Since November 2014, video game retailer GameStop has been testing a new system that helps bring promotional content and information to customers’ smartphones, using Gimbal’s Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons at 36 of its stores in Austin, Texas. The game company is now beginning to assess the results of that trial, in order to determine how favorably customers at those locations respond to the beacon-based system, as well as whether it leads to increased sales. The firm then intends to consider the next U.S. region in which it will trial the technology, to verify those results. The system allows consumers to access information about the video games being offered in the specific section of the store in which they are shopping.
The long-term goal, says Charlie Larkin, GameStop’s senior director of technology innovation, is to deepen the retailer’s relationship with its customers and provide a more engaging in-store experience. The company is up against fierce competition from online sources, he says, so it has been focusing its research on ways in which it can bring a unique experience to shoppers who enter the physical store. As part of this effort, the firm launched a research division last year known as the GameStop Technology Institute (GTI).
The beacon-based solution being tested in Texas provides promotional offers and product information to shoppers who have installed a GTI-developed app on their iPhones. Texas-based beacon technology company Shelfbucks provides the iBeacon platform, configuring and installing the beacons themselves and integrating each beacon’s unique ID number with information that identifies its location within the store, while also providing content-management services.
Currently, only iPhone owners in the Austin area can try out the beacon functionality. To do so, a user must first install the GTI Labs test app available from the iTunes website. (Soon, Larkin says, the GameStop app available at the iTunes or Google Play website will also include beacon functionality.) The GTI Labs app offers information regarding products and stores, but with the Shelfbucks technology, it can also tailor that content according to a shopper’s location within a participating store.
At the front door of each store, GameStop has installed several “messaging beacons,” which transmit an ID that prompts the GTI Labs app running on a customer’s iPhone to display a welcome message, provided that the individual has turned on the handset’s Bluetooth functionality. From that point forward, as the customer walks around the store, he or she must actively request additional information within a given department in which that person is shopping, by bringing the phone very close to a beacon.
Traditionally beacons can transmit an identifier to a phone or tablet at a distance of many feet, thereby prompting the device to capture data specific to that location without any prompting from the user. However, Larkin explains, GTI did not seek this feature for the GameStop deployment. For one thing, he notes, the average store size is less than 2,000 square feet, so beacons from multiple departments would be received simultaneously in a typical beacon deployment.
In addition, GTI speculates that young shoppers—members of the Millennial Generation—have more than enough content vying for their attention on their phones, and pushing messages to this age group is not always appreciated. Instead, the beacons are set to transmit a very short-range signal of just a few centimeters. In that way, he says, shoppers receive beacon transmissions only if they want to.
“We’re taking a respectful approach,” Larkin reports. “We have to be respectful of just how chatty the device can be.” However, he adds, the stores do need to offer some education to shoppers, in order to ensure that they understand what they can gain from tapping their phones near the beacon. Currently, that education consists of signage on store shelves, as well as any information about the system that store personnel provide to customers.
Most stores have six to 12 beacons incorporated into signage indicating that a shopper can hold his or her phone near that sign’s beacon to learn more about the products on display in that area, and to receive promotional discounts.
The GTI Labs app then captures the unique ID number transmitted by that beacon and accesses data provided by the Shelfbucks system, starting with a list of games available for sale in that department. The user can select a particular game and learn more about it, read reviews and ratings, or view a video trailer about that game.
The initial installation in the Austin area, Larkin says, will lead to a second deployment in another region of the United States. The company is beginning to assess the results of the technology’s use in its test market to date, and plans to compare those results with the learnings it will gain from that second deployment. The long-term goal, he says, is to set up a technology-based engagement system throughout all stores. GTI could look at other technologies in the future as well, he adds, including Near Field Communication (NFC), which can also enable a smartphone user to access data by tapping the phone near a passive NFC RFID tag. However, he says, his team ruled out NFC for the initial installation—in part, because iOS-based phones do not support the reading of passive NFC tags. “The technology itself isn’t as important as the way we interact with the customer,” he explains. How content is delivered is less of a concern than the fact that consumers receive and engage with that content.
GameStop is just beginning to review the collected data regarding whether sales have increased at the stores offering the beacon technology, or how often the beacon-based data is accessed. The company hopes, however, that the system will encourage customers to continue visiting the stores, in order to access data while onsite without having to shop online for information.