Verifone and its beacon technology provider Footmarks are partnering with Allrecipes.com and grocery retailer Marc’s in Ohio to deliver meal recommendations to shoppers.
Beacons, small devices that communicate with mobile apps over Bluetooth, are being used by grocery stores and other retailers to provide offers to consumers while they shop. The recommendations from Marc's, delivered in the Allrecipes Dinner Spinner app, are based on those trending among local users and feature products currently on sale in the store. The season and local weather is also factored into recipe suggestions.
Allrecipes framed the offering as an example of how beacon technology can provide new customer engagement and native advertising opportunities for retailers like Marc’s, which has 58 stores in Ohio.
"We understand the importance of using technology to craft in-store engagements that are personal to shoppers, stores and brands,” Allrecipes president Stan Pavlovsky said in a June 2 news release.
"We look forward to working with other types of merchants going forward to test different beacon programs and continue to push the envelope of this technology," said Richard Char, Verifone's senior vice president of business development, in the release.
Allrecipes, a food-focused online social networking service, says it logs more than 1.3 billion site visits annually and mobile users view 35 million of its recipes each month while making grocery purchase decisions in-store.
