on their phone. Good news for retailers.
inMarket is currently in over 200 stores including Safeway and Giant Eagle locations and expanding into new locations in New York, Boston, and Miami.
