Looks like I might have to revise my perception of in-store beacons as technology that won’t matter until a year or two or three from now (at best). I don’t have industry-wide numbers, but on its own, startup inMarket says it’s already reaching a significant percentage of US consumers — 31.5 million of them each month.
If you’re skeptical, well, inMarket is comScore-verified for the first time, so they’ve have been checked by a third party. (inMarket is the first beacon platform to be verified in this way.)
That means inMarket is already reaching 18 percent of mobile shoppers in the United States. And keep in mind that this kind of rollout, with beacon devices installed in stores, takes time.
inMarket’s beacons and similar devices (including Apple’s iBeacons) allow businesses to send targeted promotional messages to consumers when they’re actually shopping. inMarket announced a rollout in some major stores earlier this year and also released numbers showing that its approach appears to be paying off for advertisers.
In a press release, CEO Todd Dipaola pointed to inMarket’s integration into existing shopping apps as a big reason for its growth: “Our beacon program works because we reach shoppers in stores via the shopping apps they already use and love. We’ve found that shoppers only want relevant apps when they’re trying to shop.”