iBeacons brings in-store 'hyperlocal' selling to Apple Stores

Walk into an Apple Store from now on, and your phone might start trying to sell you those sweet earphones you?ve been looking at for awhile. Apple on Friday morning activated its new iBeacons system at all 254 stores in the United States, part of an apparent attempt to expand in-store sales.

The system?new in iOS 7?is designed to work with Apple?s official Apple Store app. It detects that you?re in the store, and your location therein. Walk near the accessories, for example, and your phone will send you a push notification inviting you to take a closer look at the merchandise.

But iBeacons isn?t quite as frictionless for the consumer as that scenario sounds.

I attempted to test iBeacons when the Apple Store in Center City Philadelphia opened on Friday morning. Employees there let me know there were three iBeacon locations in the store, but I never quite made it work. (It did work, however, on the phones of employees, who had just received training about the new system that morning.)

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Source: http://www.macworld.com/article/2070240/ibeacons-brings-in-store-hyperlocal-selling-to-apple-stores.html#tk.rss_all

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