Using IoT technologies like beacons and sensors, retailers can gain insights into customer behavior both online and in-store to provide personalized experiences. This allows retailers to target customers with timely, location-based promotions to increase sales. Additionally, IoT provides operational benefits like predictive equipment maintenance, automated inventory replenishment, and reduced food waste to improve efficiency and lower costs.

1. Using IoT to Hone
in on Micro-Moments
Convert Window Shoppers into Buyers
Issue: February 2018

2. IoT has been around for many years. First launched for industrial and commercial
use most commonly known as IIoT (industrial internet of things). These devices
included RFID (radio frequency identification), NFC (near field communication),
Wi-Fi, infrared motion detection devices to track movement / foot steps with the
intention to maximize operational efficiencies and reduce costs.
Historically, IoT has been disconnected where the data sits in the back office to
optimize a supply chain, manage a fleet and warehousing operations. Now, with
the consumerization of wearables and smartphone devices on mass, the back of
the house is able to speak to the front of the house in real time.
It’s something that technologist have been speaking about for years. Up to recently,
IoT for retail has been primarily used for counting foot traffic, assisting at the
point of sale (POS) and payments.
Real time communication is changing the retail landscape for department stores
(big box), pharmacy/drug stores and grocery. It’s not only maximizing operational
efficiencies, it’s also personalizes the customer's shopping experience – regardless
if it’s through mobile commerce or at a brick-and-mortar location.

4. You get a full view into your customer! How they physically
navigate the aisles, which displays are working best, how
they interact with their smartphone within your store and
they’re browsing pattern and history.
THE INTERNET OF THINGS
BRIDGES OFF & ONLINE
EXPERIENCES
Retailers can optimize each interaction and drive
immediate results.

5. Year over year, as human
attention spans shorten,
the window to capture a
consumer’s attention
becomes more difficult.
IoT enables you to hone
in on micro-moments
and increases your chances
to convert a window
shopper into a buyer.

7. How Retail Becons Work?
All smartphones have unique IDs. On an iOS device
it’s called the Advertising Identifier (IDFA) and on an
Android device it’s called the Advertising ID provided
by Google Play services.
These unique IDs, tracks a person’s digital activities
(websites, social media, etc) and their physical locations
(where they live, work, where they shop, etc).
In a public space, Wi-Fi bridges the physical and digital
world together. In store or at a mall, free Wi-Fi services
are provided. Once the customer opts into the network,
the beacons start firing – the two technologies working
together are able to track the customer's location (via Wi-Fi)
and their proximity (via beacons).

8. As soon as a customer enters the door,
their smartphone (with GPS location
tracking and blue tooth enabled)
would notify your staff that a customer
is on premise. Depending on the number
of beacons in the store, your Associates
would be able to approximate between
two to five metres of where they are located.
Consumer
Experience
In a perfect scenario, your connected
customer would have your store’s mobile
app. In urban areas, of developed
Asia-Pacific countries, this is the norm.
Customers expect a loyalty program built
right into their mobile app – ecommerce
being the driver for this adoption.
• Getting access to product discounts
• Rebates/cash back
• Free products
• Free shipping
Europe and North America lag behind
in the mobile loyalty space, however
these consumers are no strangers to
loyalty programs! The top drivers loyalty
program enrolment include:

9. If you can provide these benefits, switching
your customers over to a mobile loyalty app
is easy, especially with younger consumers.
For items that need to be replenished on a
regular basis like, prescriptions, food and gas,
a mobile loyalty app is a no brainer.
Once a loyal customer enters your store, you
can utilize beacons for proximity marketing
campaigns – trigger ads based on your
customer’s micro-location.

11. Campaign Scenario
BACK-TO-SCHOOL
Your marketing and merchandising team are working on a
back-to-school promotion. You want to incent your customers
to increase their shopping basket size.
“When you spend X amount, with a specific brand,
you’ll receive a gift card for your next purchase.”
Based on research from Deloitte, in the U.S., back to school
is the second biggest shopping season. Mass merchants and
discount retailers lead the pack – grabbing the attention of
households with school age children in Kindergarten to
Grade 12. The average spend in 2017 was $501 per school
age child with the bulk of the purchases being made in store
versus online.
All the planning is done! Your displays are ready and you’ve
started running ads. Now watch the families roll on in, for
the deals!

12. Based on where the customer is located in the store, a
beacon can trigger a back-to-school ad – by the time
they see the display, the call-to-action (CTA) is fresh in
their mind, along with in store signage.
To re-enforce a light touch, a push notification is sent to
the closest Sales Associate. They can engage the customer
and assist with the sales process. Once the transaction is
completed, the customer can see their purchase history
and track their earned loyalty points.
The convergence between hardware and software is vital
in staying competitive. IoT enables you to kick off, real time
proximity marketing campaigns – true insights into all the
attributions (assists) to get your customer to the cash register.
But let’s say your customer didn’t end up converting on the
spot. You can use this data to retarget them through email,
notifications on their app and through social media to win
them back.

14. Campaign Scenario
NEW DAD
For anyone who’s been a parent,
(especially for your first one) you
only want the best for baby!
You do all the research, buy all
safest products and have your
home sterilized from top to bottom.
Then the baby comes and everything
you thought you knew now goes into
the dirty diaper basket. You’re sleep
deprived, hungry, thirsty, covered in
puke, living in a house full of baby stuff
and you can’t seem to find anything.
On top of that, you’ve also running
out of diapers!

15. Who ends up running out in the
middle of the night? Dad! He goes
to the nearest store to buy all the
things he thinks the baby needs.
For a new parent, would’t it be great
if the store could give you informative
and actionable information?
For instance, how many diapers a new
born uses and how many units you
need to last you through a week?
With beacons and digital signage it can.
Once the beacon picks up the location
of where the dad is in the store (let’s say
the diaper aisle) you could personalize the
messaging on the digital display. Show
him a coupon for newborn products or even
display items that he regularly purchases
but has forgotten about since his newborn
entered his life (protein bars, vitamins,
deodorant etc.).
Based on a report written by Aruba Networks,
a Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, The
Internet of Things Today and Tomorrow,
8 out of 10 retailers say that IoT has improved
overall customer experience and 88% of
retailers say that it has boosted business
efficiency.

16. On the flip side, the use of IoT in the supply chain, building and
equipment maintenance improves process efficiencies and it
reduces operational costs – preemptively automating checks
that would otherwise need to be done manually.
Operational
Benefits
For a grocery retailer, food safety is top of mind. Refrigeration
units and compressors are huge consumers of energy. Based
on research from Baltic Trail Facilities Management LLC,
56% of electricity costs go towards refrigeration and 23%
towards lighting.
If a machine goes down, you can see your margins shrinking
rapidly! Temperature sensitive products that require refrigeration,
freezing or a precise temperature controls benefit with smart
equipment sensors that manage these inputs.

17. The smart sensors provide data that can be used for predictive
maintenance. This minimizes equipment downtimes, prolongs
the life of the equipment and decreases food shrinkage due to
improper storage.
To reduce inventory shrink on perishable items, tagging RFID tags
on individual items, with best before dates, can notify you on when
it's time to start discounting an item. It will also alert you on when
you should replenish items to ensure that the shelves are always
fully stocked.
If the inventory is on premise, in the warehouse, a push notification
will be sent to the merchandising staff to restock the shelves.
Ultimately, improving profitability – maximizing the shelf space
and ensuring that your high moving products are always available.
With the use of beacons, you’ll have visibility into which aisles and
products your customers are shopping in so you can optimize your
displays. By using IoT at the shelf level, smart shelves will notify you
when your stocks are running low. Instead of relying on man power,
once the shelves hit a minimum stock level, it will automatically
reorder the inventory.

18. TheAppLabb is a product innovation and development firm. Our goal to improve human
experiences through the use of innovative technologies and drive business results for our clients.
Email: info@theapplabb.com
PH: (464) 688 - 2786
Version: February 2018 - TheAppLabb ©
URL: http://www.theapplabb.com
PH: (416) 745 - 3164
Over 11 years of experience with 360+ global clients and over 500+ apps built, we offer strategic
consulting, UX and UI design, custom software development and out-of-the-box industry solutions
for several vertical markets.
Let us turn your ideas into reality.
The Internet of Things, brings disparate data together
and enables actions to be taken. On the consumer
facing side, it truly provides a more personalized and
authentic shopping experience. It can turn a regular
transaction into high value touches – keeping your
most valuable customers loyal to your brand.
IoT is the Swiss Army Knife of tools. It’s a proven technology
and intersects with almost every single area in retail from the
back office to the store level. Beacons have become the
Little Engine that Could – the key player that makes your team
perform better and drives results.
On the operation side, IoT has a vast array of uses for
cost reductions – instead of using data for post mortem
analysis, you can use data to proactively transform
outcomes in real time. For instance, you have perishable
items in a truck and it's heading for a particular store.
However you staff was just notified that the refrigeration
unit, to house the inventory is under repairs. In real time,
you could re-route the inventory to another store that has
the refrigeration capacity – tragedy adverted!

20. PH: (416) 745 - 3164
References:
Valassis Digital- The Problem With... - Two to Five Metres
https://www.valassisdigital.com/us/blog/problem-using-beacons-track-store-shopper-movement/
Deloitte - 2017 Back -to-School Survey
https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/consumer-business/articles/back-to-school-survey.html
Neilsen - Get with the Program - Asia Pacific
http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/nielsenglobal/eu/docs/pdf/nielsen-global-retail-loyalty-sentiment-report-Italy.pdf
Aruba Networks - The Internet of Things: Today and Tommorrow
http://www.arubanetworks.com/assets/eo/HPE_Aruba_IoT_Research_Report.pdf
Baltic Trail Facilities Management LLC - Managing Refridgeration Costs... - Energy Consumption
http://www.baltictrail.com/news/energy-efficiency/managing-refrigeration-costs-key-supermarket-managers/
Azat Satlykov - "Coffee"
Linda Söndergaard - "Technology to the rescue"
aaronparecki - "GPS Logs from Portland at night - 9pm to 6am"
Jeremy Bishop - "Woman wearing red backpack"
Bru-nO - "back to school school pencil cases"
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