But for Estimote co-founder Steve Cheney, the promise of beacons is not simply in pushing coupons to nearby shoppers.
The main issue preventing these types of great ideas (granular geofencing, passive check-ins, pushed coupons) from becoming reality is the fact that GPS radios consume incredible amounts of power.
The Nook also has software that will detect when a consumer walks into a store so that it can push out coupons and other promotions like excerpts from forthcoming books or suggestions for new reading.
Later on, Nadkarni tells us, retailers could use Zoomingo's check-in to push out coupons or other offers.
By using AT&T's network as the bridge to be constantly updating your location (assuming, of course, you opt-in to such a feature), these retailers are able to push these coupons to your phone via SMS.
Already, businesses were using Snapchat to push out coupons that expire almost instantly and must be collected and redeemed in rapid succession – the 24 hour clock on Stories content sets the stage to give them something more to hang their hats on, thanks especially to the public visibility option.
SnipSnap has already linked with newspaper publisher Gannett to push a coupon bundle promotion into the Sunday editions of some of their newspapers, which will call on users to download all of the print edition's coupons in one shot with the app.
This channel lets brands reach fans directly, with the ability to push out promotions, coupons and disseminate their news.
The retailers, whose combined sales are nearly $1 trillion annually, want to push offers and coupons to their customers, the WSJ reported this spring.
Launched in September 2011, France-based Shopmium enables large consumer brands to engage directly with users through special offers and coupons pushed to their smartphones.
