iBeacons are on the minds of many technologically minded marketeers at the moment – but mainly because it’s difficult to work out what to do with them.
Food retailer Eat is piloting them in the UK and now Walgreens, the US drugstore group that tied up with Boots in 2012, is running a trial in 10 of its Duane Reade pharmacies in New York.
iBeacons are being used as part of a Duane Reade programme that allows shoppers to redeem coupons in-store on their phones. The retailer hopes the iBeacon service, which uses Bluetooth to communicate with phones automatically without the shopper having to turn on any apps or services, will mean consumers can be sent vouchers more seamlessly. So there’s no risk of them leaving them at home, and they are more likely to spend.
Walgreens is the second US retailer, after Macy’s, whose iBeacons trials have become public knowledge - US retailers seem to be edging ahead of their UK counterparts in this area.
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