The Proximity.Directory report is out for the first quarter of 2017 and it focuses on the growth of proximity technology in retail stores across the United States. The use of proximity solutions continues to grow globally. Here in the U.S. the bottom line for retailers is that the use of proximity data and technology may be the one thing that is keeping customers in their brick and mortar stores.
Here are the highlights:
- As of Q1 2017, 14,486,000 sensors are registered to have been deployed globally, an 11% increase compared to the previous quarter:
- Beacons account for 65%
- Wi-Fi points: 20%, an 11% increase from Q4 2016
- NFC:15%
- The countries with the most Proximity Solution Providers are:
- United States: 134 companies
- United Kingdom: 39
- Retail & shopping malls are still the most popular segments for proximity solutions, while 50% of the PSPs operate in 10 or more verticals.
- 75% of top 20 U.S. retailers have implemented proximity technologies.
- Wal-mart implemented proximity solutions in 2014, Target in 2015.
- Macy’s implemented proximity solutions in all 800 stores nationwide.
- Rite Aid: more than 4,500 stores.
- Brick-and-mortar retailers face challenges. A steep and persistent drop in store traffic leads to decreased sales. According to the US Department of Commerce, U.S. department store sales have declined by 31.2% from 2005 to 2015.
However, consumers still enjoy traditional shopping as more than 90% of sales come from “brick and mortar” retailers. To keep those customers, retailers are finding it necessary to develop excellent in-store experiences and create personalized purchasing journeys.
Retailers with implemented proximity solutions are able to get a real-time overview of the customer behavior, adjust strategies accordingly, increase engagement, and boost sales.
Beacon technology allows analyzing traffic pathways throughout the store and gives insights into the most frequently visited areas.
SPREO retail case study on the use of geofencing and proximity
The Q1 2017 Proximity.Directory report features a case study on the SPREO implementation of proximity and geofencing technology for one of the largest mall owners in the United States, Taubman. We implemented our proximity and geofencing technology in 18 large Taubman malls across the country. There were multiple objectives:
- Improve the visitor experience at Taubman’s shopping malls
- Increase visitor engagement and satisfaction
- Centralize all store information, promotions, news and buzz notifications in one versatile app
- Gather analytic insights from the venue traffic and user behavior data
We answered these challenges with a mobile application that provides an enhanced shopping experience to visitors of each mall. The solution includes useful tools such as visual and audio indoor navigation and a “Save my Parking Spot” function, among others. It provides each mall with an integrated indoor navigation and positioning solution along with location-based services (LBS). The solution utilizes Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons and SPREO’s Software Development Kit for Android and iOS mobile applications.
The app, which is the first of its kind in a major shopping center in the United States, offers shoppers and visitors easy access to a wide variety of innovative and useful indoor location-based services, including voice and visual blue-dot turn-by-turn real-time indoor navigation.
What is the future of proximity technology?
The Proximity report says that GPS/Geofencing combined with Wi-Fi has shown the most growth since Q1 2016 and continues to grow. GPS/Geofencing accounts for 226 companies and Wi-Fi accounts for 135 companies.
The five verticals where proximity companies are operating are:
- Retail
- Shopping malls
- Hotels & tourism
- Stadiums/sports
- Airports
The report predicts growth in all verticals because 50% of the PSPs in the directory are operating in 10 verticals or more while as many as 14% are operating in all of them.
SPREO operates in all of the top five verticals, providing proximity, geofencing and other proprietary technologies. Watch this space as we continue to report on movement and global growth in each of them.