inMarket: Beacons Done Right Increase Interactions by 5x; Beacons Done Wrong Lead to App Deletion

As the mobile-at-retail ecosystem begins to separate hype from reality, the world's largest beacon platform shares data on best practices

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inMarket

Sep 22, 2014, 12:00 ET

LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK, Sept. 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- inMarket, the in-store beacon platform helping retailers succeed at scale, today announces new data from its proprietary Mobile to Mortar™ (M2M) platform indicating best practices for context-based consumer interaction. inMarket is the only company with data and a major brand case study showing the benefits of beacon-enhanced consumer experiences at retail.

Since launching its M2M solution in January, inMarket can report that in-store beacon engagements achieve a 45% interaction rate, or 5x higher than traditional push messages that occur without location context (9%). For the 50+ million people using apps on the inMarket platform, this engagement is a concierge-like experience that occurs in-store and guides shoppers to their favorite apps -- for example, a shopping list reminder for organized moms, recipe tips for foodies, or loyalty opportunities for points lovers.

As the consumer uses their app of choice, the inMarket platform gives retailers the opportunity to deliver branded content to their shoppers. Shoppers who receive branded messages at that opportune time in store are 7.5x more likely to seek out the product off the shelf than those who do not.

But beacon success is not as easy as simply installing beacons in a store. In a small controlled test to determine how often to communicate with shoppers, inMarket found that over-saturation and irrelevant beacon pushes caused app usage to decline and apps to be deleted. Specifically, more than one beacon push per location caused a 313% drop in app usage among shopping app users.

"These stats clarify that beacons are a powerful tool that can alter the user experience depending on how they are deployed. Blanketing people with pop-ups on their phone is a sure-fire way to lose an audience, but reaching the right person with helpful info at the perfect time causes enormous lift," said Todd Dipaola, CEO of inMarket. "Simply deploying beacons is not enough, and misusing beacons can have the opposite of the intended effect."

In a survey of 1,500 inMarket shoppers conducted in September, more than two-thirds (68%) find in-store reminders from their shopping apps more helpful than out-of-store reminders.

"We want to share our findings that once again user experience is paramount," said Dipaola. "We strive to create seamless, helpful interactions between the physical and digital worlds. Any app, brand or retailer that opts for quantity over quality by placing beacons everywhere does so at their own peril. Honoring the user experience with polite help at the perfect moment activates a user base better than anything we have ever seen in mobile. On the flip side, subjecting users to the equivalent of real world pop-ups can lead to disaster for a brand."

About inMarket
Since 2010, inMarket's retailer services platform has driven millions of consumer product engagements in the aisles of stores across the country. Over 100 brands have leveraged inMarket to engage shoppers at the most receptive time, resulting in verified sales lift. Shoppers appreciate the timeliness, and retain context-aware apps on the inMarket platform over 6x more than static apps. inMarket currently reaches over 50 million shoppers in retail locations generating over $2 billion in consumer sales, through the world's best shopping apps. For more information, please visit www.inMarket.com.

High-res images: inMarket Mobile to Mortar™ Press Pack

CONTACT: Dave Heinzinger, 646-462-4094 x202, [email protected]

SOURCE inMarket