Mr. Leheis, we are already familiar with the EuroShop app. What is new about it?
What’s new is that visitors are now able to specifically select those product categories they would like to get information on during the trade fair. The topics are divided into our 7 dimensions: Shop Fitting & Store Design, POP Marketing, Lighting, Visual Merchandising, Food Tech & Energy Management, Expo & Event Marketing and finally Retail Technology/EuroCIS. Visitors can choose as many topics as they like from these categories.
Where can I get the app and how do I select the subject areas?
The EuroShop Messe app is freely available for download from the App Store for iOS and Android smartphones. If you call up information about exhibitors and set up an interest profile, the product categories you are interested in are highlighted.
What happens next?
Once you activate the Bluetooth function on your smartphone, you are able to receive the iBeacon signals sent out by the booths of those exhibitors that offer this service. Transmitters are set up there that send news into the immediate vicinity.
Can you give us an example?
A visitor who is looking for new lighting solutions and is also interested in the topic of ePayment could subscribe to both the Lighting and Retail Technology EuroShop dimensions for example. When the visitor approaches the signal, he/she receives push notifications on the smartphone.
What are the benefits of this new feature?
This service is intended to make a visit to EuroShop even more efficient for all participants. The advantage of narrowing down the interesting topics and product categories for the visitor means he/she receives far more relevant news. The advantage for exhibitors is the fact that they reach their interested parties without scattering losses – and in an interactive manner.
Beacons and geofencing are not just technologies that pass information to visitors. After the trade fair, exhibitors also receive a detailed analysis of the acquired data. These are the kinds of additional benefits that are becoming increasingly popular in brick-and-mortar retail.
The iBeacons are more suitable for indoor use due to their range. That’s why you also use geofences outside the halls to inform visitors.
Yes, that’s correct. In addition to the beacons, which have a radius of approximately 40 meters thanks to Bluetooth technology, we are also offering geofences. In this case, a “virtual fence“ is created using GPS coordinates – where the radius is unlimited and therefore perfectly suited to outdoor areas and the way to the exhibition center. App users also receive push notifications with this technology when they enter the zone. To do this, the smartphone’s location-based services need to be enabled, that being the GPS feature. Users must agree to both the use of Bluetooth and the GPS feature.
How can exhibitors install the feature at their booth?
This process is handled by Messe Düsseldorf. Here, exhibitors are able to book different packages that offer various options on how many beacons the companies would like to use and how the information is meant to be dispersed.
We hope trade fair visitors are able to benefit from this new service and make even better use of their stay.
