Swirl, the mobile beacon company that recently made headlines for a deal to put beacons in Hudson’s Bay and Lord & Taylor stores, has released aggregate data from its first three months in the North American market.
Swirl says that among shoppers that had downloaded participating retailers’ apps and opted to receive beacon notifications, 60% opened and engaged with a notification, and 30% redeemed a beacon-based offer on the visit they received it.
The company is currently running a trial of its beacon marketing system with select locations of the Hudson’s Bay, Lord & Taylor, Urban Outfitters, Timberland and other retailers. Data was aggregated across all clients’ stores, bringing together more than 10,000 discrete interactions across Canada and the U.S.
Shoppers who had opted in to notifications gave good reviews in in-store surveys conducted by Swirl’s retail partners. Of several hundred surveyed, 73% said that beacon content or offers made them more likely to make a purchase, and 60% said they would buy more as a result of receiving beacon marketing notifications.
Sixty-one per cent said they would visit stores with beacon campaigns more often. Sixty-one per cent also said they would do more holiday shopping at stores with beacon content or offers.
“I think this study and survey lets people know shoppers are open to this messaging,” said Rebecca Schuette, vice-president, business development for Swirl. “Obviously these shoppers have opted in to this technology – they need to have bluetooth turned on, they need to have an app that is beacon-aware, and they need to have accepted this type of messaging. I think that’s why shoppers are open to it.”
Schuette said that in her experience, the campaigns that were performing best were those that related to the location the beacon was placed in a store – a shoe offer in the shoe department, for example – and those that presented exclusive offers that weren’t available to non-mobile shoppers.
