Juniper Research forecasts strong growth in digital marketing coupons from Bluetooth beacons

The company also believes that there is significant potential for "out of home" proximity advertising, with beacons starting to be rolled-out on buses, tubes and taxis, targeting locations which see high footfall. Beacons, which find the location of a smart device using BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy, or Bluetooth Smart) signals, use transmitters to push pertinent content and information to devices which have their Bluetooth enabled.

Juniper forecasts that almost 1.6 billion coupons will be delivered annually to consumers through beacon technology by 2020. This is up from just 11 million this year, as retailers seek to develop proximity marketing campaigns in and around their stores. In its report, Digital Retail Marketing: Coupons, Advertising & Consumer Engagement 2015-2020, Juniper Research has found that spend on digital retail marketing is set to increase from $174 billion (£119 billion) in 2015, to $362.1 billion (£248 billion) by 2020 – an increase of 108 per cent.