Super market already planning to beam ads to your Apple Watch when you walk in

Apple Watch digital crown

Marsh Supermarkets, a retail food chain headquartered in Indianapolis, IN, with stores throughout Central Indiana and parts of Ohio, has installed iBeacons in all of its 75 stores and plans to run Apple Watch triggered advertisements when you walk in the store, AdWeek was the first to report.

The Apple Watch isn’t even on sale until reportedly March, but that isn’t stopping Marsh from preparing to take advantage of the hands-free advertising.

“If you look at that situation when you’re running through a store, how much more convenient is it to have a hands-free option to see what you’re making for dinner or understand what the deals are when you’re in-store?” Todd Dipaola, CEO of inMarket, the platform that’s powering the in-store activation, said.

inMarket claims to have the world’s largest network of beacon-enhanced shopping apps.

Marsh plans to beam customers’ Apple Watches with offers, coupons, and recipe suggestions it thinks will better your shopping experience, with inMarket’s help. Furthermore, AdWeek reports Marsh will link the mobile offers to its loyalty program to track coupon redemption and sales data to better serve customers with advertisements.

iBeacons, announced by Apple in mid-2013, is a group of low-powered, low-cost transmitter hardware that can notify nearby iOS 7 devices of their presence through advertisements or other notifications. Several companies across the US have been working on installing iBeacons across their properties, including Major League Baseball, Disney World, Macy’s department store, and more.

It’s interesting the Apple Watch hasn’t even launched yet, and retailers are already targeting away to plop themselves on your wrist. Some analysts have believed the Apple Watch will be a hit, which could be good for retailers, while other analysts think it will flop in its first generation.

“We’ve built the integration ahead of the debut so on day one—as the Apple Watch comes out—these apps can be ready for prime time,” Dipaola said, having a positive outlook on the wearable.

Digitimes reported last week that many analysts in the Asia region have cut their forecasts for first-generation Apple Watch shipments to as low as around 10 million units in 2015. Analysts are more optimistic about sales of second-generation Apple Watch with improved software and better features.

Source: AdWeek