LevelUp, the mobile payments company, is announcing the successful use of iBeacons as a means of increasing invest occurring mobile payments at participating businesses.
 
iBeacon is one of Apple’s latest updates to iOS location services through bluetooth technology. “Beacons” Typically devices are small enough to fit in your hand and use Bluetooth Low Energy to ping customers carrying iphones.
 
LevelUp Launched Their iBeacon program in early May. Just 30 days later, Participating businesses experienced a 22% Increase in average customer spend through the LevelUp app or the business’ custom mobile payments app running on the LevelUp platform. The rate of transactions with previously from “lapsed” customers (Those who returned to using LevelUp after an absence of more than 30 days) Increased by 63% Following LevelUp’s iBeacon rollout.
 
The Increase in mobile payments is at LevelUp businesses resulting in Increased customer spend for businesses as customers are Reminded of upcoming loyalty rewards.
 
Already have delivered LevelUp Beacons to 50 Participating businesses with plans to deliver as many as 1,000 more before the end of summer. Any merchant partner is using LevelUp LevelUp eligible to receive a iBeacon for Their business. Installation is as easy as plugging the beacon into any standard power outlet.

Source: Update Increases Mobile Payments by 20 Percent

Even in a war zone, a young team of developers hip are difficult to design work and testing new applications iBeacon.

At least that’s the case, in Kiev, capital of Ukraine, where the team of three members Latio are doing extensive testing on some of the trendiest restaurants in the city in order to narrow your restaurant application they say will revolutionize the how to access the virtual menus and order food.

“The situation here is difficult, but we are still working on our project,” founder and director Artur Latio Kiulian VentureBeat by telephone from Kiev on Thursday.

Kiulian was pointing to the war raging in the east, where government forces are fighting against secessionist with small arms, artillery and helicopter gunships in order to avoid an armed movement whose members want to take new territory in debt to Moscow.

“With our application, we need to provide more value to customers. But we do believe we have minimized friction for application integration in the restaurants.”

With two restaurants as guinea pigs, Kiullan and his team made some interesting discoveries about consumer preferences, including whether they would be comfortable ordering iBeacon using technology. Their research indicates that, without a doubt, iOS is a much better position to operate within the Android ecosystem iBeacon.

Some of his conclusions, as indicated by Latio, enter:

“That 15 percent of iOS users in the study enabled when opening our application had BLE, 80 percent of people light BLE per our request. Around 60 percent of users keeps BLE light after application usage . eight percent of iOS users did not support BLE.

About 8 percent of Android users had BLE on when downloading our application, about 50 percent of users it lit by our request and 40 percent remained. About 35 percent of Android users had no support BLE.

It’s that kind of data that does not reveal many companies simply because it shows the real state of the ecosystem BLE. Many users still believe that the low power consumption of bluetooth does not drain the battery and there are still plenty of people who have the support of the same. ”
One of the problems facing the Latio team was that while many of the younger residents of the city have adopted iBeacon technology, most do not even know what it is. Convincing the two restaurants to collaborate in the study was relatively simple, Kiulian said.

The study worked like this. When users Latio walked application together with the two of iBeacon, their phones were pinging a welcome, then users receive a menu. But there is still work to be done in the application, and developers are heading back to the drawing board for fine adjustments.

“We have to give more detail to the user, as well as provide special offers and best reasons why you should eat there. Need a better conversion rate, and we see a very large market for iBeacon” Kuillan said.

In a post-mortem revealed Latio developers:

“Of course, you can send a push notification to each person walking by, we tried and did not work.’ve Been sending invitations and special offers from restaurants to people walking. It was very hard to convert people, even with the offer waiting more impressive. that gave us another clue, we can not and should not try to make people do what they do not want, we have to enhance your experience while meeting context.

So we tried something else, we have provided the securities to customers who came to the restaurant and make it easy to check out prices and menu immediately, without any search and friction, which has just appeared. And it worked, people seemed to navigate menus and those were the people who wanted to visit the restaurants. ”
The ubiquitous iBeacon is actually a portable transmitter, inexpensive notifying other iOS devices 7 presence. About 30 companies to make iBeacon, Kiullan said. Produced mainly for iOS, Android OS can receive ads iBeacons, but can not transmit. So no limitations there.

The iBeacon has won praise for its signature low power and speed of sending push notifications to Apple hardware like the iPhone, iPad and even iPod. Applications for iBeacon are almost limitless, and the technology is only beginning to gain strength through vision application developers, as Latio, for example.

Apple products, including the iPhone, are popular in Kiev, and application of Latio is specifically developed for him.

“Things are changing very quickly, Kuillan said.” Hopefully 2014 will be the dawn of the Internet of things and be that missing link iBeacon him. ”

At the end of the day, and his small team Kuillan learned a lot.

“We need to think carefully about the possible features iBeacon for your application, because it is not only a lot of spam notifier is an experience, and to keep people using it you really need to provide the value of that experience.”

Source: In a war zone, iBeacon app developers working to change the way you order food

With iBeacon Apple retailers can literally ‘tap’ shoulder to the customer and convince occur without the annoying unsolicited sales representatives

The power of a buyer seems to be growing as increasing competition from hives to the retail industry. It seems they spend and are not willing to settle on the best product only – best price, convenience, shopping experience and early delivery are some of the many lawsuits that have recently added to your shopping list.

“This is something that major retailers and brands have wanted for a long time – the ability to leverage, virtually, to consumers in the right shoulder in that moment of truth when you are making a purchase decision and influence them a way or another, “said Hilmi Ozguc, CEO of swirl networks, a company that provides marketing networks for iBeacon platforms.

These changing trends have pushed thinking merchandizers comprehensive marketing strategies to attract more customers. They also have begun touting deals and discount as part of your advertising drives bargain hunters turn to. However, these tactics remain fruitless if they are not targeting the right people at the right time. To address this, Apple Inc. (AAPL) came up with a solution to that problem in a Worldwide Developers Conference last year: the iBeacon technology, which should be integrated into its latest iOS7.

Unlike a global positioning system (GPS) is a sensory iBeacon low-cost technology that has the ability to help people navigate indoors. The iBeacon itself is a signal emitting device that, when installed in stores, you can directly send messages relevant to the smartphone from a buyer, allowing the retailer to market products more significantly.

In order to be able to use the technology, the client must have a corresponding application installed in its / their phones and to enable your Bluetooth iBeacon can start communicating with the phone once he / she enters a store. Apple has already predetermined the Bluetooth settings on their new phones to promote the use of iBeacon. It has also encouraged application developers to develop applications that use the technology iBeacon.

Macy’s, Inc. (M) became the first chain store retail to deploy this technology in November last year. Technology, integrated with application Shopkick ShopBeacon ‘allowed the second largest department store chain in the U.S. to deliver personalized messages to customers entering their stores. Elaborating on the application of technology, Chief Executive Terry Lundgren said Macy: “We know where you stand and how long it has been standing in front of Michael Kors bag and if you have not purchased if not,. I’ll send a quick note to encourage him to do it. ”

Here’s how it works: a person standing on a concrete walkway Store will receive promotional offers related to the items listed in that particular area. In fact, the integration of micro-location technology and big data analytics can help extend a retailer accept offers based on a consumer searches the past, shopping, and ‘likes’ even social media. Hari Gottipati, an independent technology consultant in Phoenix, says: “The more data you have about the customer, the more you can increase sales.”

Later, Apple also introduced the technology in 254 of its own stores in the U.S., allowing customers to minimize their interaction with store associates and receive personalized messages about current offers, relevant events and advice on how and when to update their phones, as I browsed through the shops. The technology was pushed into the spotlight in the Super Bowl this year, when Apple partnered with the NFL to test using the iBeacon personalized advertising.

InMarket, a startup mobile shopping technology integrates iBeacon loyalty application Checkpoint 150 Giant Eagle supermarkets Inc. and Safeway Inc. (SWY) to enable customer participation in the custom level. The project has demonstrated that it has led to greater brand loyalty and increased sales. “The mobile technology InMarket mortar beacon is a unified way to help our distributors are committed with buyers and achieve incremental sales.’s A win-win,” said Sue Klug, senior vice president and CMO of Unified Grocers, another client company. A recently completed study by InMarket based on a sample of 25,000 buyers suggests that the use of iBeacons can increase customer interaction with products advertised in 19 hours, led by a 16.5-fold increase in the use of applications in the store.

No wonder cheap technology micro-location, once considered a futuristic invention, is quickly gaining traction. Its customer base has expanded to include American Eagle Outfitters (AEO), Walgreen Company (WAG), Duane Reade, and others. It has been reported that Major League Baseball (MLB) is also installing thousands of markers in 10 ballparks for next season.

However, the issue of privacy is. It remains to be determined whether customers will have the use of technology as a violation of their personal space, or an opportunity for value messages as. Rob Garf, VP of Strategy and Vision Ware industry in demand, says: “Consumers adopt the technology if no material value, as an added convenience, service and customization.”

source: …

We just spotted recently a huge discount available on that beacon, on sale now for only $59.95 offered by BUYibeacons.NET here: http://buyibeacons.net/index.php/9year-battery-ibeacons-long-life-beacons.html

The parameters are also very promising. 9 year iBlue beacon package, Water Resistant, 200 ft Range, SNF beacon, Security Encryption, RM CORTEX MO, TX output calibrated to +I- 1dBM, fully customizable, optional: Buzzer, LED.

There are also few other beacons at BUYibeacons.NET which seems to be the world’s first marketplace for ibeacons but we expect more like that to emerge soon.

Use of the iBeacon logo means that a Licensed Product has been designed and certified by the manufacturer to meet Apple performance standards. Apple is not responsible for the operation of this device or its compliance with safety and regulatory standards. Please note that the use of this product with iPod, iPhone, or iPad may affect wireless performance.

iPad, iPhone, iPod, and iPod touch are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. iBeacon is a trademark of Apple Inc.