NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Proximity.Directory, the world’s largest directory of proximity companies, has released its Q1 2017 Report which has aggregated information from more than 388 Proximity Solution Providers in over 52 different countries and reveals the latest trends, facts and figures from the global proximity industry and its increased adoption by the retail industry. This is the 8th edition of the Proximity.Directory Report and the second time the report has dove into the retail vertical.
Previously, Proximity.Directory’s Q1 of 2016 report explored the use of proximity data in retail. The following is a year over year data comparison highlighting key changes in the industry:
| 1. | 75% of U.S. retailers have implemented proximity technologies into their marketing mix, including Walmart, The Kroger Company, Home Depot, Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc, Target, CVS Caremark, Lowe’s, Best Buy, Safeway, Sears Holdings, TJX, Macy’s, Rite Aid, Apple Retail, and Dollar General. | ||
| 2. | Since Q1 2016 there has been a 7% increase in PSPs implementing Google’s Eddystone while adoption on Apple’s iBeacon has declined by 3%. | ||
| 3. | Sensors deployed globally have dramatically increased. 134% growth in sensors deployed in 2016. | ||
| 4. | 14,486,000 sensors registered as of Q1 2017, an increase of 11% from Q4 2016. | ||
| 5. | Proximity products and services: Data monetization grew by 13%, Online retargeting by 10% and Proximity Advertising networks by 9%, highlighting the importance of utilizing the proximity data. | ||
| 6. | Technology and software: Wi-Fi is becoming more popular compared to other technologies and software. Wi-Fi adoption has grown by 7% the last year. |
“E-commerce is growing exponentially. Amazon is eating retailer’s lunch as they have a tremendous amount of data on their customers,” said Thomas Walle, CEO and co-founder of Unacast. “Consumers still enjoy traditional shopping as more than 90% of sales come from ‘brick and mortar.’ Retailers need to bridge offline and online, know their customers better and be able to fully personalize the shopping experience, similar to what they experience online.”
Key Findings:
- More companies adopting to the Eddystone protocol as 56% of the industry supports it as of Q1 2017 compared to iBeacon’s 87%.
- Going into 2017 we see an increase in all proximity based products and services, as well as proximity advertising networks, data monetization, and online retargeting are gaining traction amongst PSPs.
- Beacons are still the most popular proximity technology in the industry, with 91% followed by GPS/Geofence at 58% and Wi-Fi at 35%.
- Retail & Shopping malls are still the most popular industry vertical utilizing proximity data while 50% of the PSPs are operating in 10 or more verticals.
- Operating profits for medium-sized retail chains is expected to grow to 12% with a ROI of 365%. ROI in beacon technology can be as high as 2,776% for retail giants that already have mobile applications.
- Retailers that struggle due to changing demand and increased use of e-commerce (e.g. book retail) can still improve their position and increase operating profit by almost 9% with a ROI of 175%.
- Europe still has the most PSPs registered with the Directory (43%) compared to North America’s 40%, while the United States represents 35% of the total number of PSPs.
- As many as 62% of the PSPs in the directory started up in 2013 and later, as a result of the release of iBeacon and Eddystone.
Real cases submitted by Proximity.Directory partners repeatedly prove an average conversion rate of 15%, which increases revenues by approximately 10%.
Case Study Summaries:
-
Multikino Multiplex Cinemas and Coca-Cola engaged
millennials using mobile advertising coupon campaigns in the cinema by
using geofencing through Proxi.cloud in Poland. In order to get a
coupon, users had to be in a specific location and “shake” their
smartphone to receive special coupons.
- Results: 260 000 shakes made by 80,500 unique users during a two month campaign, 5% offline conversion rate (resulted in coupon redemption in the Cinema).
-
Dell used ShopAdvisor to build awareness and consideration
around the Alienware and Pandora product lines and drive foot traffic
to selected brick & mortar locations throughout several regions in the
U.S.
- Results: Over the course of the six-week campaign, there were 9.4 million shopper impressions between 183 retail locations, which included 1.5 million value-add impressions. Drove 20,276 incremental visits to retailers, a 42.1% lift compared to the people who did not see the ads.
-
Lord & Taylor used entrance beacons that broadcasted BLE
signals into nearby common areas of U.S. malls. Visitors who walked by
these areas received relevant, time-sensitive marketing messages that
encouraged them to stop by the store during their mall visit.
Additional in-store beacons were used to measure the number of
messages mall visitors who came into the store.
- Results: Through a series of campaign iterations and an ongoing optimization process, Lord & Taylor was able to positively impact store visit rates. The company has also generated meaningful insight into the content, design, and messaging approaches that drive the highest mobile engagement rates for in-store shoppers.
-
To drive footfall and generate awareness of the recently opened
ice-cream pop-up stores by targeting users based on location, Unilever’s
Magnum used beacons and geofencing from Tamoco to provide
effective measurement of how many users went on to visit the store; to
prove the benefits of receiving location insights in real time in
order to inform future campaigns for Magnum.
- Results: A daily average of 3,091 and a total of over 85,000 push notifications were sent to users as they entered a particular geofence. Of these notifications, 3,279 opened the notification and 1,785 users visited the store after receiving the notification, which was validated by using in-store beacons—a 54% conversion rate.
Unacast will be hosting a webinar to discuss Proximity.Directory report findings on Wednesday, May 31 at 1:30pm ET. The webinar is free to attend and registration information is available on the event website.
About Unacast
Unacast, the world’s largest proximity data platform, built the Real World Graph™ to understand how people and places are connected. Unacast data empowers the next generation of data-driven industries with unique and highly accurate data sets and insights, built on a foundation of double-deterministic™ proximity data.
Unacast is based in NYC, founded by Thomas Walle and Kjartan Slette, who were also part of the founding team behind TIDAL, the music streaming company acquired by Jay Z. Unacast has garnered multiple awards for its platform,campaigns and for its rapid company growth, most recently winning the Ads-to-Action Award in the “verticals & marketplaces” category at the Local Search Association (LSA) awards in San Diego.
About Proximity.Directory
Proximity.Directory is the world’s largest directory of proximity companies. Recently rebranded from Proxbook to open up the platform to a wider audience and companies, shifting from having a technology specific focus towards the deterministic location story. There are other analytics/hardware/software companies out there that are not focused on NFC, Wi-Fi or Beacons, but still able to solve location through deterministic context. As of today we encourage all of these companies to sign up to the directory for free and start showcasing their products.
