Retail Indoor Location Market Breaks US$10 Billion in 2020

​The latest edition of ABI Research’s groundbreaking report, Indoor Location in Retail: Where is the Money? reveals that total indoor location revenues are forecast to reach US$10 billion in 2020, driven primarily by BLE Beacons and advertising.

Principal Analyst Patrick Connolly comments, “The US$10 billion revenue number is broken down into its constituent parts, with initial revenue primarily derived from infrastructure, recurring fees, and analytics. This provides the backbone for advertising revenue over the second half of the forecast period; in particular ABI Research has forecast very strong revenue growth for in-store / local search and coupon / offer advertising. This opportunity is reflected in the spate of proximity advertising networks that are springing up in 2015 across the globe, with Twitter recently investing in Swirl.”

“From a technology perspective, BLE Beacons are now the anchor technology for the vast majority of deployments worldwide. But we have already seen hybrid deployments that include ultrasound and Wi-Fi, with small cell / LTE expected to feature more strongly as these networks are rolled out. BLE Beacons are not always the answer, and companies need to embrace hybrid.”

“Looking at the competitive environment, there are a host of new companies to watch in 2015 that are going to make the jump to chain wide deployments—expect to see some huge announcements over the coming 12 months. Major players like Facebook, Groupon, and Google will also join the fray, which would have a real multiplier effect on adoption, particularly in SMEs. More traditional players like Wi-Fi access point vendors and people counting OEMs have aggressively moved into new indoor technologies. Finally SK Telecom has shown how carriers can play a major role in this space and we have forecast others to follow.”

These findings are part of ABI Research’s Location Technologies Market Research.

ABI Research provides technology market research and technology intelligence for industry innovators. From offices in North America, Europe and Asia, ABI Research’s worldwide team of experts advises thousands of decision makers through 70+ research and advisory services. Est. 1990. For more information visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.