Estimote: A link to the third party open to do location-based marketing platform

Estimote is a platform for location-based marketing that is open to third parties. At first, their product prototype was a parrot parked at the door of the shop. Estimote parrots can calculate the flow of people into and out of stores, record the flow of crowds in the store, and even analyze the sex makeup and buying patterns of customers. Overall, if you're a shopkeeper, you'd think it's a magical gadget.

And then, with the help of Y Combinator, they launched the Beacon on a parrot prototype. Beacon's design is like a broken gem, you glue it to the wall-you can use the app to preset the information you want to push, and then it will be able to subscribe to the store's user push information. At the same time, like the first generation of parrot prototypes, it will also report to you about the flow of people (or passenger flow) around you.

The following is a promotional video from Estimote, which is about Beacon's Demo:

To be honest, the video was too theatrical. Small series here to explain: the shopkeeper through the Beacon hung a "jump price 80 percent", and then his shop from the empty to become customers crowded.

Estimote is actually based on the location of the marketing platform for shopkeepers, the external release of information, and for consumers, it is timely access to your attention to information.

The founder of Estimote is Jakub Krzych (left) and handsome boy Łukasz Kostka (right). The company has been in a low-key operation (at the time the product was still the parrot), and now Beacon has begun to accept the open book. Both are computer trained, Krzych earlier was also a self-help network advertising platform adtaily Initiator.

The interview with the TC is Estimote CEO Krzych.

TC: Can you tell us a little about estimote?

Krych:estimote is committed to building a sensor based analysis and information platform. We'd like to think of it as an operating system in the physical world--it will change the way people operate offline stores and how consumers interact with physical goods.

The group we are currently targeting is physical retail. More than 90% of the world's transactions are traded in physical stores, and more importantly, more than 50% of the incoming customers have a smartphone, and the proportion is growing.

At the same time thanks to Bluetooth, WiFi, such as communication technology, we can use these tools to very effective understanding of consumer behavior and shopping preferences. These new data and communications technologies can boost consumer experience while bringing new passenger flows to retail outlets and reducing operating costs – a process we call smart retailing.

TC: The scope of the Internet of Things is so wide, so how did you choose the field now? Why the retail store?

Krych: The scope of the Internet of things is indeed very broad, but now it lacks a unified standard. Among the many competing technologies, we foresee that Bluetooth low power consumption (Bluetooth) is likely to prevail. Mainstream handset makers such as Apple, Samsung and Nokia all integrate this technology into their devices. This will mean that devices and objects will eventually be connected to the network through people's mobile phones.

More than half of the consumers who enter retail outlets each day are equipped with mobile phones, while the global line stores still account for the bulk of the deal. We expect this trend to continue for a long time to come. The experience of browsing and touching these items in a physical store is not even available to the most electric dealers.

However, in order to compete with online peers, offline retailers need to make a series of changes to improve consumer experience in the store. The future of the retail industry will inevitably discard those paper and pen records, all kinds of promotional two-dimensional code and pictures are the same. We know there must be a better way, and that's what we're doing.

TC: So what scale do you need to reach to create a strong enough network?

Krych: Our current beacon can send location-based information to the phone, between 2 and 50 meters away. They can record the arrival time of consumers and the distance between the goods, even to the behavior like fitting and touch goods. The more beacon a site has, the more information it collects and the more experience it offers. But a small amount of beacon can also build powerful micro-address applications in the store. The same beacon can be used to talk to different mobile apps.

Our strategy is to provide the retailer with the initial basic app to build the network, as well as provide the SDK for them to develop their own applications.

TC: What kind of promotion plan do you have on the product at present?

Krych: We are currently trying to work with some of the largest retailers in the United States and Europe. Now we can see the interaction between millions mobile phone and beacon every day.

At the same time we have also started the pre-sale developer suite, including a beacon sample and sdk--so that mobile developers and retail management organizations can add their own content to mobile apps. We expect to issue the first wave of products this summer.

TC: What is the difference between your products and other products that are monitored by retail?

Krych: There are also products like WiFi scans in the retail sensing field that monitor people's flow and behavior within the mall. But we don't think it's a good idea to do behavioral monitoring without the consumer's knowledge or authorization. A better approach would be to use apps to enhance their experience in the store, indoor navigation, customer service that can be subscribed to, and even wireless payments. Users can choose whether or not to participate in the process of experiencing ascension, believing that most users will be allowed to collect the appropriate data to allow us to do the experience better, this process is a win.

Via:tc
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