Select Citywalk uses Wi-Fi sensor technology to tap shopping behaviour

Delhi’s Select Citywalk, arguably India’s most recognised and felicitated shopping centre, has started leveraging the tons of consumer data generated through mall Wi-Fi, to get ahead in the e-commerce race and generate the ‘Wow’ in shopper experiences.
The mall is using Wi-Fi sensor technology from Germany based startup Minodes to optimize store traffic, collect insights into customer behavior and overall traffic flow between floors and individual retail stores in the mall.
“70 out of 100 consumers keep their Wi-Fi switched on when they enter the mall this, is a huge opportunity for retailers and us to bank on in order to get deeper insights into customer behaviour and thereafter using it to create better solutions for them. And we, are exactly doing that,” Executive Director, SelectCity Walk, Yogeshwar Sharma, explains.
“So, the moment they (shoppers) enter our mall they automatically get connected to our Wi-Fi and through their smartphones we can track their activity and know where they are spending most of  their time in the mall. Additionally, the technology is safe since the Wi-Fi sensors do not collect any personal information related to shoppers,” he adds.
The mall started experimenting with the services two months ago and is yet to use it with retailers to cross-promote and market their brand. Sharma feels, once rolled out completely, the technology can curtail window shopping to some extent and can convert ever visit to a purchase.
Read: 5 biggest shopping malls of India
“Since we are on an experimental phase, we cannot ascertain the monetary gains but this has allowed us to garner lot of consumers insight and intelligence. Today, for instance, we know that supermarkets or grocery purchases are the last stop for most of the women shoppers in the mall as they don’t want to be seen with groceries in the mall,” says Sharma.
Going ahead, SelectCity plans to use this as a cross-promotional tool between retailers in the mall.
“For instance, if the shopping pattern finds out that the consumers usually move to Mac stores after going to Zara or any other retailer, former can plan some interesting marketing and promotional activities with latter which could be beneficial for both the retailers,” he explains.
This is SelectCity’s second attempt to embed technology for better consumer experience within the mall. Last year, it tied up with Findable to allow home delivery services. The mall, however, has not able to exceed the per day deliveries numbers from its current 20.
“The consumers response to the services has been good but yes, we have not been able to reach our expected numbers. We have dedicated a small team to inform consumers about this but there is a need for retailers to do the same from there end. We are confident that once they start doing it the number would be quite large,” Sharma asserts.