Bluetooth beacons burst onto the retail scene in 2013, with Apple’s release of the iBeacon standard and the built in support in iOS 7. Promising revolutionary changes to micro location services (identifying location to with a meter or so) and providing location context to targeted promotions, the technology was widely discussed and predicted to be game changing.
Three years later, beacons do not appear to have made the impact in retail their initial hype suggested. What are the limitations that have appeared, and does this mean that retailers should ignore beacons in their technology plans?
Issue #1: Transmission Range
Beacons are often reported as transmitting “up to 100 metres”. The problem is, this range is extremely variable. For example, placing your body between the phone and the beacon immediately reduces the power received from the beacon, and makes the beacon seem further away. Also, different phones will register different distances for exactly the same beacon, due to the quality of the phone’s Bluetooth radio. In one test comparing an iPhone 5s with a Samsung Galaxy, the Samsung recorded it distance as 2 metres when the iPhone thought it was at 6 metres.
Since much of the logic in the various micro location services depends on calculations derived from the distance of each beacon, it can easily be seen that the variability of range will result in an inaccuracy of location.
Issue #2: Variability of Signal Detection
Beacons transmit on a regular frequency, typically between 1/10 of a second and 1 second. However, the phone does not always detect each transmission. Apple, for example, apply some fuzzy logic around this: they assume you are still within range of the beacon until no signal has been received for 20 seconds. As a result, often the beacon values the phone app queries are sometime 10 to 15 seconds out of date. For a user who is moving, this results in further inaccuracies.
Issue #3: App Based
To respond to beacon detection, an app must be installed on the phone and registered to the identifiers of that beacon. Mobile web pages cannot provide the same response. Any retailer wanting to use beacons effectively has first to convince their customers to install the retailer’s app on their phone.
Issue #4: Battery Impact
Scanning for beacons definitely results in a more rapid consumption of the phone battery’s charge. Apps need to be very well designed to ensure that when they use beacons, they do not jump to the top of the phone’s list of energy consuming apps. Customers will quickly delete an app they perceive to be draining their battery.
Issue #5: Spoofing
When using beacons, it is very important to understand there is no security or identity enforced on beacons. Anyone can install a beacon detection app such as Locate that will provide all the identifiers used by a given beacon. It is then a simple matter to create you own beacon transmitting the same identifiers. Therefore it is very important that beacons are not used in a scenario where a spoofed beacon will cause privacy or security issues for the customer.
So does this mean that retailers should avoid using beacons? Not at all. Beacons can be very effectively used to enhance the customer’s experience when using a retailer’s phone app. For example, beacons can be used to identify when a customer walks into a store, and perhaps send a message to the store manager that a VIP customer is approaching. In larger department stores or shopping malls, beacons can be used to provide greater location accuracy than GPS (often ineffective within buildings), as long as the potential errors are understood. The accuracy would be sufficient, for example, to provide a customer with directions from where they are to where they’d like to go. It is not sufficient to reliably identify that a customer is near a specific merchandise display.
Bluetooth Beacons have not lived up to their initial hype. However, the astute retailer should still be including beacons in their arsenal of digital tools to enhance the Customer experience.