Offer-driven mobile application The Coupons App revealed today that it is leveraging beacon technology to enhance the user experience by delivering location-based alerts inside malls from retailers, brands and restaurants.

The Coupons App, which provides more than 10 million users with deals and coupons from more than 100,000 retailers, has partnered with Mobiquity Networks to deliver offers in more than 475 malls equipped with beacons managed by the marketing firm. As a result, users will receive alerts when they are nearby stores and restaurants where promotions can be redeemed.

“Everyone in the value chain benefits when you pair the audience of coupon apps with the indoor location awareness afforded by beacons,” said Jim Meckley, chief marketing officer at Mobiquity Networks. “When you deliver offers that are timely and relevant based on location, shoppers win as they are much better positioned to take advantage of the promotion – they don’t have to save it for later and remember to use it.

“The retailer or brand making the offer wins by getting a better response to their campaign because the offer was served to someone who was more likely to be interested and actually in a position to act on the offer. And the mobile app wins by doing a better job of giving their users what they want, when they want it,” he said.

Contextual relevance
Users of apps such as The Coupons App have already shown an interest in receiving offers from merchants and brands. By pairing the app with Mobiquity’s beacon network, the app is able to reach these users when they are likely in a shopping mood as they walk around a mall, helping merchants and brands deliver contextually relevant offers.

Messages are triggered when smartphone owners with The Coupons App on their device are nearby one of Mobiquity’s beacons. The Coupons App has embedded Mobiquity’s beaconing software into its app.

Mobiquity claims that its network of publishing partners such as The Coupons App and others has the potential to influence 400 million shopping visits each month.

“Recent campaigns delivered via our network have shown ‘drive to store’ rates as high as 45 percent, which means that these relevant, timely mobile message served to shoppers as they enter or linger in the common areas of the mall, are actually driving them into that store to shop,” Mr. Meckley said.

Mobile-savvy shoppers
The partnership points to how mobile-savvy consumers want to shop.

A recent study by Retale revealed that 84 percent of millennial shoppers respond to push notifications and 61 percent are interested in promotion offers that can be redeemed immediately.

Beacons are a growing tactic for meeting millennial shoppers’ needs, with Juniper Research forecasting that beacons will be used to distribute 1.6 billion coupons by 2020.

Malls partnering with Mobiquity Networks include Rouse (see story) and GGP (see story).

Shopping apps partnering with the beacon network include Shopular (see story)  and ShopAdvisor (see story).

“Ultimately, beacon-triggered content will be personalized based on the user’s real-time location, proximity to specific points of interest, and – very importantly – to self-expressed interests relative to the app used to deliver the campaign,” Mr. Meckley said.