Johannesburg, 24 Oct 2017
You walk into a shopping mall with a rough idea of the location of the store you need, and end up walking what feels like kilometres before admitting to yourself that you actually have no clue. Eventually you find a touchscreen directory or the rarest of beasts, an actual help desk and the way to your store. On leaving the mall, you realise the store you were looking for was mere metres from where you had parked your car. Sound familiar?
Quentin Daffarn, MD, UC Wireless, says nobody should have this experience in today's modern mall. "The next 'big' thing in trend-setting shopping centres in Europe is WiFi navigation. Today, everyone expects free WiFi when they sit down for a cup of coffee at their favourite mall. Providing this service to customers has become routine. However, possibilities have evolved and now shopping centres are able to provide visitors with real-time navigation to the outlet of their choice - and back to their parking spot when they've completed their errands."
Obviously, there's a quid pro quo, in that in exchange for providing this invaluable service to shoppers, the shopping centre is able to capitalise on marketing and commercial opportunities. Shop owners can create marketing campaigns based on demographics, visitors' positioning and historical data. They're able to send in real-time, highly targeted messages and e-mails or coupons to regular and new customers, so they can send sale or special offer notifications to the customer as he or she is passing by that particular store.
There's also the ability to analyse customer flow through the mall to identify areas with lower foot traffic and make the necessary adjustments, says Daffarn.
He adds: "Being able to provide shoppers with permanent Internet connectivity across the mall and the ability to track these shoppers obviously results in a large amount of data that needs to be analysed in real-time so the customer can be given directions or marketing information about nearby outlets."
To access the free WiFi service, shoppers have to log in through the captive portal, using the login method of their choice, including their phone number or e-mail address, or they can login via their social media accounts, or they can fill out a short questionnaire. In exchange for free Internet access while they're within the confines of the shopping centre, customers provide their personal data and the ability to track their progress around the mall.
An in-depth analysis of the resulting data - including information about visitors' gender, age, and location as well as their engagement and retention rate - enables the business owner to create and send customised advertising campaigns directly to the shopper. The shopper can also be offered the option of using a virtual menu, virtual points or stamps, or navigation to selected places. Surveys can be conducted in real-time, again generating data that can be used to tailor the customer experience.
Daffarn lists the following business benefits of implementing conditional Internet access in a retail mall environment:
* Appropriate adjustment of special offers to the customers' needs;
* Establishment of direct contact with the customer;
* Increased brand appeal, enhanced relationship with the customer;
* Increased effectiveness of advertising campaigns;
* Increased brand awareness among customers;
* Optimisation of sales and advertising space, increased staff efficiency;
* Lead generation;
* Geofencing/location-based advertising in real-time; and
* Business intelligence and analytics.
Bearing in mind that the bricks and mortar retail operation is competing with online stores that offer ease of navigation for the user, it makes sense that they offer a similarly user-friendly experience within the mall itself. The majority of today's shoppers are familiar with technology and are comfortable using it to get the information that they require, and offering free WiFi enables the shopping centre to combine the best of both worlds.
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