Adding Consumer Value and Brand Loyalty With Wi-Fi

This holiday season will be especially challenging for both brick-and-mortar retailers and online marketplaces, especially as they compete with each other for the same consumer dollars.

Many retailers believe the best way to entice consumers is to drop prices, creating an endless race to the bottom. However, driving customer loyalty isn't exclusively about price; it's about value and offering an integrated customer experience. Creating the perfect integrated customer experience can be achieved by offering in-store Wi-Fi, according to a study recently commissioned by the Wi-Fi Alliance and Wakefield Research.

In fact, 48 percent of consumers said they're more likely to shop at a store that gives them access to a wireless internet connection. The data also found that nearly a third of consumers would stay in the store longer. Most importantly, 16 percent of consumers said they would spend more money if a store had Wi-Fi available.

The data also found that 35 percent of consumers use their mobile device to look up a product review while shopping, and that one in three have abandoned a purchase because they couldn't complete their research in-store. Consumers are abandoning their purchases because of a poor internet connection, and retailers are losing profit as a result.

For consumers, Wi-Fi gives them the best of both worlds, enabling them to peruse the internet, read reviews of products and validate their in-store decisions. Assuming that the cost difference is minimal, it's safe to bet that given the choice between purchasing a product immediately or waiting for it to be shipped, most shoppers will choose the former.

For retailers, Wi-Fi offers a trifecta of benefits: more traffic, longer face time with shoppers and a larger spend per person. For businesses looking to reclaim market share this holiday season, Wi-Fi offers a cost-effective differentiator.

Here's the catch: If retailers want to get ahead of their competition and offer Wi-Fi in-store, they have to ensure that it's easy to connect to. Passwords turn shoppers off, as do spotty, low-quality connections. If you're going to the trouble of providing Wi-Fi, it should be user friendly, free and simple.

The Wi-Fi industry has addressed these challenges with new technology that makes it easy to connect, foster customer loyalty and drive business value. Called Passpoint, the new solution enables a user's device to connect to Wi-Fi seamlessly across multiple locations with no need to login repeatedly. The program also ensures that users are connecting to a secure network, an important factor to nearly half of those that the Wi-Fi Alliance surveyed. Retailers should make sure their routers and devices are Wi-Fi CERTIFIED and include Passpoint technology, which means that they meet industry-backed quality and reliability standards to ensure users a great connection every time.

The ultimate incentive lies in Wi-Fi's ability to bring consumers back. According the survey, 30 percent of consumers said they're more likely to return to a store with seamless, automatic Wi-Fi. This is a huge number. Customer retention is a challenge for any retailer, especially in today's fast-paced economy. Any feature that can drive that many return visits is worth thorough investigation.

Retailer competition is incredibly stiff this holiday season. By offering seamless, automatic Wi-Fi, retailers are able to drive consumers in and entice them to spend more, which results in a great experience and increases customer loyalty.

Kelly Davis-Felner is the vice president of marketing for the Wi-Fi Alliance, a nonprofit organization that promotes Wi-Fi technology and certifies Wi-Fi products.