American Eagle Outfitters and Shopkick today announced plans to launch shopBeacon in 100 of American Eagle Outfitters’ top-performing stores across the country. 

According to a press release, Shopkick’s shop Beacon is the first Apple iBeacon-based presence signal for retailers. When the trial goes live next month, it is anticipated to be the most widely deployed trial in the nation.

Apple has already begun placing the iBeacon transmitters throughout its own stores, coinciding with an update to the Apple Store mobile application. The company is also trialing the technology in Starbucks stores. 

Coupled with an application, iBeacons location-based technology can enable functions for the consumer like notifications and touch-free purchases. PayPal recently announced Beacon, an iBeacons dongle that plugs into a power source and that pings any PayPal iPhone users in its proximal cloud and allows them to check in and make purchases through the PayPal app. 

In American Eagle stores, shopBeacon will welcome and show customers location-specific rewards, deals, discounts and product recommendations, without customers even having to remember to open the app. It can also tie at-home browsing behavior to in-store benefits. For instance, if the customer “likes” a specific product online, if they so choose, shopBeacon can remind them where in the American Eagle Outfitters store that product is sold. 

To install shopBeacon, a retailer simply sticks the device on a wall or other flat surface. Each shopBeacon has a battery life of five years. The shopkick software developer kit (SDK) allows stores to customize and further personalize the ways brands and retailers interact with shoppers through their own store apps using shopBeacon.