Before the widespread adoption of Free Wi-Fi, the retail property industry had limited channels for obtaining customer data. These channels included raffles, competitions, events, and a slow accumulation of registration sign-ups from their websites. This was because the primary relationship existed between the retailer (tenant) and the property owners, with few channels connecting visitors and the property owners. As a result, property owners had minimal opportunities to build direct relationships with their visitors.

In the past decade, property owners’ introduction of Wi-Fi offerings has transformed customer acquisition strategies for retail properties worldwide. These Free Wi-Fi services typically require visitors to provide their contact details in exchange for access. Despite advancements in internet bandwidth, such as with 5G and fibre optics technology, Wi-Fi usage and registrations have continued to surge. As a result, Wi-Fi has remained the foremost driver of customer data acquisition. Many property groups have amassed databases numbering in the tens of millions through this channel.

So, what makes Free Wi-Fi so valuable to both retail properties and the customers they serve? 

1. Customers demand high quality Wi-Fi services when they visit

Customers still value the quality of Wi-Fi experience at Retail Properties, with ease of sign-up, quality of service, and speed of bandwidth being critical factors. Here’s why customers value Wi-Fi so much:

• Internet connectivity is critical in the way shoppers engage in retail today, whether it be searching for products, evaluating alternative pricing options, or searching for offers and promotions.
• Despite mobile carrier coverage continuing to improve, the quality of coverage can still be impacted when visiting retail spaces, whether visitors are traveling through large internal shopping precincts, and more so, while in-store at specific retailers.
• Finally, in countries where mobile coverage is generally limited or customers are trying to limit the use of their internet plans, access to Wi-Fi in community spaces like shopping malls is relied upon in daily life. 

2. Wi-Fi remains the leading customer data acquisition channel, with no competition in sight

As mentioned earlier, many property groups have built massive, rich customer databases. Here’s why Wi-Fi is so effective for retail properties in acquiring customer data:

• No website would be complete without a sign-up form, and we see Wi-Fi portals as serving the same purpose, acting as a registration channel within physical environments. This is crucial for retail properties to drive data acquisition, as physical traffic will be significantly higher than digital traffic on their websites, so the conversion must happen at their properties.  
• Wi-Fi not only captures customers’ emails but acts as a survey tool during sign-up, with the ability to capture additional information, like retail preferences, visitor satisfaction, and demographic data. Customers can be continually profiled during each subsequent visit.
• The cost of customers acquired through Wi-Fi is significantly cheaper than other collection methods. For retail properties with targets on data acquisition, delivering Wi-Fi services and ensuring you have the highest onboarding experience is the most efficient and cost-effective way to hit these targets.
• Wi-Fi customers who actively market their Wi-Fi service to customers will typically see significantly higher conversion and Wi-Fi utilization rates, helping to grow their database faster.

3. Wi-Fi is the only customer data and location intelligence technology, with powerful applications for retail properties

So, this is where things get really exciting. Wi-Fi can also track the location of Wi-Fi registered visitors as they engage with your venues. This provides a range of powerful use cases where we connect the profile of a customer (captured through registration) and their real-time and historical location information. This capability enables a range of powerful use cases, including:

• Delivering omnichannel marketing programs, by targeting customers during their shopping experience based on their precise location using proximity targeting, or their historical venue behaviours (e.g. visited during a particular sales or event). 
• Using the location data to evaluate how your campaigns have directly influenced their behaviour. 
• Enriching your database based on how visitors engage with your properties historically to deeply personalize campaigns. For example, their affinity to particular precincts, when they typically visit, and their engagement with particular services (e.g. car parking, click & collect).

4. The power of owned data to enable and future-proof your customer intelligence and digital transformation strategies

We now know that Wi-Fi is so much more than just a way to access the internet while shopping. This little engine that could is also playing a significant role in the future of place experience, helping our retail property customers drive their strategic customer insights and digital transformation strategies. 

Here’s why:

• This data is wholly owned by our customers. Why is that important? Most of our clients pay significant amounts of money to run research programs, target surveys, understand their trade areas/catchments, and enrich their customer data. Wi-Fi supports all these use cases and helps to significantly reduce the reliance and investment on these 3rd party services. It’s your data, with no downstream charges.
• Wi-Fi can also be used to improve the quality of traffic counting by combining other technologies, like people counting and lidar, with Wi-Fi location data, providing increased accuracy and depth of reporting.
• As a 1st party data asset, it can also support a range of tangential use cases. This includes empowering your analytics teams to run deeper analyses on your customers, supporting the running of retargeting programs through various ad platforms, and making possible initiatives that drive your digital experience programs. This is especially true of AI programs that rely upon the quality and depth of your data. 
• Even if our clients don’t run programs like this today, they certainly will evolve with the changing technology landscape in the future. Whenever the day comes, Wi-Fi can ensure they have years of rich customer information to execute these programs vs starting at square one.

Take advantage of our WiFi Captive Portal for Retail Properties

WiFi Captive Portal for Retail Properties includes everything you need to deliver a world-leading Wi-Fi experience, manage and optimize your customer data, and deliver highly personalized real-time customer communications.

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