Andrea Calcagno, CEO and Co-Founder With digitalization driving the retail industry, today, shoppers are relying more on mobile devices to search for products, compare prices, and read reviews. They are also ‘checking in’ to stores and exhibiting purchases on social media. In such a scenario, guest Wi-Fi is one of the powerful means retailers use to make their existing online and retail stores work more closely together, giving customers the same experience wherever they shop. To get shoppers connected and provide retailers with insightful metrics on customers’ behaviors, Cloud4Wi offers the industry’s leading services platform for advanced guest Wi-Fi called Volare. “Volare diminishes the gap between a brand’s online retail presence and its stores, building the future in-store experience,” states Andrea Calcagno, CEO and co-founder, Cloud4Wi.
The platform mainly focuses on the three core functionalities—guest Wi-Fi, analytics, and marketing services. Volare guest Wi-Fi offers a seamless onboarding experience with flexible Internet Plans and Wi-Fi log in options. From the welcome portal to the privacy policy, the platform can be tailored to fit retailers’ needs. The comprehensive platform also aims at gathering customer information to provide retailers with valuable information about how customers behave while in store. Additionally, “Using the Volare dashboard, retailers can deliver relevant personalized content, such as targeted coupons, messages and promos, straight to their shoppers,” explains Calcagno.
Volare is an over-the-top platform that can seamlessly work with multifarious enterprise Wi-Fi networks, such as Aruba, Cisco, and Ruckus Wireless, and also support stand-alone and controller-based architectures. So retailers can reduce complexity, and save on considerable expenses and time.
As a cloud-based platform, Volare is easy to install and does not require a local hardware or software installation.
Volare accelerates the digital retail transformation in ways that were never possible before
From deployment in the Amazon Web Services to deployment in a retailer’s private data center, Volare provides support in selecting public, private, or local cloud according to the retailer’s requirement.
Unlike other conventional platforms, Volare is designed to meet the security requirements of customer data.“To ensure personal data shared through guest Wi-Fi is handled properly, we help retailers comply with local regulations and allow for customized opt-in policies,” assures Calcagno.
Volare offers a robust Dev suite that enables customization. Volare can easily be integrated with external platforms such as CRM, marketing automation, and business intelligence tools. Unique applications can also be created and displayed on the Welcome Portal or triggered when specific actions are performed. In an instance, Cloud4Wi assisted a large luxury fashion retail chain with their Guest Wi-Fi service to improve customer satisfaction, build a new source for their CRM, and a new channel for their sales assistants. The main challenge the client faced was the deployment of a global network and service only through cloud solutions. Volare, with a holistic approach, helped the client to easily address global operations and both short term and long term strategic plans. It enabled them to manage a global network from Hong Kong to LA by addressing local requirements. Moreover, the Volare platform also provided them with new insights and analytics for their business intelligence purpose.
As a part of enhancing customer engagement, the company offers a small “Wi-Fi sensor” called FogSense. The sensor enables Volare to detect Wi-Fi users in specific locations within the store. This allows retailers to understand how well stores draw in customers, how captivated customers are while they are there, and how often they return.
Forging ahead, the firm will continue to enhance the platform by adding in-store access technologies such as Beacon and RD-id, and accelerate integrations with loyalty program systems, mobile point of sale (mPOS) and many more. “Our mission is to accelerate the digital retail transformation in ways that were never before possible,” concludes Calcagno.
