• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, December 8, 2015

Mobile shoppers often are looking for deals and it looks like more of those deals will be coming thanks to beacons.

While the number of coupons delivered via beacon technology this year is estimated in the millions, it is on the way past a billion, based on a new study.

The number of coupons delivered after being triggered by beacons is projected to hit 1.6 billion in 2020, up from 11 million this year, according to Juniper Research, which interviewed leading couponing players.

Some large retailers already have installed beacons in most or all of their stores. For example, Macy’s has deployed 4,000, they’re in all Lord & Taylor stores and being tested in 50 Target locations in major U.S. markets.

The report identifies four keys to digital/mobile coupons, all of which we have chronicled here over the last many months:

• Enhance engagement with the end-user
• Track purchasing patterns
• Analyze the relative success of campaigns
• Deliver targeted, personalized offers based on location

Coupons generally are used essentially to drive transactions. The next phase for coupons triggered by beacons is hyper-personalization, effectively creating individualized engagements across all brand offers, according to Juniper.

Companies using beacons have told us that redemption rates of those who engage are high, a point reaffirmed in this study.

One of the reasons for the rather high growth projection of beacons is the expansion of beacons for Android phones, which dominate mobile market share globally.

Only time will tell if the projections for beacon-triggered coupons come true.

While many studies and points we hear in the market indicate that the actual deployment of beacons at retail will be very high even just into next year, the ultimate question is the best use case that materializes.

While beacons can facilitate more relevant coupons based on location, they can do so much more.