Singapore mall 313@Somerset is pioneering a retail technology connecting shoppers to contextual content and promotions in real-time.
The retail innovation – Beacon-based Indoor Positioning – enables shoppers to receive hyper-targeted messages, special offers and other content based on their proximity inside the mall.
In partnership with Asia’s location-based shopping platform Sprooki, the mall conducted test trials on August 11 and 12 in the form of short experiential tours around the mall with exclusive test groups invited to take part. The tests were designed to give shoppers an immersive firsthand experience of the Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) features, with a focus on relevant, accurate indoor messaging and deals.
Selected 313@Somerset retailers across fashion, lifestyle and F&B categories participated in the tests with Beacons being installed at specific points across different floors and positions within the mall.
The mall’s existing mobile app (powered by Sprooki’s platform), Tring 313, was also upgraded to be compliant with BLE Beacon technology, including Apple’s iBeacon, to deliver a more authentic taste of what this indoor positioning technology what the app can potentially do for both shoppers and retailers.
Tring 313 is a location-based mobile app that consolidates offers and deals exclusive to 313@Somerset. When within the vicinity of the mall, the app alerts shoppers with “push notifications” that offer news, deals, and promotions in the form of “coupons”.
“Beacon-based Indoor Positioning offers immense potential for 313@Somerset’s retailers, as well as increasingly technologically savvy and connected shoppers,” the company said in a statement.
It uses battery-operated Beacon devices, the size of a thumb-drive, to emit low-energy Bluetooth signals with an identifier for that particular Beacon. These signals communicate directly with BLE Bluetooth compatible devices, such as a smartphone or tablet.
The beacons do not track devices; they emit a signal to the device prompting it to do something. An app is required for a mobile device to ‘see’ a Beacon. When placed throughout the mall or store, BLE Beacons are detected by shoppers’ mobile devices, provided their Bluetooth and Location Services preferences are turned on.
Shoppers, who have the Tring 313 app (beta version) and opted in, may subsequently receive alert notifications within one to five meters from the nearest Beacon. A much tighter range compared to the current Tring 313 app which uses a mix of GPS, cell tower triangulation and Wi-Fi access points to alert shoppers within a 50-400m radius outside the mall.
“The idea of conducting this Indoor Positioning closed beta group testing with Tring 313 came with the acknowledgement of Singapore’s increasingly technology-savvy society and highly digital landscape, where smartphones, tablets, laptops and other mobile devices serve as platforms for access to news, social feeds, information etc,” said Cheryl Goh, GM of 313@Somerset.
