The Global Smart Beacon Market Anticipated to Generate a Revenue of $17,497.4 Million, Growing at a CAGR of 29.6% from 2021 to 2028 - Research Dive

The global smart beacon market is estimated to be valued at $17,497.4 million by 2028, surging from $2,332.0 million in 2020, at a noteworthy CAGR of 29.6%.

Covid-19 Impact on Smart Beacon Market

COVID-19 pandemic had drastic effects and consequences globally that brought the world economy to halt and changed the way how several enterprises and companies operate. The imposition of lockdown in some regions of the world has caused several industries and enterprises to slow down or stop operating. Smart beacon industry sales were also impacted owing to closure of retail and manufacturing industry, the prime consumers of beacon technology. However, owing to digitalization and automation efforts undertaken by manufacturers and retailers, utility of smart beacon is likely to increase in the future. Also, healthcare industry is actively utilizing beacon tech to prevent and mitigate the spread of the virus. Number of groups are working on novel beacon-based applications to prevent the spread of disinformation regarding the number of diagnosis and treatment options, death tolls, and vaccination.

Market participants are taking considerable steps and developing new business strategies to recoup from the pandemic's losses. After the COVID-19 epidemic, integrating AI and machine learning with Bluetooth low energy beacons is projected to open up lucrative potential for business growth. The worldwide beacon technology market is expected to grow rapidly following the end of the crisis period, owing to such advanced technological breakthroughs.

Global Smart Beacon Market Insights

Industry 4.0 or forth industrial revolution symbolises a significant transition in modern businesses. The industries and firms are likely to move towards digitalization and automation.  Increased data and connection, new analytics capabilities, developing ways of human-machine interaction, and improved digital instruction transfer are all driving this transition. However, linking the physical and digital worlds will require the advent of wide area linked networks, such as beacon infrastructures. In the not-too-distant future, enterprise IoT, Industry 4.0, and industrial IoT will alter businesses. While the function of beacons in retail and marketing is still being defined, major organisations in manufacturing, retail, and even healthcare are becoming aware that beacon infrastructures is likely to aid in transparency and guide in efficient day-to-day operations. Moreover, with Google Inc. and Apple Inc., multinational technology companies aggressively promoting beacon technology, along with successful business use cases developing in retail stores, airports, and other locations throughout the world, the smart beacon market is expected to grow even faster.

The market is expected to be hampered by data privacy and security throughout the forecast period. The information is transferred via beacon technology to the relevant mobile application, which is subsequently linked to the beacon and saves all of the user's personal information. This information may be vulnerable to a data breach.

However, the rising prominence of location-based marketing in the retail business can be linked to the growth opportunities. For brick-and-mortar merchants, blending the benefits of a physical shopping experience with the advantages of a digital ecosystem has become critical. Additionally, investments in proximity solutions such as smart beacons are on the rise, allowing businesses to cut their marketing and advertising costs.

Global Smart Beacon Market, Segmentation

The global smart beacon market is segmented based on component, application, protocol, end-use, and region.

Component:

The component segment is further divided into hardware and software. The software sub-segment of the global smart beacon market value is projected to surpass $6,805.4 million by 2028. The growth of the sub-segment is projected to pick up steam as demand for in-store analytics to optimize store operations and better customer experience grows. Also, many new companies are migrating to software solutions as beacon companies grow more reliable and offer a consistent stream of products, leaving hardware and infrastructure to a very small group of enterprises.

Application:

Based on application, the smart beacon market has been sub-segmented into tracking & tracing, engagement, position & navigation, analytics, and others of which the analytics is projected to generate the revenue of $2,211.4 million by 2028, with the fastest compound annual growth rate of 31.6% during the forecast period. Beacon analytics solutions offered by smart beacons will aid retailers to improve their store layout, increase operational efficiency, and build better business insights that benefit both merchants and customers. With retailers' increased desire for consumer data for understanding shopping behavioral patterns, the sub-segment's growth is likely to accelerate in the future years.

Protocol:

Based on protocol, the smart beacon market has been sub-segmented into iBeacon, Eddystone, and others of which the iBeacon is projected to generate the revenue of $12,894.8 million by 2028, with the compound annual growth rate of 29.4% during the forecast period. Since iBeacon was first developed, several businesses have produced iBeacon-compatible hardware transmitters, also known as beacons, which are Bluetooth low energy (BLE) device that advertises its identity to nearby portable electronic devices. As Apple Inc. was the first to create beacon technology, iBeacon has a significant market share and is expected to continue growing during the projected period.

End-use:

Based on end-use, the smart beacon market has been divided into retail, manufacturing, logistics, real estate, healthcare, and others of which healthcare sub-segment is projected to generate the revenue of $1,942.1 million by 2028, with the fastest compound annual growth rate of 31.6% during the forecast period. Growing adoption of smart beacons in hospitals for automating internal operations and patients’ data is enhancing patient satisfaction and hospital’s efficiency. Moreover, health institution’s emphasis on building brand awareness and spreading health awareness to improve public health is anticipated to propel the utility of smart beacons over the forecast period.

Region:

The smart beacon market growth for the North America region is projected to be substantial over the forecast period. This market generated a revenue of $838.8 million in 2020 and is further projected to reach up to $6,068.1 million by 2028. Owing to the widespread use of beacon technology in the hotel and retail industries, North America dominated the industry in 2020. Moreover, increasing digitalization of industry and increasing use of business intelligence by retailers fostered the growth of the market in the region.

Top 10 Major Key Players in the Global Smart Beacon Market are -

1. Estimote
2. Kontakt.io
3. Aruba
4. Sensoro
5. Vision IOT
6. Gimbal
7. Sensorberg
8. Glimworm
9. Blueup
10. BlueCats

The smart beacon market is currently extremely fragmented, with only a few large and many small firms. The major strategies of these companies include product innovation, collaborative partnerships, and acquisitions of smaller entities.

Estimote, a Bluetooth location beacon start-up, announced a new solution in April 2020 to combat the transmission of the COVID-19 virus. The firm created a line of wearable technologies to improve workplace safety for personnel who must co-locate at a physical location while preserving social distance.

Along with company profiles of the key players in the market, the report includes the Porter’s five forces model that gives deep insights into the competitive environment of the market.

Porter’s Five Forces Analysis for the Global Smart Beacon Market:

• Bargaining Power of Suppliers: There are now a significant number of companies selling the key components of smart beacons, such as the battery, central processing unit (CPU), and radio. The majority of industrialized countries rely on imports of such components from other countries, such as China, India, and other South East Asian nations. As domestic beacon component supply is limited, global suppliers currently have significant market bargaining power. 
  Thus, the bargaining power of the suppliers is moderate.
• Bargaining Power of Buyers: With only a few players and no dominant player, the market is fragmented. Customers have more flexibility to negotiate cheaper rates and better packages, therefore beacon switching costs are low. With more customers for beacons across many industrial verticals, buyers' bargaining power is expanding in the current context. 
  Thus, the bargaining power of the buyers is high.
• Threat of New Entrants: Government rules and regulation such as privacy acts including Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or the U.S.’s California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) are impacting the use of beacons. However, low capital investment and demand for new proximate marketing technologies are promoting the growth of startups. 
  Thus, the threat of the new entrants is moderate.
• Threat of Substitutes: In comparison to alternatives such as Near Field Communication (NFC) or Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, smart beacon offers tremendous capabilities and value. The substitutes for proximate marketing such as NFC or GPS have disadvantages such as low range and expensive tech respectively. Smart beacons are cheaper and much more feasible tool for proximate marketing. 
  Thus, the threat of substitutes is low.
• Competitive Rivalry in the Market: The smart beacon market is fragmented market with a large number of small players. However, few big firms are investing heavily in beacon technology, exploiting their financial strength and global market reach to gain a competitive advantage over other players in the market.
  Therefore, competitive rivalry in the market is moderate.