Many people find it difficult to navigate in large shopping mall buildings, even if it’s not their first visit. Conventional signs and visual stands are not always clear to the customer, and it’s not easy to use them for navigating the space. Because of this, many shopping malls introduce modern technologies that make this process easier. These include digital shopping mall maps, which are available in mobile apps for smartphones. With their help, you can easily find any goods, as well as get directions to the desired aisles, restaurants, bathrooms, and other amenities at the mall.
Features and capabilities of indoor navigation for shopping malls
The shopping mall wayfinding system is based on special beacons or tags that are installed in various spots at the mall. At a certain cadence, the sensors send radio signals that are picked up by the readers and transmitted to the servers. Then, the information is processed and sent to the user's smartphone, where the mobile app is already installed. Several technologies can help carry this out, such as Bluetooth® Low Energy, Wi-Fi, UWB, etc. The choice of a suitable protocol is determined by the company's budget, the area of the shopping mall, and the features of the app.
Implementing the indoor navigation system into the infrastructure of the mall opens up wide opportunities for the store to optimize and increase profits. Its main features include the following:
- Building routes to shops. The technology provides a seamless digital experience and helps build routes to stores or goods inside the mall. Building a short path is based on the user's location and provides opportunities for convenient access to places of interest, taking into account elevators, passages, and escalators.
- Searching for amenities. An essential feature of the system is helping you quickly find bathrooms, information centers, and other points that users may need when visiting a store.
- Searching for cars in parking lots. Most shopping malls have large parking lots, where you can often get lost. This problem can be easily solved with special RTLS-based tracking platforms. The system will indicate the location of the vehicle and create a route that will allow you to get to the car without wasting any time.
- Push notifications. The technology will be a good solution not only for visitors but also for the management of the mall. Once deployed, marketing departments can send targeted alerts to customers that take into account a person's location and route. So, when a visitor passes by a particular store, they may receive a notification about the products, discounts, or special offers on their smartphone.
- Client analytics. Shopping mall owners receive detailed statistics on the operation of their business with an analysis of customer movement. From that point on, you can determine the main customer paths, and the frequency of visits to the store, as well as get a lot of other crucial data.
Unlike conventional visual navigation, the digital wayfinding solution can collect data and optimize the company's work to attract new customers and increase profits. The system clearly shows the most popular spots among visitors, which provides more opportunities for effective investment.
Indoor Navigation and Wayfinding BLE Kit - Kontakt.io Hardware
Try all location-powered capabilities with the Navigine Indoor Navigation and Wayfinding BLE Kit - Kontakt.io Hardware
PurchaseAlong with the technologies listed above, QR code navigation has become increasingly popular in recent years. It’s quite easy to implement and allows you to create user-friendly mobile apps with a digital map of the shopping center. To use the navigation solution, simply scan the QR code with your smartphone after entering the store. After that, the application will display a detailed map with points of interest, build the best route to the desired location and provide additional information (for example, personalized notifications about promos or discounts).
To learn more about how QR code navigation works, scan the QR code below:
6 benefits of implementing indoor navigation using shopping mall maps
Shopping mall navigation has many advantages. Let’s take a look at the 6 main benefits of introducing indoor navigation into the infrastructure of a shopping mall.
Increasing customer loyalty by reducing shopping stress
Many large shopping malls are characterized by complex layouts. A large number of hallways and shops sometimes forces visitors to wander around the floors for hours in search of the desired goods. All this leads to stress, causing dissatisfaction. The client becomes less loyal to the mall and thinks about whether they should visit it again.
Thanks to indoor navigation, you can increase customer loyalty. Convenient route planning and real-time maps reduce stress and allow you to quickly find the necessary objects and save time on visiting the store. The system improves the customer experience and encourages them to return to this particular spot again.
Increasing the average spend from sales
When using an indoor navigation system, users are provided with a convenient search for goods. People can walk around the store without any fuss, find the most convenient route for themselves, and buy all the goods they need.
On the way, shopping mall apps send the customer notifications about current promotions and sales, provide information about new products, and focus on specific products. As a result, they may buy more than they originally intended. Thanks to this approach, the average spend increases, which leads to an increase in profits.
Obtaining an additional marketing channel
When using shopping mall apps, the owners of the shopping mall acquire an additional marketing channel that allows them to send personalized offers to customers. This works more effectively than traditional ads because people are always tired of offers that are of no interest to them.
Users are sent only relevant information that encourages purchases, such as:
- invitations to attend sales;
- promotional offers;
- coupons;
- information about bonuses or discounts;
- interesting product facts.
It’s also important to note that the needs of users are taken into account when building routes. Each route is built in such a way that the visitor passes near advertising stands or stores with promotional goods. This approach encourages customers to go to those stores that they wouldn’t have visited otherwise, and this helps increase the average spend and the income of the mall.
Personalized interaction with visitors
The system provides detailed analytics about where visitors spend most of their time. Based on the stores visited by the user, you can send promotional messages or show similar stores on the map. Shopping mall owners get the opportunity to promote certain goods or services, as well as tell users about the additional amenities, such as restaurants and cafes, children's rooms, upcoming events, etc. based on their interests.
Obtaining an accurate analytical tool for further optimization
Implementing shopping mall analytics provides store owners with a powerful tool that presents detailed statistics on customer behavior, such as the following:
- building heat maps;
- visitor flow maps;
- identifying the most visited shops in the mall.
Implementing shopping mall analytics allows management to place stores in such a way that they meet the needs of the customer for a particular product.
Navigine's Open Source Initiative
Joining the trend towards innovating shopping mall navigation using digital technologies, Navigine offers an Open Source solution in the form of multiple navigation algorithms developed by the company, for businesses in the retail industry. With our Open Source solution, developers can easily customize and integrate advanced indoor navigation algorithms into their apps. By sharing their expertise and continuously conducting research and development, we aim to drive innovation and help create user-friendly apps that satisfy each shopper's needs.
Positioning the shopping mall as an innovative space
For many consumers, when choosing a shopping mall, its reputation matters. The more popular and advanced the store is, the greater the desire to visit it. The digitalization of the shopping mall plays an important role, given the state of technology. Shopping mall wayfinding allows you to position the mall as an innovative space and attract more visitors.
The system becomes not just a convenient assistant in navigation, but also a competitive advantage, which sets the mall apart from other stores. Implementing the system creates a positive shopping experience and encourages the client to make purchases.
It has already been proven that modern technology can encourage sales. The presence of unusual features increases attendance at the store, and at the same time encourages the visitor to make purchases. If the customer is impressed, they strive to come back to this particular shopping mall.
In addition to classic indoor navigation, navigation by using QR codes for mobile apps has also proven itself to be effective recently. It’s enough for the customer to scan a code with their phone to get a digital map and the shortest route to the place of their interest. More details about the system can be found in the article at: https://navigine.com/blog/indoor-navigation-using-qr-codes/.
Navigine develops indoor navigation systems for shopping malls, known as Navigine SDK, and provides customers with effective tools for implementing technology in mobile apps.
To learn more about our software, leave a request on the website or book a free Zoom demo:
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