Philips have introduced an intelligent lighting system designed to help shoppers find their way around a store while notifying them of special offers relevant to their location. The company says its new system works with a companion app on a shopper’s smartphone and aims to give them “greater personal control of their shopping experience.”
The technology creates a communication network throughout a store via special lighting fixtures, each of which incorporates a location-sensing beacon. These start interacting with a shopper’s mobile device shortly after they enter the premises. Visitors will be able to bring up a map of the store on their display to more easily search out particular items, while location-based offers and information will be transmitted to the user’s phone as they move around the store.
A Philips spokesperson said, “If a shopper plans to make a Mexican meal for dinner, the app on their smartphone can serve as a ‘personal shopper.’ It can point him or her to the aisle where they would find a jar of guacamole, or, if they preferred to make it fresh, plot a route through the aisles to the avocados, tomatoes, onions, chilies and limes. As the shopper approaches various products, the app could also introduce new brands available in the store or make suggestions for alternate recipes.“ “The beauty of the system is that retailers do not have to invest in additional infrastructure to house, power and support location beacons for indoor positioning. The light fixtures themselves can communicate this information by virtue of their presence everywhere in the store.”
