Why It’s Time for Retail to Go AI-Native
Wi-Fi is now as fundamental to a great customer experience (CX) as having clean stores, stocked shelves and smiling, knowledgeable staff—and it’s all too easy for patchy digital performance to disrupt operations and frustrate your customers. If your in-store Wi-Fi is anything less than exceptional, here are three reasons why it’s time to rethink the vital role it plays in the shopping experience you create for your customers.
1) Customers want, need and expect Wi-Fi to be available in-store
When shopping in a bricks-and-mortar store, today’s customers expect consistently great Wi-Fi connectivity; it’s moved from a nice-to-have to a foundational requirement to delivering a great overall experience. Smart consumers use it to help them check prices, compare different product model features and to ensure stock availability and delivery. While true for nearly any retail experience, carrying out on-site research is particularly vital when buying more complex products or technology.
When people leave home, they leave their Wi-Fi setting on, ready to tap into networks wherever they go. Using Wi-Fi not only helps to conserve valuable data allowances, it also eliminates frustrations with weak in-store mobile signals that leave browsers and apps spinning. Department retail chains, such as Nordstrom, provide charging boxes in addition to Wi-Fi because they recognize it keeps customers happier and in the store shopping for longer.
In-store app use delivers benefits on multiple levels to shoppers:
- Enriched experiences through augmented reality (AR) capabilities, such as virtual try on
- Greater convenience through easier access to loyalty rewards, coupons, self-checkout, order collection and more
- Enhanced service through location-based support that enables comprehensive visibility of stores and inventory with turn-by-turn navigation
Customers appreciate truly seamless Wi-Fi experiences. Every point of friction in their journey not only leads to frustrations, but it can also give savvy, loyal customers good reasons to look elsewhere for better shopping experiences.
2) You need to meet today’s (and tomorrow’s) operational requirements
Beyond delivering enhanced and enriched customer experiences, reliable Wi-Fi has become mission-critical to in-store and company-wide operations.
- Sensors in chillers and frozen cabinets need to continually monitor temperatures to avoid disruptions to the cold chain.
- Network-integrated mobile scanners and devices, such as Zebra, need to deliver real-time data in support of accurate inventory management.
- Videoconferencing tools, such as Zoom and Teams, streamline collaboration between colleagues spread across stores and corporate locations, in addition to making it easier to facilitate regional and corporate meetings.
- RFID-tagging implementation can help you streamline inventory management.
- Key strategies for combating persistent shrinkage challenges involve leveraging technologies such as RFID tracking, real-time monitoring, behavioral analysis and video analytics, which can accurately match an item’s shape to its scanned label at self-checkouts and more.
At the same time, many retailers are now using their Wi-Fi networks to drive sales and generate additional revenue, especially through retail media advertising. For example, leveraging digital platforms including mobile apps, digital signs, electronic shelf labels—and even augmented physical spaces within retail environments—to deliver targeted advertisements and promotions to shoppers. Moreover, giving employees the best tools for the job, especially those that help to make laborious or repetitive tasks less irksome, improves both their user experiences and productivity.
3) Failure is not an option
With exponentially increased numbers of users, devices and sensors, all generating more and more data, retail’s reliance on Wi-Fi is growing by the day. And given the expanding array of local and cloud-based services that retail Wi-Fi networks must accommodate, reliable, flexible and secure Wi-Fi is arguably integral to an effective business strategy.
Juniper’s AI-Native Networking Platform Makes Every Connection Count
While user and business expectations are placing incredible demands on Wi-Fi networks, Wi-Fi networking solutions have also reached an inflection point. As in most other areas of technology, artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping what’s possible with Wi-Fi. At the same time, with all the AI “noise” in the marketplace. it can be hard to discern what’s helpful and what’s just another claim of better things to come.
At Juniper, we’ve spent almost a decade training our AI models and asking the right questions about how to best use AI to optimize the retail experience. And unlike competitors who are now reacting to marketplace expectations and demands by “bolting on” AI to their solutions, we designed our AI-Native Networking Platform from the ground up to take full advantage of the potential of AI. Today, Juniper’s solutions, which are RRM-optimized, enable the industry’s most reliable, secure and measurable Wi-Fi connections.
For example, Juniper Mist AI™, which uses a combination of AI, machine learning, and data science techniques to optimize user experiences and simplify wireless operations, is trained on more than nine years of data. And Mist works hand-in-hand with the Marvis Virtual Network Assistant (VNA) to proactively identify and resolve issues or recommend actions for network challenges before they become problems. In fact, Marvis Minis, the latest Marvis VNA extension, is an always-on digital experience twin that can proactively and automatically troubleshoot networking issues before they impact user experiences—even when your IT team is off the clock and there are no users connected to the network.
Moreover, because the Juniper Mist Cloud relies on a microservices-based design, it can deliver ongoing automatic updates to ensure compatibility with the latest devices and operating systems.
For a real-world example of what AI-Native means in practice, just consider the UK retailer, Halfords. They’ve seen a 35% improvement in uptime and a 100% elimination of network-related trouble tickets since adopting an AI-Native solution from Juniper.
According to Neil Holden, CIO at Halfords, “The network user experience that Juniper offers far exceeds anything else in the market. Juniper’s ease of operations and self-healing capabilities, along with the user experience metrics it provides, are outstanding.”
The Juniper AI-Native Networking Platform is also game-changing for your IT team, helping you to:
- Reduce Wi-Fi helpdesk tickets by up to 90%
- Prevent up to 85% of networking-related onsite visits
- Accelerate network solution deployments by up to 9x
These capabilities and benefits are just a few of the reasons why eight of the world’s top Fortune 10 retailers run their networks on Juniper equipment.
Find out more about Juniper AI-Native Networking and retail services:
Take a deep dive into the challenges of Wi-Fi in retail and discover how Juniper’s AI-Native Networking Platform can revolutionize this critical aspect of your operations. Join Juniper Senior Sales Engineer David Townsend for an informative webinar.
Don’t miss this opportunity to transform your retail business with AI-Native Wi-Fi solutions. Secure your spot for this insightful webinar. Register now!
