Hotspot or Not Spot

Wi-Fi Internet

Hotspot or Not Spot

When you walk into a mall, a hotel, a shop or a café, what do you immediately expect?

A decade or so ago this question would have garnered different responses than it does now and although there are several answers that could come up on the back of it one of the most common one would be WIFI internet for guests.

WiFi Hotspot

WIFI internet, or just WIFI for short, has become a standard across retail and hospitality as more people want to, or need to, be constantly connected on the go. For this very reason WIFI providers in London and other metropolitan areas around the world see a substantial part of their business come in from this industry.

We could go down a number of routes here but let’s explore brick-and-mortar retail stores for a bit here, shall we?

It’s an interesting thing to ponder seeing as most people now have 4G (and 5G coming soon) how WIFI internet is still expected in these scenarios but there’s a variety of reasons for this, including but not limited to “not-spots”.

“Not-spots”, a play on the term hotspot, refers to areas with no connectivity and anyone who’s ever entered a large store on a UK high street knows that without WIFI internet these stores definitely become a “not-spot” past the entrance.

In years past stores would push back on WIFI providers as they expected customers to walk in, search for the item they saw in-store on Amazon, or any other ecommerce site, and order them online instead. However, partially due to the aforementioned prevalence of 4G, stores are now seeing that simply not offering WIFI internet is not enough to stop people from perusing online shopping in their stead.

Mobile Browsing

To battle this behaviour we’ve seen stores like Best Buy in the US offer a blanket price matching service as well as tech support to customers, meaning they’re offering a superior customer experience than one can come to expect from most online-only retailers and this is really where the crux of the matter lies.

If the only thing keeping your store in business is that people can’t browse Amazon to check if their price is better you have to start thinking about offering your customers superior experiences. One great way of enabling you to deliver this to each person who walks in your door is with guest WIFI, potentially one that nets customers exclusive deals, notifications of specials or any other way you can think of to elevate the shopping experience via this fundamental technology.

If you’re looking for WIFI providers in London or any other major hub in the UK, give us at Luminet a call, message or email and we’ll see to it that your WIFI needs are met!