Shopping app Shopkick has teamed up with Macy's to deliver the first retail-based iBeacons, allowing customers to find location-specific deals, discounts, and recommendations in the Shopkick app while in a participating Macy's store, located in Herald Square, New York and Union Square, San Francisco.
Apple's iBeacon microlocation APIs, first introduced at WWDC, are designed to access location data through the Bluetooth Low Energy profile on iOS devices, interacting with physical transmitters.
As shoppers enter Macy's, shopBeacon can remind those who've opted in to open their shopkick app, and in the future, also deliver personalized value with department-level granularity. Building on Apple's iBeacon, an iOS 7 Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) mobile protocol, shopBeacon adds encrypted signals to protect retailers and consumers, and complements it with shop kick's other proprietary technologies for added accuracy and scale.
Shopkick's shopBeacons will welcome shoppers into a store when they enter, offering targeted deals and recommendations as customers peruse items in the store. The app does not need to be open for customers to receive the in-store alerts, and the recommendations are also tied into at-home browsing.
It can also tie at-home browsing behavior to in-store benefit; if the customer "likes" a specific product online, if they so choose, shopBeacon can remind them when they enter the store that Macy's sells it. Even better, in the future it can also deliver department-specific offers throughout the store – so favorite boots show up at the most useful time: in the shoe department.
iBeacon technology first appeared earlier this year, when Major League Baseball announced plans to begin incorporating Apple's iBeacon APIs into its MLB.com At the Ballpark app to create interactive experiences within stadiums in the near future.
Apple is also said to be incorporating iBeacon technology into its own Apple Store app and retail stores, providing customers with enhanced location-based product information and in-store services.
The Shopkick app and Macy's new shopBeacon technology is set to go live in a few weeks following a closed beta testing period.
Top Rated Comments
Minority Report was not supposed to be our blueprint for the future
Star Trek was...
The opportunities for abuse are amazing.
As if Macy's doesn't have enough morons stopped in the middle of the aisle looking at their phones.
Seems more like Star Wars these days, with all the bad acting and lack of plot.Minority Report was not supposed to be our blueprint for the future
Star Trek was...
This will actually be really useful, sure there may be some privacy concerns etc.. but generally I am far to small in a big world for my data to negatively impact me if large organisations obtain it...
In terms of privacy, no one is bigger than you in this big world. This is the misconception that people have. It's like saying I'm not going to vote because my one vote won't make a difference. But guess what, your one vote is just as important as everyone else's vote. No one person's vote is more important than yours. The same goes for your privacy and information that companies can get. Why would they care about someone else more than you?