Beacons are sometimes billed as the next level of location-aware marketing. But in Japan, most people still don’t know what they are?and those that do typically have no experience with them.
According to JustSystems polling from August 2015, more than six in 10 internet users in Japan were not aware of beacons?and another 20.4% were not sure whether they were or not.
Retailers have their work cut out for them educating consumers about the technology. Not only did so few internet users know what they were, many did not care.
Though young people were more likely to have experienced beacons, it was still rare. Among women ages 20 to 24, 12.0% had. Among men the same age, the figure was 8.0%. Respondents ages 15 to 19 were slightly less likely to have seen beacons in action.
eMarketer estimates that Japan will be home to $1.361 trillion in retail sales this year. Although not much of that may be influenced by beacons yet, sales will grow slowly but steadily over the next several years, reaching $1.456 trillion in 2018.
