Swirl Releases Results of 2016 Holiday Season Beacon Marketing Campaigns

BOSTON, Jan. 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Swirl Networks, Inc., the leading Mobile Presence Marketing platform provider, released results today from beacon marketing campaigns run by a number of leading retailers during the recent holiday season. Using the Swirl platform and Bluetooth beacons to connect with consumer smartphones, these retailers were able to engage, influence and analyze the behavior of opted-in consumers as they shopped in and near the retailers' stores. The results demonstrated that beacon marketing programs are having a significant impact on driving traffic into stores, influencing in-store traffic patterns, and increasing retail store sales.

Swirl analyzed campaign data from more than one million in- and near-store beacon interactions that took place in November and December at thousands of store locations owned by national retailers. Through the Swirl platform, retailers were able to compare the real world behaviors of shoppers who received beacon-triggered messages with the benchmark behaviors of a group of shoppers who were not sent any in-store mobile messages.  Campaigns were designed to drive specific business objectives for each retailer, generating the following results:

• A mall-based specialty retailer saw a 41% increase in average basket size and a 36% increase in mall to store traffic conversion rate
• A branded apparel manufacturer saw a 7% increase in outlet store traffic and sales, resulting in a projected 7x return on investment
• A leading department store increased traffic flow to targeted departments by 10 – 17%
• A specialty apparel retailer saw a 13% increase in mall to store traffic conversion rate, resulting in a projected 5x return on investment   

"The proliferation of Bluetooth Low Energy signals that are now available in the form of beacons, WiFi access points, payment terminals and light fixtures from the likes of Cisco, Verifone and GE, coupled with the massive audience of Eddystone-enabled smartphones created by Google's recent release of Nearby Notifications, has eliminated many of the early barriers to retailer and consumer adoption, especially as it relates to audience access and scale," said Hilmi Ozguc, Founder and CEO, Swirl.

"These holiday program results demonstrate just how powerful this technology really is and how quickly it is scaling in the marketplace.  We are excited to be working with some of the nation's top retailers as they expand their beacon marketing programs to more public rollouts in 2017. The in-store beacon marketing ecosystem is quietly but steadily growing in scale as more and more retailers see the tangible impact that this technology is having on their business," said Ozguc.

"The results of Swirl's beacon-powered holiday campaigns are impressive," said J. Skyler Fernandes, Founder and Managing Director of Simon Venture Group, the corporate venture capital arm of Simon, an S&P 100 company, and the largest retail real estate company in the world. "With billions of consumer visits per year, shopping malls represent ground zero in the reinvention of retail.  At Simon, we've been supporters of innovative technologies like beacons, and we believe that this technology will play an increasingly important role in the future of retailing."

About Swirl Networks
Swirl offers leading retailers the industry's first complete mobile presence management and marketing platform. By leveraging GPS, WiFi, VLC and Bluetooth Low Energy beacon signals in their brick and mortar stores, large-scale retailers rely on Swirl to generate greater value from every shopper visit. Swirl works with industry leaders including Lord & Taylor, Urban Outfitters, Timberland, Samsung, Oracle, Google, Cisco and many more. Swirl is backed by top-tier investors including Twitter, Simon, Hearst, SoftBank and Longworth Venture Partners.

Contact: Rob Murphy, [email protected]

SOURCE Swirl Networks, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.swirl.com