Using iBeacon in a smart retail to engage customers

For many, iBeacon will be a novelty, so I’ll explain the concept before presenting what is the reality of many retailers.
iBeacon is an indoor positioning system to communicate with smartphones that have a Bluetooth 4.0 or superior. Apple Inc. created the concept and started to use in iOS 7 devices and after provided for Android operating system use.
After that new technology other new kind of business and experiences started around the marketing for retail during shop process.

Estimote, Sensorberg and Kontakt.io are two startups that work with hardware and software for iBeacon control. They created the hardware to connect with the Bluetooth LE and provide a software that you can manage Photos, Videos, Reviews, Pricing, Social Media as messages for the customers.
In marketing business, others companies adapted their marketing focused in the proposal of the new technology. As an example Thirdshelf and Pass Bee Media that they provide a branded mobile loyalty using iBeacons.
Apple was the pioneer that interacted with the shoppers by iBeacon. Other retailers started create their ways to give a different shopping experience for their customers. The solutions are growing after new studies and tests, but they are improving it yet.
That’s the first experience that Apple gave:

Other retailer that used Estimote and Thirdshelf is LXR&CO a high-end boutique retailer. They created a environment with estimote around the store and Thirdshelf created the marketing campaign for them, as you can see:

The technology proposed can be used in a lot of different business, as an example during a baseball match to offer hot-dogs:

Now iBeacon is something new, and could be the future about the smart retail, but if you think about the QR-Code when were something new, the people created a lot of expectations and most part of are not the best way to apply in retail.