Aislelabs lets physical retailers market in real time via iBeacon, WiFi, and GPS

Looking for ways to connect the online behavior of digital customers on your e-commerce site with the in-person shopping behaviors of customers in your physical stores? And market in real time, digitally, with people walking your aisles?

Now that’s possible.

Toronto-based startup Aislelabs launched a marketing automation platform for brick-and-mortar retailers today, saying it’s the first-ever solution that will help retailers build real-time digital marketing campaigns for in-store deployment and connect them with their existing online marketing campaigns in major systems such as Salesforce (Pardot), Adobe, Oracle, SAP, and Marketo.

The platform “features a full fledged iBeacon management system, a content creation component, campaign management and planning, campaign analytics (with A/B testing functions, and socially focused campaigns),” CEO Nick Koudras told me via email.

Above: Viewing your iBeacons in a store

Image Credit: Aislelabs

The company’s AislelabsFlow product uses Wi-Fi to help retailers understand where customers are going in their store and what they’re doing, providing analytics that can help retailers design their stores to generate maximum revenue. And via Apple’s Bluetooth-based iBeacon technology, the company delivers real-time automated marketing campaigns in its AislelabsEngage product, which integrates into the retailers’ own apps, as well as third-party apps.

This helps retailers build relationships locally by rewarding loyal customers and repeat visitors. It also allows retailers to create in-store digital marketing campaigns that target very precise locations and behavior.

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For example, visitors to the high-margin cosmetics counter could receive incentives to purchase more. Alternatively, if they’ve spent a long time there without buying, a retailer could opt to send them a coupon or special offer. Retailers can also create social offers, promising discounts for sharing deals with friends on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

Retailers can also target nearby shoppers who haven’t even walked in the door, as iBeacon’s Bluetooth implementation has up to 50 meters, or 150 feet, of range.

Retailers can create these campaigns via a web-based interface, Aislelabs says, building multi-step engagement plans that are personalized to each unique visitor based on their preferences, frequency of visits, and what is known about them from their digital device. Data from known users who self-identify can then be streamed to the retailer’s standard marketing automation engine and CRM system for further follow-up.

The company plans to support all major marketing systems, CTO Nilesh Bansal said, adding that the company also supports major CRM and email marketing systems — and will serve “all major providers” by the end of the next quarter.

Aislelabs has not yet announced pricing.