Harnessing the Power of Wi-Fi in Retail

The Internet is the enemy of retailers, right? The thing that steals our customers and whisks them off to a land of cheaper options and convenience. Actually, not necessarily. In fact, Deloitte found that customers who use their smartphone whilst in a physical store are 14% more likely to make a purchase from that retailer.

In a world where millenials can easily and quite happily shop online, retailers are recognising the need to move with the times and merge online and offline in order to keep profits up.

So where is the marketing benefit in offering free Wi-Fi to customers? Many would argue that the place to spend money now is with a digital strategy, but what if that could incorporate the physical stores, too? Adobe’s 2016 marketing predictions say “we’ve seen in recent years the bar­ri­ers between our phys­i­cal and online worlds becom­ing weaker, and the grow­ing use of in-store tech­nolo­gies (such as iBea­cons and inter­ac­tive dis­plays) is a good exam­ple of how dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing has bro­ken away from the con­fines of our com­put­ers and mobile devices”.

Let’s take a look at 3 areas, which highlight the benefits of offering free Wi-Fi in stores:

Analytics and data

We all know that data is an incredibly important part of planning marketing strategy. Logging into free Wi-Fi with their social media log-in, customers can provide insights into their demographic information, opening up your data sample across all channels. The number of people carrying mobile devices with active Wi-Fi now represents a significant sample of the population and so it’s possible to accurately and anonymously measure shopping behaviour from the presence of Wi-Fi devices in store.

Expanding the limits of the physical store

It’s the moment which sees any sales assistant gritting their teeth – when a customer loves an item but the store doesn’t have their size so they will ‘just buy it online instead’. By putting tablets in stores, you can open up the limits of the shop floor and allow the sales assistant to still make a sale, with free delivery as an incentive and the credit of the sale going to the store. Not only are you instantly increasing customer service, but also limiting the chance of the customer changing their mind by the time they get home.

A personalised experience

One size certainly doesn’t fit all, and with the buyer’s journey now firmly in the hands of the buyer, tailoring our communication with them at all stages is crucial. There is now the ability to deliver mobile communications straight to a device based on physical location. Using this to recognise repeat visits allows you to apply loyalty points or even offer special discounts directly to the customer whilst they’re in store.

It’s certainly an interesting area, and one which will continue to develop. There’s a great whitepaper out at the moment which delves into this a little deeper, ‘Wi-Fi: The Future of Retail’ which you can find here.