This is a joint blog between Juniper Networks and Zebra Technologies, co-authored by Jarek Matschey (Juniper) and Mark Thomson (Zebra).
In-store wireless networks and the devices that rely on them are crucial in delivering excellent customer experiences and optimizing retail productivity. Let’s look at how Juniper Networks and Zebra Technologies have partnered to create an ecosystem that solves retail’s biggest IT challenges.
Retail networks are under growing pressure
Juniper believes Wi-Fi is fundamental to delivering excellent customer experiences. Shoppers in large retail stores today expect to be able to go online, even when 4G and 5G are unavailable. Being unable to check a product review online is certainly disappointing and frustrating, but if the network fails while they are using a self-scan handset, that’s much worse. It’s the kind of experience where customers will vote with their feet.
The modern retail network’s ability to deliver excellent Wi-Fi connectivity is also vital for keeping store and warehouse operations running smoothly and effectively behind the scenes. Many key retail systems now rely on in-store wireless technology, including:
- Voice over IP
- Contactless Point of Sales
- Security
- Inventory management
- IoT asset management
- HVAC/facilities management
Unfortunately, old networks are typically slow and clunky, and they’re under constantly increasing pressure to perform beyond their capabilities with rapidly growing demands. Just 10 years ago, a superstore may have had less than a dozen handheld devices. They’re now likely to have four times that number, with some major retailers now moving toward having devices for every staff member.
Productivity is a bigger priority than ever
Recruiting and retaining staff has become increasingly challenging for retailers. In the UK, retail staff turnover is currently over 50%, according to the British Retail Consortium. Labor costs are also rising due to inflationary pressures and increasing minimum wage requirements.
Managing retail operations with less staff or a higher proportion of newer staff can make automation and self-serve solutions an attractive option. It also places a keen focus on the need to enable employees to be consistently productive, especially at peak times. All this means more work for your retail network.
If an employee spends even a couple of minutes each day moving around to find a sufficiently strong wireless signal, that’s lost productivity that you can quantify. Multiply that by just 20 members of staff per store across 200 stores and we can estimate 133 employee hours in lost productivity every day. Over a year, that’s a significant loss, and you can only imagine how that scales up for larger retail businesses.
Don’t just install and hope
It pays to think holistically when you invest in retail operational technology. Retail IT leaders need to know that your network can handle what you’re about to add to it, otherwise you are likely to end up creating more problems than you solve.
- Will you be able to see and analyze client device and network events to understand how good the experience is end-to-end?
- Will your additions lead to more time-consuming and inefficient troubleshooting efforts?
- How will this impact existing users? Are you risking lost productivity, lost revenue, or lost customers?
The right tools for the job
Juniper Networks works closely with Zebra Technologies, which specialises in handheld devices for retail. Zebra’s touchscreen devices run using Android™ and are used by some of the top global retailers. They leverage this technology for a wide range of store and logistics operations, including scanning, stock checking, price checking, scheduling, comms, and imaging. Zebra handhelds also enable valuable interactions with customers.
To support their operational strategies, many retailers will provide their employees with mobile phones or allow them to bring their own devices. While this may be a relatively easy and inexpensive solution, it is far from ideal. In addition to not being designed for the job, mobile phones lack the functionality and manageability that enterprise devices offer, such as barcode scanning, ease of battery charging and management, and better access point (AP) optimization.
Zebra’s enterprise handsets are completely different. They are designed for retail: fit for purpose and already offer essential functionality specifically designed for retail operations. Zebra handsets can also easily switch between APs rather than just fixing on to one, always finding the strongest access point, and their long-life batteries can easily be replaced.
Juniper and Zebra: Faster troubleshooting for reliable experiences
Together, Juniper and Zebra solutions take care of visibility, troubleshooting, and network uptime for you, delivering superior Wi-Fi performance for your customers, your connected systems, and your employees. Our joint solution delivers secure and high-performing experiences for Zebra handheld devices with unmatched visibility and insights. Zebra Wireless Insights and Marvis® Virtual Network Assistant clients collect telemetry and send it to the Juniper Mist™ AI cloud, which delivers real-time insights into each end-to-end user experience.
Solution features also include:
- Correlation of network and client events to easily identify the root cause of each issue and pinpoint the exact location of performance degradation, drastically reducing mean time to resolution (MTTR).
- Actionable insights with rich telemetry data from Juniper and Zebra devices, processed by the Juniper Mist AI engine, are displayed in the Juniper Mist dashboard.
- Wi-Fi and vBLE support enable Zebra offerings, such as Zebra Device Tracker, to easily find missing Zebra mobile devices.
Juniper’s Mist AI engine continuously monitors and analyzes network and device data to proactively detect problems before they occur, and it corrects issues in real-time or notifies network managers of the cause and recommended actions. It also continuously learns and adapts to provide accurate, real-time responses.
Zebra’s analytics solution—Wireless Insights—provides client-based visibility into roaming events, data, and voice performance. Data is obtained directly from the end user’s device, using Zebra’s exclusive, manufacturer-enabled events and insights.
85% of mobile issues go unreported to IT (Market Insiders). So, if no one reports a Wi-Fi problem in one of your stores or warehouses on any other network, how soon is it likely to be fixed?
With Juniper, there’s no need to wait for someone to report it—your network will retune itself or fix the issue overnight. Marvis Minis, the always-on digital experience twin, will proactively and automatically troubleshoot networking issues before they impact user experiences. If you have limited resources and have multiple retail stores distributed across geographies, AI-Native Networking extends your team and makes your IT operations more streamlined and productive.
Through a holistic and consolidated approach, Juniper and Zebra provide a proactive and reliable retail ecosystem that manages retail network performance while optimizing customer and employee experiences. The outcome? Enhanced retail operational efficiency, productivity, and greater opportunities for revenue generation.
Learn more about the Juniper-Zebra technology partnership:
Join a webinar with Juniper Networks, Zebra Technologies, and UK home furnishing retailer, Dunelm. Register Now.
