Speed, agility, and efficiency are what retailers are looking for. Thanks to Bluetooth technology, advanced tools are evolving daily to support retail businesses. Bluetooth doesn’t simply reduce your expenses and improve your planning, more than that, it provides you with a competitive edge to thrive and grow in the market.
What is Bluetooth Technology?
Bluetooth is a wireless technology that is used to transfer data between two different electronic devices without the help of cables, cords and adaptors. The distance between them ranges from 10m to 100m.
The development, licensing and trademarking of Bluetooth was formed in 1998 by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). This technology has evolved significantly over the last 20 years and is available in most electronic devices, like headphones, speakers, smartphones, smartwatches, computers and many more. It has become an essential factor in everyday life.
How Bluetooth Works
Bluetooth technology has a personal area network or piconet, containing 2-8 Bluetooth peer devices. A master is a device that initiates communication with other devices. The master device administers the communications link and traffic, between itself and slave devices. A slave device is a device that responds to a master device. Slave devices must synchronize within the given time slot with the master device.
Transmissions by slave devices are governed by master devices. Exactly, a slave device may only begin its transmission in a time slot, addressed by the master. Here the master device dictates when the slave device has to transmit.
The hopping frequency sequence is well-defined by the Bluetooth device address (BD_ADDR) of the master device. The master device then sends the first radio signal to the particular slave device within the range.
Then the slave device responds and synchronizes their hop frequency, as well as the clock of the master device. Scatternets are created when the device becomes an active member of more than one piconet. The adjoining devices share their time slots among different piconets.
Bluetooth Technology operates in frequencies between 2.4 and 2.485 GHz, Bluetooth connectivity is modelled on the packet-based protocol, consists of data packets and transmits each packet on one of the 79 designated Bluetooth channels.
Various Bluetooth Devices
- Bluetooth headsets: Being used especially in smartphones, these headsets enable connection without wires. They are repaired with voice reorganization; hence you can talk without using your mobile headset.
- In-car Bluetooth headset: Without using a mobile device, you can receive and make calls, with the help of a car speaker system.
- Bluetooth webcam: The wireless capabilities add mobility to the device unlike conventional webcams, which pier onto or near the computer.
- Bluetooth speaker: A more convenient to connect your phones to a speaker
- Bluetooth printer: Bluetooth printer can print documents and pictures from any Bluetooth device. The devices are synchronized and they are in range to connect printers.
- Bluetooth beacon: It has rendered so much to the retailer market. They are physical devices that transmit data to and from other devices using Bluetooth, hereby increasing customer interaction and loyalty. Customers can walk around the store, add necessary items to their virtual shopping through their phone. Next, they just have to process them to the collection counter and click beacon driven notifications to finalise their payment.
- Bluetooth barcode scanner: Rather than using complicated hardware, Bluetooth scanners help cashier quickly connect and scan products for a seamless checkout experience.
In conclusion,
Bluetooth technology has simplified the experience of using hardware and software for both sellers and buyers. Countless retailers are optimizing this advance to improve their retail performance. It’s prime time for business owners to think smart and create an omnichannel shopping journey with Bluetooth. Follow ConnectPOS for more in-depth insights on omnichannel retail trend.
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