About a year ago we reported on Apple introducing iBeacons in their stores. We even sent an employee for a test drive. We see more retailers announcing that they’ve added iBeacons all the time, but are the iBeacon campaigns increasing sales?
Hillshire Brands Multiply Purchase Intent by 20
Hillshire Brands used iBeacons in grocery stores as a way to increase sales of their American Craft Link Sausages. Prior to launching their iBeacon campaign, Hillshire brands found that their American Craft Link Sausage customers were less likely to redeem printed coupons in stores. The iBeacon campaign was created to target the customer as they were in the store. Customers were sent branded push notifications, like banner ads linking to full-page ads which included coupons. This campaign ran from April through June in the top 10 grocery store markets within the US.
The Result:
Hillshire Brands reported a 20x increase in purchase intent. This data comes from a surveyed group of app users, measuring those who saw the ad versus those who didn’t. Based on this success Hillshire Brands plans to do a similar campaign for their Jimmy Dean brand.
Alex & Ani Increases Store Visits
Jewlery retailer, Alex & Ani teamed with Swirl to put iBeacons in all 40 of their store locations. Rather than creating their own app, Alex and Ani used the iBeacons to access Swirl’s app users. Swirl users near Alex & Ani locations were sent notifications informing them about Alex & Ani.
The Result:
Roughly 75% of people who received the content on their phone checked it out. Of that group, 30% entered the store. Half of that group went on to make a purchase.
Dollar General Sees 7,200 Downloads in 4 weeks
Dollar General launched an iBeacon campaign to drive traffic into their store. Customers were encouraged to opt-in to receive special discounts and access look books which featured special items in the store.
The Result:
The campaign ran for a total of five weeks. By week four, 7,200 mobile phones has downloaded the Dollar General’s app to participate in their iBeacon campaign.
Final Thoughts:
When we talked about iBeacons a year ago, we didn’t know if they would be the next big thing, or a short-lived gimmick. However, we keep seeing them in more and more retail locations. We even ran a demo of the technology recently at CEW. Retailers have only begun to embrace this technology and we expect to see it used more in 2015 and beyond.
Photo Credit: Adweek, Inc
