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When visiting large shopping malls, many people feel stressed out. A large number of shops, crowds of customers, incomprehensible stands and signs - all this causes unpleasant emotions and makes it difficult to move around the building. Fortunately, managers can now improve customer experience by implementing indoor wayfinding technology. Efficient mall navigation enhances customer experience and helps develop a strategy to dramatically increase sales with loyal customers.
What is indoor wayfinding?
Indoor wayfinding refers to an indoor navigation system, which is introduced into the infrastructure of the shopping mall and helps visitors quickly build routes to points of their interest. It’s enough for the shopper to use the mobile app on a smartphone to find the necessary stores on the map and find the easiest and shortest way to them. This makes the task easier because there is no need to study stands and signs, determine which way to go, where to turn, and so on.
Indoor wayfinding for shopping malls is versatile and can be applied to any shopping outlet. Its key features are the following:
- determining the user's location;
- navigating on the territory of the mall and adjacent areas (parking);
- route building;
- sending push notifications;
- creating heat maps;
- collecting analytics to control and optimize the operation of the shopping mall.
How does the navigation system inside the mall work?
Indoor navigation is based on determining the user's location in real time. The system calculates the location of a person with high accuracy and helps them get from one point to another.
Various technologies can be used to implement indoor wayfinding. For example, many shopping centers use Bluetooth® Low Energy, which determines the location using special iBeacon beacons. Sensors are installed throughout the shopping mall and regularly send out signals that are picked up by customers' smartphones and help transfer certain information to users or build routes.
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Another efficient location technology is Wi-Fi. It can work with already existing access points and uses special labels that allow you to find users through a multilateration approach.
The interaction between sensors and reading devices is provided by a special software package called Navigine SDK. The accuracy of the system depends on the number of beacons (tags) and the type of smartphone, but on average it’s up to 3 ft for Bluetooth® LE and up to 10-16 ft for Wi-Fi.
Implementing the system using QR codes
In addition to the above mentioned technologies, the navigation system can be implemented using QR codes. At the entrance to the shopping center, the visitor scans a QR code with their smartphone, after which they open a map of the shopping mall with the possibility of building routes. The user can select the desired points and easily find places of interest without stress and wasting any time.
The navigation system based on QR codes has advanced features. So, for each object on the map, additional data can be provided, for example, information about discounts and sales. This improves the customer's user experience and allows them to navigate to the store where they can make the most affordable purchases.
Scan the QR code and see how QR navigation by Navigine works:
What opportunities open up with the introduction of indoor wayfinding in shopping malls?
Wayfinding solutions for shopping malls open up a wide range of opportunities for creating a personalized customer experience. Using the system, you can create routes, send targeted push messages, receive analytics to optimize the operation of the shopping center, and develop marketing campaigns.
Seamless navigation outside and inside the mall
Using indoor wayfinding technology, you can organize indoor-outdoor navigation, which allows you to easily move not only inside the store but also in the surrounding area. The system ensures seamless movement from the building to the street or vice versa without causing disruptions to the mobile application. It can be used in cases when a visitor needs to get from the mall to their car in an open or multi-level parking lot.
The operation of the platform indoors is based on Bluetooth® LE or Wi-Fi technology, and outdoors on GPS and other navigation systems.
Building a route to your car in the parking lot
Many shopping malls have large parking lots, where it can be difficult to find your car. Not every visitor remembers where exactly they parked their car, so after visiting the store they spend a lot of time searching and wandering around the parking lot. The indoor wayfinding system helps solve this problem. Using only a smartphone and a shopping mall application, a visitor can quickly find their car on the map and get the shortest route to it. This increases customer loyalty to the shopping center and encourages them to come there again.
Promoting sales with an additional advertising channel
After installing the shopping mall application with the indoor wayfinding feature, the store management gets a new marketing channel at their disposal, which helps with stimulating sales. With it, you can set up personalized promotions and provide customers with more relevant content. Expected benefits from the system include:
- attracting new visitors;
- increasing the loyalty of existing customers;
- collecting feedback;
- opportunities for more effective promotion of a particular product or brand.
Sending targeted push notifications
The location feature allows managers to send targeted push messages to customers' smartphones. They may contain various information, such as:
- greeting at the entrance to the store;
- promotional offers;
- information about products or brands;
- notifications about sales, discounts, and promotions.
Notifications can appear near the mall, at the entrance, or when the shopper passes by a particular store inside the mall. This approach allows you to provide targeted advertising that grows profits and increases customer satisfaction from visiting the mall.
Obtaining analytics on the attendance of various areas of the shopping mall
Wayfinding technology for shopping centers collects detailed analytics that help with optimizing business processes. It builds heat maps of buildings, maps of customer flows, and provides analytical data on customer behavior with the identification of the frequency of their visits to certain stores. Using the system, you can easily determine the attendance of different areas of the shopping center, which further helps optimize the placement of certain objects indoors.
Navigine can help with the implementation of an indoor wayfinding system for a shopping mall. We provide our clients with an efficient Navigine SDK software package that is embedded in mobile apps and allows for solving a wide range of location-based tasks. Our staff will help with the settings and provide technical support at every stage of implementation. To learn more about the product, leave a request on our website or book a free Zoom demo:
