May 08, 2014Numerous retailers are currently testing a mobile marketing platform from Motorola Solutions' enterprise division that allows them to identify where consumers congregate within their store, and to create a two-way communication with each shopper based on his or her location. The platform, known as MPact, accomplishes this by employing a combination of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technologies. The MPact solution enables big-box stores and other retailers selling a wide variety of products to identify where customers are located onsite, and to not only enable the display of data relevant to each shopper's location (such as discounts of goods on that aisle) on that user's smartphone, but to also allow her to communicate with store personnel directly, by setting up a text, chat or phone communication to ask about products.
Motorola Solutions is well situated to offer such a solution, says Barry Issberner, the solutions marketing manager of the company's enterprise division. The firm already provides hardware such as Wi-Fi access and RFID to all of the top 100 retailers in the United States. During the past few years, the company has been hearing from its brick-and-mortar retailer customers regarding their need to better communicate with consumers via mobile phones. What's more, the firm has been conducting its own shopping-behavior surveys for several years, which have revealed a growing dependency on phone-based data by consumers, who may shop for an item online while in the store, for example. The most recent survey found, for instance, that 81 percent of Generation Y and 73 percent of Generation X use their mobile devices for shopping.
The MPact platform is intended to enable retailers to engage with their in-store customers more personally, Issberner explains, thereby increasing sales or preventing the loss of a sale. MPact software, operating on a cloud-based server, uses the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology on a customer's mobile phone to pinpoint that individual's location within the store. Based on the location data, the software will prompt the display of appropriate promotional materials and enable communication between the consumer and store personnel.
Motorola Solutions opted to develop a hybrid Wi-Fi and BLE solution to draw from each technology's unique strengths, Issberner says. By using Wi-Fi alone, companies can identify an individual's location within about 30 feet—but that is insufficient, he notes, to pinpoint the specific store aisle or shelf where that shopper is located. BLE solutions have been proliferating during the past year to provide more specific location data indoors, but they do not typically enable a user's phone to communicate with a Web-based server. Instead, a user has an application on her phone that displays a response to transmission related to a specific beacon. But in most systems, he says, the phone does not go online to access or send data. By employing both BLE and Wi-Fi, Issberner adds, the MPact system can obtain very specific location data (within about 4 feet) from the BLE beacons, and then enable an ongoing sharing of information between the phone and the back-end server via the Wi-Fi connection.
To develop the system, Motorola Solutions has partnered with several mobile marketing technology companies. Aisle411 can help locate an item based on a user's search queries. Phunware's software provides location information and contextual data based on that location. Digby (which Phunware acquired this month) provides geofencing-based data around the exterior of a store, in order to identify when an individual is near the premises. And retailers can employ Swirl Networks software to manage the content delivered to consumers' phones. Motorola Solutions' MPact software receives data from all of these systems and provides statistics that retailers can access to learn details regarding shopper behavior.
As part of the solution, Motorola Solutions offers its own MPact battery-powered BLE beacons that can be installed around a store, but the system also operates with other brands of beacons. The firm will provide software development kits to enable a retailer's own IT department to create a mobile marketing solution specific to a store, and launch its own app for customers to download.
After downloading an app, a shopper will typically be asked to provide personal information, if she so desires. For example, she could input family members' food allergies or other health concerns, products in which she is especially interested, and demographic information, such as age or gender. This data can then be used to tailor the promotional materials provided to her during her visit. Each time she enters a store, an MPact Bluetooth beacon installed at the doorway could send a transmission to her phone. The app could then open automatically and transmit the user's ID number via the store's Wi-Fi connection, as long as she has opted to enable the app to do so. A store could also collect anonymous data, such as the quantity of smartphones entering its premises. That retailer can then utilize the collected data to obtain business analytics and demographics regarding traffic into and out of the store at specific times and days.
As a shopper walks around the store, the MPact system would interpret that person's location based on the specific BLE transmissions received by her phone, as well as the handset's Wi-Fi connection to nodes in her area, and then forward coupons or other information to her that the system has determined to be most relevant to her interests. If she wishes to learn more about a particular product or seek assistance, she can use the app to request a staff member's presence at that location, or text or chat with an employee via her cell phone—to ask, for example, whether products are available in other sizes or types, if specific goods are out of stock or whether something can be purchased online.
The important point, says Gary Singh, Motorola Solutions' enterprise solutions marketing manager, is that the system is scalable to a retailer's specific use case. For example, a store may decide to use its existing Wi-Fi nodes and Bluetooth beacons, or it may opt to deploy Motorola's nodes and beacons. It also determines which personal and demographic data to collect from customers when they sign up.
Several of Motorola Solutions' customers are currently testing the technology, but thus far, those retailers have declined to describe their experience, or to be named. According to Singh, the technology was first tested at stores beginning in late 2013, in order to determine how well the platform could provide location-based data. Since then, he says, the users have entered a second phase of the pilot, which will include compiling some analytics and providing promotional offers to customers throughout stores. By the end of this year, Motorola expects to launch some permanent deployments.
