What Is Beacon Technology?

One of the latest developments in proximity marketing and location technology are beacons. Beacons are small, wireless transmitters that use Bluetooth to send signals to nearby smart devices. It connects and transmits information to smart devices making location-based searching and interaction easier and more accurate. It is becoming more and more popular, especially in the recent era in different industries such as Retail, Healthcare, Tourism, Education, Hospitality industry, and so on.

 

The Beacon Market Size report gives light on the key growth factors that are predicted to exist throughout the assessment period 2022-2029. The Global Beacon Market is expected to be worth USD 31.61 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 48.9% during the forecast period.

How Does Beacon Technology Work?

  • The beacon broadcasts information to the nearest Bluetooth device by sending a continuous radio signal.
  • Smartphones receive information via Bluetooth Smart and send it to backend systems to process further.
  • The backend systems acquire and process the information according to the data collected from the identification number.
  • A beacon-enabled retailer’s smart app sends that identification number to the cloud server with personalized offers or messages.
  • A personalized message or offer is delivered over the network using mobile applications.

Types of Beacons

There is a diverse range of beacons available for positioning systems of any size and complexity. They differ in size, battery life, use cases, and external factor resistance. The following are the most prevalent types of beacons:

  • Standard Beacon is smaller in size and looks like a router. It is mainly used for proximity solutions and indoor tracking
  • Portable/Small Beacon is more appears like a credit card or big chip. It is the best for asset tracking and proximity solutions.
  • USB Beacons are small, portable, and quick to deploy type. Beacons are used as a flash drive for asset tracking and proximity solutions.
  • Video Beacon devices are plugged into the back of a screen to deliver contextual visual information as well as for digital signage. For instance, a user approaches a display in a food joint and shows customized offers based on usage of the beacon-enabling app.
  • AI Beacon is a machine learning-driven device that can detect different movements and gestures.
  • Parent Beacon is carrying a bigger size like Wi-Fi routers and is used to track other beacons, gather data and store it in the cloud, and more.
  • Dedicated Beacons are devices resistant to exogenous factors (dust, water, shattering, antistatic, and UV rays) for indoor tracking and proximity solutions in hasty weather conditions.

Benefits of Beacon Technology for Businesses

  1. Enhanced Productivity
    The potential of beacon technology in business is promising since it helps enhance efficiency while lowering expenses. For instance, using beacons, office spaces may be made smart by enabling the autonomous initiation, trigger, and completion of certain processes without the need for human participation.
  2. Customer Engagement
    With the help of Beacon Technology, organizations or retail shops can have more insights into the actions of their customers. Furthermore, they can offer products that really attract the users and catch their attention. Moreover, it attempts to excite the attention of buyers in the product. Retailers will also acknowledge the campaigns’ success through this data collection.
  3. Segmented Database
    Consumer segmentation is a challenge that many businesses encounter. Businesses will have more information with multiple beacons to quickly arrange important perspectives and profiles of clients according to their preferences and priorities. It will be a useful tool for consumers while also boosting the company’s database.
  4. Enriched Customer Experience
    Organizations would be able to offer a highly fulfilling and enriching experience to customers with advanced Beacon technology. Also, businesses can pull consumers by offering more products that are contextualized and personalized for customer gratification.
    Customers can choose and shop for themselves, allowing them to gain valuable insight into their tastes and preferences in buying products. It can enhance their shopping experience and boost their purchases.
  5. Security Tracking
    Beacons also aid in the security of pricey equipment and efficiently assure asset tracking. By connecting beacons to critical equipment like museums, hospitals, and warehouses, the associated equipment might deliver real-time notifications to receivers. As a result, tracking the whereabouts of various valuable items to which sensor-based beacons are attached becomes significantly easier.
What is beacon Technology and how it's benefiting business?
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6 Use Cases of Beacon Technology

  1. Proximity Marketing
    Beacon technology has been a holy grail for eCommerce stores, brand stores, mom & pop shops, malls, restaurants, medical centers, etc. These enterprises target Blue Tooth in handheld devices connected over a network to send notifications on special offers, discounts, and deals when a device enters the vicinity of a store within a few meters. Ad agencies can integrate this into their existing mobile apps or create a standalone app if they wish. The power of beacons is actively complemented with cookies that help track customers’ preferences and interests and send targeted ads for maximizing conversion rates. It is more likely for the customer to purchase the shoes he has been eyeing as he is already near the store.
  2. Payments
    Payments have a critical role in the user experience journey. A popular way of deploying beacons into the payments process involves incorporating them into the payment terminal and enabling payments in Apple and Android payment apps. Moreover, the beacon-backed payment means is a useful way to track the demand in the supply chain and help perform critical business decisions. It also enables easier detection and prevention of fraudulent activity such as identity fraud, phishing, etc. through machine learning and big data technologies. Major devices with Google and Apple Pay can link via Bluetooth as well as Wi-Fi to perform the payments.
  3. Event Management and Tracking
    The events industry is another major field where a beacon comes in handy. Managing an event requires you to have access to certain information like the location of the attendees, stall or booth locations of brands to make announcements and give instructions, help people navigate through the venue, send them alerts on scheduled events, etc. Beacons can even be used in sending complementary content such as company profiles or details of upcoming events etc.

    – Registering and authenticating the attendees
    – Proximity marketing and sponsoring brands
    – Social Networking such as contact exchange, etc.
    – Exit Surveys

  4. Transportation (Navigation & Tracking)

    Transportation can benefit through beacon-powered apps in the following ways:

    – Informing passengers about the routes and schedule of a vehicle (Stops, shops nearby, etc.)

    – Managing ticket booking in a streamlined way.

    – Offer information about train or plane changes/delays, weather conditions, etc. This method is currently used in several international airports like Heathrow, New York’s JFK, and Frankfurt

  5. Hospitality – Site Visits and Guest Management

    The usage of the beacon is useful in closed areas such as hotels, bars, inns, casinos, and other places. In the hospitality industry, beacons help:

    – Offer guests a 24×7 virtual concierge

    – Easy check-in and check-out via apps

    – Quick information about amenities, vacancies, sites around, and other services

    – Secure the rooms by locking and unlocking doors via mobiles

    – Services through mobile apps table or room

    – Delivering news as well as entertainment content digitally

    For site visits like museums and monuments, beacons can help power self-guided tips through navigation and content-rich video, animations, as well as texts.

  6. Logistics & Fleet Management

    Tracking assets becomes easier with beacon technology, both fixed and mobile. Big warehouses leverage beacon technology to help identify the same assets and create a map of each through huge warehouses. The same happens in the parking lots. GPS is great for location detection for cargo on the move but tagging the cargo with beacon technology helps the staff to load and unload the shipments in a much easier way under closed spaces and warehouses.

Conclusion: The Future of Beacons

In addition to the exponential growth of technology itself, location-based marketing solutions are in high demand. We believe that it is worth investing in Beacons for your business needs. After all, Beacon devices are incredibly simple, cost-effective, and come with tools for managing the deployment process, so why not leverage them?

 

XDuce, being one of the leading application development service providers, assists enterprises and startups in developing secure, scalable, and user-friendly Beacon apps. XDuce provides Consulting, PoC Development, Beacon Application Development, Mobile Apps Development, IoT, and Wearables apps development services.

 

Please contact us, if you’re looking for smart Digital Transformation Solutions to transform your organization today.