Tag: ibeacon

Mobile commerce experience broadened at Macy’s

| September 24, 2014

The department store has revealed that it is boosting its use of smartphone friendly technology in-store.

Macy’s has revealed that it is keeping up with the times and is making sure that its shopping experience is compatible with the favorite device of most of its customers by enhancing its mobile commerce capabilities in a number of different high tech moves.

For instance, it has expanded its iBeacon mobile marketing messaging capabilities through Shopkick.

This will allow the location based marketing experience to be available throughout the holiday season not only at its flagship shops in New York City and San Francisco, but also to other locations across the United States. This could make it the most large scale retail implementation of iBeacon mobile commerce tech that has been seen so far.

That is only the beginning of its expansion of mobile commerce and shopping capabilities for consumers.

macy's mobile commerceThe retailer also announced that it will be bringing in the Image Search image recognition app, which was created within its Idea Lab. That stand alone mobile app has also been incorporated into the Macy’s application. Based on the customer’s images, this software will provide consumers with recommendations for items that can be found either in the store itself, or on their online or m-commerce website.

Moreover, in certain cities, items purchased online or over m-commerce will have same day delivery available. This has become possible through a partnership with a startup called Deliv, and will be available in Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, Washington D.C., San Jose, San Francisco, Seattle, as well as the state of New Jersey.

This is only the latest in several moves that have been made by Macy’s to ensure that it is keeping up with the smartphone and tablet based shopping experience. It also makes the retailer one of the first to have established its range of different mobile commerce capabilities in advance of the 2014 holiday shopping season. Beyond image recognition and iBeacon, it has also announced that Apple Pay transactions will be accepted at both its Macy’s and its Bloomingdales stores, and that beyond same day delivery, in store pickup services will be expanded.

Geolocation technology to be tested in upscale German restaurants

| August 8, 2014

The iBeacon from Apple will be used to help to provide regular customers the experience they want.

In Germany, the managers of upscale restaurants take great pride in their ability to recall the names of the majority of their regular customers and to be able to remember each of their preferences in terms of seating, drinks, and meals, and now geolocation technology will be used to help to give them a bit of an edge.

This location based tech will remind them of the diner’s favorite table, the dishes they order most, and more.

The Mook Group, which owns five high end restaurants is now testing the geolocation technology from Apple called iBeacon. The owner of the company, Christian Mook, will be using this technology to track the customers who enter one of his restaurants. Should this prove to be effective, he intends to roll it out into the remaining four locations, as well.

The geolocation technology will only work with the customers who have downloaded the app.

Geolocation Technology - restaurantThe app uses location based tech in order to detect when the guest has entered the restaurant and tracks how much time that individual actually spends within the restaurant. It also uses a type of ranking system that will reward that individual for his or her loyalty. According to Mook, he is hopeful that it will also be able to track additional information, in the future, such as indoor location, the items that are ordered, and the amount that is being paid by any given customer.

This entire effort is being made for the purpose of being able to provide additional services to regular customers, and to improve those that already exist.

The iBeacon element of the app functions through beacon pods that are installed throughout the restaurant location. This uses low energy Bluetooth technology to identify when a customer has entered the restaurant, and then it tracks that individual’s location to within an accuracy of five to ten inches. The app merely needs to be downloaded and installed in order to work with the geolocation technology of the iBeacon pods. It does not have to be opened and activated.