Ryan Bonifacino
The rush of retailers rolling out iBeacons is beginning. On Thursday, the jewelry store Alex and Ani announced it's using the sensors in its 40 stores nationwide, which is believed to be the first full deployment of iBeacons in a retailer aside from Apple. "We always want to try the latest and greatest," said Ryan Bonifacino, vice president of digital strategy for Alex and Ani. "By the time it hits the common vernacular or early adopters we've already been first in line."
For brands selling and marketing to consumers in multiple channels simultaneously, attributing orders to the marketing channel responsible for generating a purchase is a problem that's been vexing retailers for years. In a session at this week's eTail East conference in Philadelphia, a panel of retailers (and one vendor) discussed how their companies handle the troublesome task of order attribution.