Possibilities of using beacons in advertising

Beacon is a device, that broadcasts its identifier via Bluetooth Low Energy signal to nearby mobile devices, like smartphones or tablets. A special application installed on user’s device serves additional functionalities, that improves general user experience. This technology allows companies to develop advanced systems, that can enhance and support advertising campaigns of products and services. In this paper there is a description of the prototype of the system supporting selling special strategy for a large retail store. This strategy, called webrooming, is based on the assumption, that user is choosing the products via special webpage, and afterwards collects the order on-site, at the store. The mobile part of the system is supporting the user in creating shopping lists, showing the nearest products during shopping trip and by path optimization based on mobile agents’ signal. The impact of distance and Wi-Fi network on operation of application was tested.