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LED-Based Indoor Positioning Coming of Age

Posted by:  Steve Lydecker, Sr. Vice President, Applied Integrated Solutions

Fascinating article in yesterday’s Washington Post about how Target is re-tooling its stores and retail model to become “a more serious digital retailing force.”  In particular, Target is leveraging its bricks-and-mortar stores to take advantage of the growing use of the mobile Web for shopping – enabling its stores to serve as fulfillment centers for online orders.  Target’s is also incorporating consumers’ mobile device use into their in-store shopping experience. 

What really got us excited was the fact that article mentions that Target is “testing a technology that would be embedded in ceiling lights that communicates with shoppers’ phones to deliver highly customized offers and other information.” 

We’re firm believers in indoor positioning as a way to bridge in-store and online shopping and enhance customer experience. Working with opt-in permission-based mobile loyalty apps, indoor positioning helps engage customers in real time – exactly where they are in the store.  And not just to push promotions to the mobile device – but also to help shoppers find items, speed up delivery of online purchases and get help quickly. 

It’s been demonstrated that LED-lighting-based indoor positioning that uses both visual light for line-of-site communications and RF technology like Bluetooth Low Energy for out-of-site communications offers the best performing indoor positioning platform – with precision location capabilities no other retail beacon technology can match.  ByteLight was created on this premise. 

Indoor location technologies clearly have an opportunity to improve the customer experience and mobile engagement.  It’s great to see a retail leader like Target embracing this technology to create a more personalized, omnichannel shopping experience for its customers. 

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SEAMLESS OMNI-CHANNEL EXPERIENCES INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT FOR RETAILERS

Posted by: Dan Ryan, Vice President, Technology

Demands of consumers continue to push for better omni-channel retailing experiences, according to Accenture’s annual retail report. The study found that 32% of customers want a seamless experience between physical stores, online and mobile. Unfortunately the study also found these experiences were underdeveloped.

With new technologies that have emerged recently, including location-based services, retailers now have tools to build the infrastructure to support an integrated experience. No doubt we’ll start seeing retailers roll out increasingly sophisticated omni-channel experiences that deliver on the desires of their customers and drive value for their companies.

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Product Search on Androids: Google vs. Amazon

After looking at if Android users wanted to receive in-store mobile coupons on their smartphones while shopping on Black Friday (they really do) – we decided to look a bit further into the role Android use is playing with holiday shopping in-store.

While others have looked at how many shoppers are doing price comparisons on smartphones as they showroom in-store, we wanted to look at how in-store shoppers are using mobile search for reviews and ratings of products while they shop – and more importantly where are they doing the searching?

After all, the Consumer Electronics Association recently issued their own report, which found that 58% of shoppers would rather consult their smartphone in-store for product information than an employee.

That said, we asked 1,000 Android users via a Google Consumer Survey (survey data)  if they’ll search for reviews or ratings of items on their smartphones while shopping for them in retail stores this holiday season, and if so, will they be using Google, Amazon or another service or app to do it.

Given the sampling of Android users, one would surmise that the vast majority of respondents would turn to Google for finding product reviews and ratings.

However, our survey shows that Amazon isn’t as far behind the de facto Android search engine as you might think when it comes to product ratings and reviews search. Perhaps recent sentiments of Google Chairman Eric Schmidt on Amazon (and not Bing or Yahoo!) being the search engine leader’s biggest competition are valid – especially when it comes to mobile product search. Imagine what the numbers may look like on iPhone?

55.7% of respondents said they’d use Google and 30.4% said they’d use Amazon. Just 4.2% said they’d rely on other apps or services on their mobile device.

Overall, 90.3% of Android users said they’d be using their smartphones to search for item reviews and ratings while in brick-and-mortar stores this year.

The 18-24 age group heavily favored Google over Amazon (58% said they’d consult Google in-store, compared to only 30.8% for Amazon), while the 24-34-age bracket was one of the least loyal to Google, with only 54.8% citing it as their go-to for in-store searches. The only other group who said yes to Google less than 24-34 year olds was people over the age of 65.

In addition to age, gender also appeared to have an affect on how respondents were choosing where to find product reviews and ratings. Men were more likely (59.1%) to cite Google as their go-to for in-store ratings and reviews, while women were significantly more likely to say they won’t be consulting their Android device at all for product info while shopping (13.6% said “no” to in-store searches, compared to only 6% of men).

Income also affected where customers were consulting item reviews. People making over $150,000 a year were significantly more likely than any other group (over 41%) to consult Amazon (high income customers are known to be Prime members). Alternatively, the income bracket most likely to use Google was the $25,000-$49,999 group (58%).

So what does this mean for retailers that are looking to engage shoppers as they search for item reviews and ratings in-store on their mobile devices?

Holiday shoppers are definitely using their smartphones to find product reviews and item ratings while they’re browsing in-store, and not only are they using mobile search engines, they’re also using many retailers biggest competitor – Amazon.

It’s another reason retailers need to customize retail apps with special features for in-store use that bring relevant item price information, offers and reviews to shoppers before they opt for alternative services. By combining these types of features with proximity information from beacons and indoor location technology, retailers can push personalized reviews to in-store shoppers as they look at specific items, which could preempt them from opting for third-party reviews, and potentially buying somewhere else.

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Don’t Forget About Android Users on Black Friday

With Black Friday rapidly approaching and brick-and-mortar stores gearing up for one of the busiest retail days of the year, the use of iBeacon in-store is generating a lot of national attention. Adobe recently noted that 18% of retail mobile marketers plan to use iBeacon technology this holiday season.

That also means that indoor location-based apps from retailers, or new location enhanced app features - are poised to breakout this holiday season. Based on real-time customer proximity, retailers will be able to attract business by offering shoppers instant deals right on their smart phones while they pass items of interest.

That said, retailers developing indoor location apps shouldn't forget about Android users based on the iBeacon buzz. After all, there are more Android (52%) users today in the U.S. than iOS users (42%). In fact, Samsung just announced its own Android-based Proximity beacon platform for Android users.

Between October 29th and October 31st, ByteLight commissioned a survey of 500 Android smartphone users across the U.S through Google Consumer Surveys. The sample size was of the National adult Internet population with a 2.3% Root Mean Square Error.

The survey found that more than 82% of Android users are interested in receiving a mobile coupon for an item they’re interested in while shopping for it in-store this upcoming Black Friday.

The most surprising thing? There were no outlying demographics; Android users across the board, regardless of age, gender, or location, were interested in receiving personalized mobile coupons while shopping in-store on Black Friday.

The group most likely to say yes was 45-54 year olds living in urban areas (100% of respondents said yes), closely followed by 95% of urban-dwelling 35-44 year olds.

Suburban 18-24 year olds were also very receptive (88.9%) to the idea of receiving mobile coupons on their Android devices. Women overall were less interested in mobile coupons than men (79.9% compared to 84.4% for men), except among 55-64 year old women, who said yes more than men in their age range. 

So what's the takeaway here? Retailers can't afford to alienate Android users by tailoring their indoor-location apps and enhanced location features exclusively for iOS devices. While most indoor location and positioning hardware (lights, beacons, etc.) communicates with both iOS and Android devices (via Bluetooth Low Energy and Visible Light Communication) it’s important for retailers to enhance their Android apps with location features and take advantage of Android SDKs from hardware providers, just as they’re doing with iOS and iBeacon plugins.

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Can Amazon Shine a Light on Prime Members in Brick and Mortar?

As we’ve noted before, Amazon and eBay get a lot of attention as online-only retailers truly disrupting brick and mortar retail. While they’ve done most of their disrupting with pricing and delivery to date, startups such as Warby Parker, Bonobos and Blank Label have started to disrupt brick and mortar retail in the physical store itself – with pop up shops that emulate the analytical stores you can build online.

Now Amazon is getting in on the “Clicks to Bricks” action. As the Wall Street Journal first reported on October 9th, Amazon plans to open its first physical retail store this holiday season. Following in the footsteps of its online strategy, those familiar with Amazon’s plans, believe the eCommerce giant will use the midtown Manhattan storefront as a mini warehouse and store. This, they believe, will allow the company to provide inventory for same-day deliveries within New York City.

Armed with their successful ability to track and analyze how shoppers visit, browse and checkout at Amazon.com, the company may also apply a similar approach with in-store analytics. Schooled in A/B tests and tracking customers through their sales funnels, it can now also focus on maximizing revenue per square foot, optimizing foot traffic and converting online browsing and orders into in-store buying.

Even Amazon realizes it’s a massive opportunity; with 90% of retail sales still occurring in brick and mortar stores. Furthermore, in-store analytics can provide major bottom line benefits.

Amazon’s storefront on 34th street in Manhattan is located next to Madison Garden, the shops on 5th Ave and near the Empire State building, making it one of the most foot-trafficked areas in the world. This means it will have the opportunity to introduce millions of people for the first time to the Amazon brand in the “real world.” Jeff Bezos often says, "your brand is what people say about you when you leave the room." Amazon then, finally has a room for consumers to join them in.

However, unlike Apple stores, Amazon may not opt to use the space to let consumers try its devices like the Kindle and Fire phone (those sales aren't going so well). Instead, the retailer may be better off using the storefront as a service channel and a way to shine the light on its Prime members. 

For instance, imagine how Amazon could leverage indoor location technology such as beacons, or Bluetooth embedded in their lights, to offer Prime members new services. In addition, to giving these members an option to receive an item next day via Prime online, they could offer same-day delivery via the new mini warehouse, or a "pick-up immediately" option for large or long-tail items, or if you just happen to be walking by the location.

This is a true game changer. In fact, Amazon is already turning heads in other markets by delivering items the same-day, even when a consumer doesn’t ask for it. Just ask Greg Bettinelli!

Imagine taking this a step further with an example of "pick-up immediately". Using indoor location technology, Amazon could automate identification when one of these members enters a store. Staff could then bring their goods upfront in seconds – not minutes - and drastically cut down on any waiting time.

This extra attention could go a long way when it comes to keeping Prime subscriptions up year-over-year in a market like New York City. 

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iOS8, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+ Bring More Noise to Indoor Location

With the introduction of several new products from Apple over the last few weeks, indoor location has more noise to deal with. But is it idle noise or fine music? New apple advances seem interesting not only for iPhone users, but also for others developing products in this industry - including the team here at Bytelight.

The iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, the Apple Watch (as we previously covered), and new updates to the iOS operating system, are all steps towards allowing consumers to have personalized, location-based notifications that can be sent to their smartphones or watches, and vice-versa.

By combining their new smartphone products and other new technologies with the iBeacon system, Apple is trying to make more improvements in the way that smartphones can connect with retailers. Apple's new updates have improved the way that iBeacon works with iPhones, and has enabled its system to connect smartphone notification with purchasing ability.

iBeacon is a way for stores and other locations to be part of a location-based network, and enables them to reliably connect with nearby smartphones and other devices. For example, if a smartphone user walks by a store, iBeacon can connect with the phone and enable them receive information sent to them by the retailer.

With their new updates, Apple has connected iBeacon directly with their Apple Pay service, allowing customers to both receive data about new products from a retailer and also giving them the capability to directly pay for them through the phone, which makes this type of shopping more direct for both retailers and customers.

The Apple Watch (planned for 2015) is designed to have the same capabilities, such as enabling businesses to send an alert to the device if they think a customer might be interested in a purchase, or in getting information about a product. The Apple Watch has also been introduced as a way to improve customer experiences in general, such as making it easier to check into a hotel or navigate baggage claim, and to receive offers and information during a shopping experience. 

Apple's new technologies are central to providing data both to the customer and the retailer, and allows these devices to accurately establish a location-based connection.

Apple's location-based improvements are closely matched with the capabilities being developed by developers of hardware in the indoor location space. At Bytelight, we are working to provide methods to send and receive specific types of location-based information to help consumers and retailers in a similar way, and we look forward to learning more about the capabilities of Apple's new products.

Our products use advances in lighting technology as a way to outfit stores and other locations with the ability to connect wirelessly with consumers and provide them with information they might need, in a similar way to the capabilities demonstrated by the iPhone updates and the Apple Watch, as well as other technologies that might help accomplish these goals.

As location-based technology becomes more advanced, new products will be developed that will truely be music to the ears of smartphone users and venue owners. 

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Lighting Innovation Catches Up with Lighting-Tech Ecosystem

After decades of snail-like innovation pace, innovations in the lighting industry have been moving faster and faster in recent years, resulting in new companies and new products. A better light bulb, these days, does not just provide more light.

New lighting technology is able to respond to the environment and to transmit information, and provide more functions designed to help consumers.

These innovations are the product of an increased research focus. Established companies and new startups are all developing their own take on lighting innovations that go beyond the simple light bulb, and are developing new technologies and advancing proven technologies.

A factor in this innovation and growth is the development of what has been called a technology ecosystem, a group of similar minded, local companies, with a focus on advancing lighting technology.

This week's cover story in the Boston Business Journal details the specialized business community that has sprung up in the Boston area over the last few years that is closely connected to lighting.

Over a dozen companies have recently started up or moved here, each with its own take on lighting products and services. Venture capital has also taken an interest towards new lighting startups in this area, prompting increased investment.

At Bytelight we see the future of lighting to be IT driven, and our research focuses on ways to improve the customer experience. The future of the industry, as we see it, is that illumination will take a back seat to other functions that can be built on top of the lighting solution, and one way this can happen is by allowing customers and retailers to connect in a more direct way in a store environment.

However, a cross-section of some other local companies reveals an array of different, innovative products and ideas, ranging from improved illumination, energy conservation, and still more focus on information technology and customer service.

Corporate development and investment have helped create this technology ecosystem, which in turn has helped our business sector to innovate. The result has been new products that take lighting technology in new and exciting directions.

Local, established companies like Osram Sylvania have teams of researchers working on new ways to advance lighting as an integral part of the customer experience at retailers, restaurants and other businesses. The technology advancements that make it possible to connect lighting to the Internet and control it remotely make this type of application development easier.

This is also true for startups. Some local companies have decided to center on the basics, such as improving illumination quality or trying to make the lights use even less power. Others see the future of lighting as something that can improve life in the home, the business or the general public in other ways. These include products developed that can, for example, help you tell when and where your employees are working, and has created solutions that can help reduce lighting's carbon footprint, among others.

These companies have seen results that are both varied and innovative. The local tech ecosystem has been able to spur innovation among our local companies, as well as the industry broadly, and new products are on their way to the consumer that will change the end users definition of lighting for ever.  

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What Does Apple Watch and the Wearable Movement Mean to the Indoor Location Market?

With the launch of Apple Watch (along with new iPhones) this week, it’s worth taking a look at what that means for the indoor location market and Apple’s use of iBeacon. Released just over a year ago, Apple’s iBeacon technology opened up a whole new dimension of location-based marketing opportunities (especially indoors where GPS isn’t accurate enough).

Using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) hardware (including lights), retailers and other venues can transmit geo-specific data to Bluetooth-enabled smartphones. This microlocation-based information allows operators to receive and send hyper-personalized notifications to smartphones users in range.

The beauty of BLE is its simplicity. Originally designed to track luggage and other items, and now a standard on most wearable devices, the technology sends out small packets of data to smartphones. However, next generation wearable devices can also receive data via the BLE protocol and this is where the Apple Watch may be a game changer for indoor location.

Using a new program called WatchKit, developers will be able to create apps specifically built for the Apple Watch that can leverage the BLE / iBeacon technology its using. During Apple's demonstration they illustrated how a user could simply wave their watch in front of a door at Starwood Hotels to check into the hotel and unlook their room.

American Airlines has also created an Apple Watch app where you’ll be able to check in and collect bags with a single tap on your watch. Another use where the watch could communicate with BLE hardware within a certain location.

Rather than forcing customers to constantly take their smartphones out of their pockets while they travel and stay at hotels – often with their hands full of luggage – users can easily access these location-based services via their wrists. In retail stores, offers and coupons will be able to be delivered less intrusively to a shopper’s wrist. More information can be sent out at a faster clip with turning shoppers off to the benefits location-based offers. All they will need to do is take a look at the message as they do the time on their watch multiple times a day.

The Apple Watch and future Wearables serve as a promising data channel for retailers and many other venue owners to customize user experiences indoors. The accelerated speed at which the wearables technology is developing will ultimately alter the way we look at location-based marketing. 

For more information on how you can leverage location-based services to engage shoppers in-store via their Apple Watches and other Wearables, contact ByteLight today. 

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The Limitations of Bluetooth LE with Battery Drain and Accuracy

A recent study by Aislelabs, an analytics and solutions provider, which found that iBeacon (Bluetooth LE) battery drain on the iPhone is worse than on Android (and somewhat inconsistent in that sense), illustrated another limitation with Bluetooth LE technology. While many have been quick to crown Bluetooth LE the champion of indoor location technologies (given Apple’s support with iBeacon), there are limitations.

Although the buzz for Bluetooth LE has been around indoor location, that’s not really what the technology was initially designed for. Its primary use case is around connecting things - think about putting a beacon in your luggage at the airport and receiving a notification when your bag pops into the baggage carousel. Or perhaps its biggest use case to date – connecting smart watches and fitness devices.

These types of short usage cases don’t put the battery drain on devices, which could occur in more active indoor location engagements. AisleLabs test found that the Nexus 5 was more energy efficient using Bluetooth LE than the iPhone 5 in sample situations. Furthermore, other tests have shown that smartphones near Bluetooth LE beacons have been prone to toggle between multiple beacons unless an app is coded to listen for a particular one.

Other iBeacon software glitches can cause it to get overloaded in testing scenarios, resulting in a phone’s location services turning on and off. This could make your smartphone think you are reentering a store and reactivate a welcome message long after you’ve arrived. With little quirks like these still prevalent within indoor location 1.0, there’s a long way to go before iBeacon and Bluetooth LE will be able to handle much more complex functionalities that will accompany indoor location 2.0.

When you approach a Bluetooth LE beacon, the recognizing response usually happens pretty quickly, and you’ll see a message on your phone in seconds. However, iBeacon is also sometimes slow to calculate when you’re moving away from a certain iBeacon area. This means that even when you receive a welcome message instantly upon entering a store, you may pass an entire isle before you get a ping with the right offer for that location. This delay in sensitive response time remains to be fixed if iBeacon and Bluetooth LE is going to fulfill its promise of being real-time, location sensitive within feet of an object. 

Overall accuracy is also a limitation of Bluetooth LE when you’re not using with a complementary technology like Visible Light Communication (VLC). Experiments and pilots with Bluetooth LE beacons have found inconsistencies with accuracy and issues with location dropout. In addition to changes in accuracy based on distance. Those same experiments have also found that how a Bluetooth LE beacon is placed (facing certain direction) results in different accuracy levels.

Of course, Bluetooth LE isn’t the only technology in the indoor location market to have limitations. Wi-fi, non-hardware solutions and even VLC have limitations as well. But it’s important to know what they are to pair with complementary technologies for the best user experience in-store.

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What Does a Lighting-as-a-Service Model Mean for the LED Industry?

Brian Dean of InformationWeek had an interesting piece this week on the idea of Lighting-as-a-Service (LaaS if you will). The piece touches on how Phillips is overcoming the initial cost of retrofitting buildings and facilities with LEDs by allowing customers to skip the upfront cost and pay as you would for a monthly digital or software service. The agreement enables customers to move towards benefitting from the long-term energy savings LEDs provide, without putting themselves in an initial financial hole.

It’s also a sign that further change is afoot in the lighting industry. The basic components of a light (used strictly for illumination) are becoming a commodity. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, lighting consumes 461 billion kWH of electricity per year, which means that the transition from mainly fluorescent to mainly LED lighting could save billions of dollars while increasing energy efficiency.

Along with the cost-savings benefit that LED lighting provides, they also provide a gateway into the Internet of Things, along with new revenue streams. In this sense, Lighting-as-a-Service can become a new network, and lighting companies like Phillips, GE and Osram could have the opportunity to compete with traditional networking giants like Cisco.

It also means that lighting companies need to understand that they’ll be selling to new buyers. Licensing, services, bundles, analytics, etc. all become potential new business models. CIO’s and CMO’s will be the buyers of these new types of services rather than infrastructure developers and architects. Understanding their needs will be of the upmost importance as we reach peak LED market saturation in 2020.

In the retail space, stores have many reasons to buy into a Lighting-as-a-Service model. Beyond the cost saving measures that LED lighting can create in retail spaces, a store’s adaptability increases dramatically once plugged into enhanced lighting and indoor location platforms. As consumers move through various parts of the store, lighting could be adjusted through color temperatures and sensors.

Imagine a customer in a fighting room trying on a new dress as the smart lighting adjusts to her height to enhance her ability to see herself in the mirror. The sensor-enabled lighting then takes note of her size and color preference, simultaneously sending notifications of other similar options in the store and where to find them to her mobile device. If she needs a difference size, the lighting then locates whether the stock has it in stock, and where the item can be found. She pings a notification and a fitting-room attendant brings her the desired item in a mere matter of minutes.

All of these potential happenings could become a a reality as LED makers move to a lighting-as-service model, and many could be substantial new revenue drivers for the lighting industry. 

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Can Technology be a Spark for Legacy Retailers?

As legacy retailers come to a realization that their storefronts (online and offline) and infrastructures are the final battleground for winning customer engagement we're reaching a tipping point with technology adoption. Can it be a spark for future growth? What technologies may be next?

Over the last couple weeks Nordstrom and Walmart have made technology acquisitions of Trunk Club and Luvocracy respectively. Nordstrom's deal with Trunk Club gives the retailer instant access to a growing demographic of male shoppers, while also creating a new foot traffic driver for its brick and mortar locations.

The $350M price for Trunk Club also illustrates how important the acquisition is for Nordstrom long-term. WalMart's acquisition of Luvocracy through WalmartLabs, will bring Pinterest-like recommendations into the retailers social and mobile offerings. 

In a recent interview conducted by McKinsey, the president of eBay Marketplaces Devin Wenig advocates that, “the world of e-commerce and commerce are now just seamlessly merged, and everything is omnichannel... Now, every merchant, every retailer must have an omnichannel strategy or they won’t survive.” Many retailers are doubling down on technology today to ensure they do just that.

While the success of e-commerce has been largely due to its utilitarian function; the benefit of physical retail continues to be the serendipity and experience that is important in emotional categories like clothing.

Today's omnichannel strategy can leverage a diverse set of online and in-store data such as a shopper’s identity, purchase history, and perhaps most importantly, location - across all channels. Mobile devices are the delivery platform (70 - 89% of consumers use smartphones in-store) and indoor location is the missing link.

Location-based data allows stores to deliver personalized digital content and engage in-store connected shoppers.This content ultimately gives shoppers the same wealth of information available online when they are in-store and blurs the line between digital and physical retail.

That is one reason indoor location is at the top of many legacy retailers shopping lists as they now look to quickly bolster their technology stacks and spark growth. 

For more information on implementing indoor location technology into your retail store, contact ByteLight today.

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Place 2014 Recap: Finding Technologies to Scale Indoor Location for the Future

By Dan Ryan

Last week in New York City, executives from across the burgeoning indoor location market met for Place 2014: The Business of Location. Opus Research, which organized the event, predicts the market for indoor location and place-based marketing will surpass $10 Billion by 2018 and will eventually be worth $25-50 Billion annually.

I participated in the event on the Indoor Technology All-Stars panel hosted by Google’s Don Dodge (a ByteLight investor) alongside Nathan Pettyjohn, CEO of aisle411; Chris Godall, CEO of of Trusted Positioning; and Steve Cheney, SVP of Business and Operations at Estimote.

Most of us agreed that indoor location will vastly disrupt and highly impact several areas including network and IT spending, mobile coupon distribution and broader in-store shopper engagement.

However, there was a lively debate over if the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon market can scale to meet industry demands in the coming years. While BLE beacons certainly have the momentum behind them - given their connection to iBeacon (both literally and figuratively) - they haven’t been used in large scale deployments - yet. Questions loom on how venues will replace batteries, and who will deploy and maintain what would be an entirely new infrastructure.

Although forecasters are saying there will be 60 million BLE ‘beacons’ shipped by 2019 – that’s certainly not enough hardware if the indoor location market really wants wide adoption among large retail outlets.

Big-box retailers like Wal-Mart with large storefronts and thousands of stores would need a very large number of beacons to create an indoor location network that provides wall-to-wall coverage. For instance, with most BLE beacon makers suggesting a range of 32 feet and Wal-Mart stores being 102,000 square feet in size on average, they would need to deploy around 32 beacons per store. Wal-Mart, which has more than 4,800 stores in the U.S., would need more than 153,000 beacons. With a beacon cost estimated at around $10, they’d probably be looking at an initial investment of more than $1.5M in hardware costs in the U.S. alone.

Then comes the maintenance costs. While some BLE beacon providers are saying their batteries could last as long as two years, the reality is one year may be the max lifetime and some providers are selling beacons that only last three months. Imagine being a big-box store like Wal-Mart who needs to replace 153,000 beacon batteries annually or maybe even quarterly? You’re talking about new installation and maintenance teams, platform and network managers, etc.

This likely points to BLE beacons being replaced in full annually, rather than simply replacing the battery. That $1.5M initial deployment cost just became an annual overhead expense.

And remember, this is just to support proximity-based indoor location – e.g. a connected shopper has entered the shoe department. To support positioning-based indoor location – e.g. a connected shopper is standing in front of Nikes - the retailer would need to deploy at least 10x the number of beacons, or going back to our basic example 320 beacons per store. Reducing a beacon’s range from 32 feet down to 3 feet is required for this kind of brand-level engagement, but quickly puts beacon deployment off the charts - 1,530,000 beacons for a cost of more than $15.3M in hardware.

That’s a big price to pay for additional hardware. It’s no wonder retailers are concerned about the scalability of beacons, especially when compared to other data-emitting hardware platforms like Wi-Fi and LED lighting which are already in-store and therefore more cost-effectively able to support indoor location.

A retail executive at the conference from Toys“R”Us  noted that it will be extremely difficult to go to his managers asking for an entirely new in-store network to join point of sale, Wi-Fi, lighting and other systems already on store floors. Today the store manager is responsible for managing heating, WiFi, the lights, the POS system, scanners and inventory management. Now you’re going to add a battery-powered network of potentially thousands of beacons to his desk? I just don’t see it happening.

These are some of the issues with scaling indoor location with technologies like standalone BLE beacons and reasons why I really believe LED lighting fixtures will become the platform of choice for indoor location. While BLE beacon shipments will be measured in millions through 2020, LED lighting fixture shipments will be measured in billions – around 1.28 billion annually by 2021 - according to Navigant Research.

Another topic addressed on the Place panel was how do we unlock the next generation of apps beyond proximity and what technical issues arrive when scaling indoor location technologies. Many agreed that this is really just the first inning of indoor location, where it’s all about iBeacon and somewhat standard geo-fencing. The next inning of indoor location (probably only 12-24 months away) will be about micro-targeting (brand-level engagements within three feet) and ultimately utilizing indoor location platforms as a gateway for the Internet of Things.

That is when it will become difficult to scale beacon technologies and ensure they can power more enhanced sensors and applications. Indoor location nodes will need to talk to each other and other connected things, and they’ll need contextual understanding and a network to pull it all together.

It’s this additional reason why I’m bullish on lighting as the wall-to-wall platform that can scale and power these indoor location networks of the future, and why there is a need to strongly consider scalability today when evaluating indoor location technology.

As retail stores and other buildings are retrofitted with LEDs, they're already taking vital steps to set up this new scalable indoor location platform and a true trojan horse for the Internet of Things. 

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Could Apple’s Own Hardware Help in Driving BLE “Beacon” Shipments Over 60 Million?

By 2019, “a New Way to Shop and Sell” Will Become Mainstream with the Explosion of Bluetooth Low Energy Hardware

Over the weekend FCC fiings leaked of Apple's potential plans to build its own ibeacon-supported hardware (beacons, as many have called them). While there is certainly room for debating if standalone beacons are the right hardware approach to indoor location, there's no debating the momentum behind the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) hardware space right now.

According to a recent report by ABI Research, BLE device / hardware shipments will reach 60 million units by 2019. This iBeacon technology has “caught the zeitgeist” and emerged as a key anchor in the retail space.

As the number of consumers with BLE-enabled smartphones continues to grow there is a huge opportunity to build BLE-enabled hardware to communicate with them. Senior Analyst Patrick Connolly advocates that “retail will remain the largest portion of the BLE hardware market given the potential around analytics, CRM, and advertising.” The report suggests that the significant drop in the price of beacon hardware, and ability to embed within other hardware, will create “the perfect platform for a whole new way to shop and sell."

The 60 million shipments forecast also includes hardware like LED lights - where BLE can be embeded and powered. By bringing BLE into a LED-based indoor location solution, there’s no additional cost to deploy BLE and no batteries to change every few months.

For more information on how you can be a part of the Bluetooth LE "shop and sell" revolution contact ByteLight today.

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Watch Demo Video of ByteLight Indoor Location Service

In this video, ByteLight shows how retailers can use LED lighting to engage in-store connected shoppers with exciting new location-based services.

ByteLight provides the only LED-based indoor location service that combines Visible Light Communication (VLC) and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to determine the precise location, position and direction of a connected shopper within 3 feet accuracy. Because the solution is installed in and powered by a retailer's own lighting infrastructure, there's no additional hardware beacons to deploy and no batteries to change every few months.

Watch the demo video to see how a connected shopper is greeted with a personalized welcome message as he approaches his favorite retail store, uses the retailer's mobile app to navigate the aisles, receives product information to help him make a confident buying decision, and responds to promotional offers that increase his basket size.

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Connecting the Unconnected Pilots a Digital Lifestyle

ByteLight Is Among Many Companies Driving Forward the Internet of Things with Bluetooth Low Energy and Other Technologies

With the rapid development of new connected technologies, it seems as if the possibilities are endless. As consumers embrace this digital lifestyle, entrepreneurs and engineers alike are constantly connecting our world in ways we never thought possible.Gartner estimates that, over the next five years, the IoT market will grow to include 30 billion devices.

At ByteLight, we have been able to drive forward the Internet of Things by leveraging lighting infrastructure as access points (using Bluetooth Low Energy and Visible Light Communication) to connect the digital and physical worlds.

Like ByteLight, many other “smart objects” are now capturing data in real-time to provide useful information for people and other systems. Technology expert Tim O’Reilly advocates, “So many of the most interesting applications of the Internet of Things involve new ways of thinking about how humans and things interact differently when things get smarter.”

A recent report by the Real World Web, in partnership with PSFK Labs and IQ by Intel, highlights industries that will be revolutionized by connecting the unconnected. Its “ABCs of the IoT” gives a snapshot of what’s on the horizon for the Internet of Things.

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is bringing the traditional art industry to life similarly to how ByteLight is leveraging it to transform retail. At the Rubens House in Belgium, once hidden characters in paintings and other detailed information become available to visitors on their mobile application as they walk towards paintings. It’s also transforming:

Child Care: The Mimo Baby Monitor also uses Low-power Bluetooth to relay information such as skin temperature, body position, and activity pattern to the parents’ connected coffee mug.

Automotive: BLE continues to innovate the transportation experience with Automatic, a smart driving assistant. Automatic will provide services such as automatic tolls, gas payments and efficient driving recommendations by interacting with roadside services and learning drivers’ habits.

The Home: The power of LED lights and Bluetooth that ByteLight is using to revolutionize retail is being brought to the home with Ninja Sphere. This household device aims to give users complete control over every object in the home - it can even keep tabs on where your pets!

Personal Finance: While ByteLight makes it easy for shoppers to find the products they want, iBag will make sure they don’t break the bank in the process. The location-enabled purse can be programmed to lock at specific locations or times of day to prevent consumers from overspending. 

Meteorology: PressureNET connects the built-in barometric sensor in users phone to the company’s app to provide more accurate local thunderstorm and short-term weather forecasting. 

For more information on how you can leverage the Internet of Things to transform your retail experience, contact ByteLight today.

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iBeacon and Indoor Location are Driving Big In-store Engagement Metrics

In light of the popularity of ecommerce, one thing stands to save traditional brick and mortar retailers: indoor geo-location technology. This might sound like talk from a sci-fi movie to some, but new metrics reveal that this real and current technology is not the way of the future, it’s the way of now.

Yet, in recent survey by Experian Data Quality, decision-makers for in-store retailers have cited that implementing geo-location capabilities in their stores is a low priority, with only 20% of respondents citing that geo-location technology was their most important data priority.

Here at ByteLight we want to emphasize the ROI provided to retailers by implementing indoor location services in their stores. We’ve realized brands and retailers need to know more about the engagement measures provided by geo-location technology.

New data released by inMarket shows that in retail stores that use indoor-location data, there was a 19x increase in interactions with advertised products. App usage in-store increased by 16.5x and the likelihood that a shopper kept an app that sent them a message on their phone increased by 6.4 times.

inMarket said it measured interactions through customers picking up physical products and scanning barcodes. The study was conducted in a controlled sample of 25,000 shoppers over 30 days in April and May of 2014.

In a joint engagement we did with Appconomy to support Chinese quick service retailer, Yummie House, we found that an indoor-location campaign increased in-store retail engagement by 30%.

In this case (recently highlighted by Streetfight Magazine) Yummie House wanted a solution that could automate check-in for their customers. Appconomy's Jinjin is similar to Foursquare, and our technology helped to make store check-in simpler. Customers would be reminded to push a button on their mobile devices to check-in when they entered the store or at checkout.

Our technology helps achieve results like these, and can even grow upon it, offering indoor location positioning to all consumers regardless of the type of smartphone device they carry. This opens up the potential to drive even greater live engagement as Visible Light Communication and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) positioning technology in-store becomes, as we envision, commonplace for all retailers. 

To find out more about driving in-store engagement in your retail store with indoor location, contact ByteLight today.

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Storify Highlights from Lightfair 2014

At LIGHTFAIR International 2014, ByteLight and GE Lighting showed how ByteLight's indoor location solution enables GE's LED fixtures to communicate with shoppers’ smart devices while in-store, enabling retailers to provide exciting new location-based services. Check out this Storify with all the show highlights, including demo videos, photos, media coverage and more.

Thousands of LIGHTFAIR attendees stopped by the GE booth to see the ByteLight demo. Our live demo showed how retailers can engage connected shoppers from the parking lot to in the aisle. Using a combination of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Visible Light Communication (VLC), the demo shows our mock retailer welcoming return shoppers as they approach the store, presenting the fastest way to navigate to the sneaker department, displaying location-aware product information and customer reviews, and offering a coupon for wearables based on purchase history and behavior. View our Storify to see the demo and more highlights from LIGHTFAIR 2014.

[View the story "ByteLight and GE Lighting at #lightfair2014" on Storify]