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30 l New-Tech Magazine Europe
luetooth-enabled smartphones
and tablets are now the
constant companions ofmany shoppers,
including those that shop regularly in
retail malls. As it’s now possible to
track shoppers within malls and within
individual stores using Bluetooth
electronic beacons, this has created
a golden opportunity for retailers to
deliver sales messages – advertising
to them when they’re most likely to be
responsive. As one provider of this new
shopping technology words its own
sales pitch: “Target your customers
with personalized recommendations
- in real-time, at the perfect moment
to encourage purchase.” This is one
of the most exciting of several new
location-based services enabled by the
latest Bluetooth technology and the
market for such services is expected
to grow from $8.12 billion in 2014 to
nearly $40 billion by 2019, according
to analyst MarketsandMarkets. Other
services include indoor navigation,
asset tracking and mobile payments.
If they decide to engage with the
technology, consumers can be
confident that they don’t miss a
shopping opportunity. And they can
choose whether to have their phones
switched on, as well as whether to
run the apps that respond to the
electronic messages retailers push
at them. Consumers must have
Bluetooth switched on and must allow
“push’ messages, so they remain in
control. The retailers benefit from
a low cost, context-aware way to
deliver sales offers. Perhaps more
importantly, they are able to gather
and analyze data about customer
journeys - physical journeys through
their stores and commercial journeys
that capture buying habits. When that
data becomes available for thousands
of customers, the information
becomes very powerful - this is the
essence of “big data”.
So what’s the technology that
underpins this revolution? In almost
every instance, it’s Bluetooth Low
Energy, often referred to as “Bluetooth
Smart”. The same technology is also
found in proximity tags that simply
send an alert to your smartphone or
other receiver when you come within
range.
Bluetooth Smart - why it’s the smart
choice for beacons
Bluetooth has been with us for a few
decades now but what is now called
“Classic Bluetooth” is too power-
hungry for beacon applications, which
need to operate for months, if not
years, on a single coin cell battery if
they are to offer the required “place
and forget” deployment capability.
Bluetooth Smart radios are built
into battery-powered, stand-alone
beacons that broadcast advertising
messages to shoppers as they come
B
How ultra-low power Bluetooth Smart radios are
revolutionizing shopping for customers and retailers
Mr. Mark de Clercq, Dialog Semiconductor