The West Edmonton Mall
in Alberta, Canada

is the world's largest shopping and entertainment complex.
(See photo above)

It's also the largest Wi-Fi-enabled entertainment and retail center. Mall management expects to recoup incremental investment costs within 24 months and achieve a 120%
ROI in 2007 from selling Wi-Fi access and voice-over-Wi-Fi telephony to tenants.

Triple Five Group of Companies Ltd., the mall's parent firm, is considering a similar installation for the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn.

s a provider of transaction products and help-desk services, I've seen what happens when Wi-Fi technology is introduced into a retail environment: For most users, Wi-Fi means a set of exquisite surprises. It's less expensive than many expect, easier to implement than most believe, and its benefits become more apparent with each selling season.

Leading mall-management companies are already aggressively using Wi-Fi to draw shoppers and would-be shoppers. The latter group includes U.S. business travelers, 27 million of whom carry laptops and/or Wi-Fi enabled PDAs or phones, and 40% of whom are women.

Wi-Fi is now standard in virtually every laptop sold in the United States, a result of plummeting component costs, perhaps. The number of Wi-Fi embedded devices in the country is projected to top 226 million units by 2008. Good news for everyone (with the exception of wireless/cellular proponents).

As an ISO or merchant level salesperson, you'll only need to shift customers' and your paradigms a bit to realize Wi-Fi's value.

System-wide superiority

In a Wi-Fi PC environment, there's a static checkout station and a Wi-Fi antenna. Wire the latter to the former, and you're immediately "live." These, and the hook to the repeater or amplifier, are the only hard-wired elements in the system. The average cost for Wi-Fi systems I see is $2,500 compared with the conventional, no-frills checkout-station average of $6,000.

Rather than call on individual merchants within a mall, focus on the mall's management, and recommend installing Wi-Fi solutions system-wide. The direct benefits of Wi-Fi networks are very persuasive, beginning with their low installation cost.

Wi-Fi's speedy flexibility

Wi-Fi reduces transaction time for tenants. It also allows greater flexibility in POS siting than traditional solutions. And if the merchant is new to the property, it allows flexibility in store layout.

Wi-Fi also adapts to mobile checkout, the ultimate friend of the seller of upscale or impulse-buy merchandise, where time is often a factor. Additionally, Wi-Fi enables unconventional selling (the sidewalk or tent sale, for example) because it accommodates such events with ease.

Building traffic

Wi-Fi's power as a traffic-builder can't be overstated. Think of the Starbucks Coffee Co. model, but don't forget Borders Inc., FedEx Kinko's and the millions of private Wi-Fi networks that have sprung up, seemingly overnight. Because Wi-Fi is still in the early stages of market penetration, providing customers with Wi-Fi access and services is a competitive advantage that they can leverage in advertising, and marketing in general, as an important infrastructural advantage.

The reliability factor

Wi-Fi in a closed-loop environment is significantly more reliable than wireless service. Wireless communicates over long distances; Wi-Fi is better for shorter distances (a quarter mile or so at the outside) but lacks the seamless, wide connectivity of a cellular grid.

This will change, however, as mesh networking becomes more common. Mesh networking routes data around blocked paths via nodes, which are processing locations employing computers or other devices on a network.

Signals blocked by structures in retail environments can be dealt with inexpensively by placing antennas in the ceilings of individual stores, or on the mall concourse, and connecting them to one or more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repeaters" target="_blank">repeaters (network devices used to regenerate or replicate signals) for seamless coverage.

Mobile checkout

The newest idea cropping up in the retail environment is a mobile, self-contained checkout station equipped with a Wi-Fi antenna, and Wi-Fi-enabled cash drawers and POS.

This tested and proven technology is incredibly agile. Essentially, it's just a lightweight Rubbermaid cart with permanently mounted, rechargeable battery back-up, Wi-Fi antenna and local cash drawer PC and electronic cash register (ECR). Add bags, boxes and other sale supplies, and you're "ready to roll" wherever the customer is.

Wi-Fi gives department stores and specialty stores within malls great flexibility. With Wi-Fi terminals, mobile sales staff truly can do checkout right where customers make buying decisions. No more will patrons walk around the store with goods: Checkout can be just about anywhere, and opportunities for increased impulse buying, and reduced theft, are substantial.

For a new retail business aiming for maximum productivity, a Wi-Fi mobile-enabled station makes much more sense than a dedicated physical siting. They take up the same space, but the mobile POS is agile rather than stagnant.

Theft prevention is a big reason that checkout is typically located at the front of the store, but hand-held, roving Wi-Fi POP (point of presence) devices are now available. (Think car return at Avis.)

Cozy up to those manufacturers

Sales agents would be wise to establish an alliance with a manufacturer and offer leases on mobile checkout equipment. It's a small-ticket item this way, and merchants won't get stuck with obsolete systems as technology continues to evolve.

Santa Ana, Calif.-based ExaDigm Inc. is an example of a manufacturer that addresses retail merchants' concerns. It offers a terminal, printer and operating system with interchangeable modems (Wi-Fi, wireless and wired), so a single device can serve merchants and maximize flexibility. This technology is adaptive to individual merchant needs and sensibilities.

Adding Wi-Fi to an existing PC cash drawer should be straightforward, and the costs negligible, for merchants who are replacing existing equipment. The trend is migrating from ECRs to PC cash drawers and software. If Wi-Fi malfunctions in this environment, reverting to the hard-wired system is easy because redundancy is built in.

Advantages for ISOs/MLSs

When a mall-management firm buys into the Wi-Fi concept, it gives the sales agent a significant advantage over competitors who don't offer this solution. There's also the logistical advantage of eliminating the need for sales calls on individual merchants.

Become the endorsed provider for a store group, and the management firm becomes your agent for processing, with stores coordinating requirements through them. It's no different from any other utility, which is indeed what Wi-Fi is.

If you deal with the right mall-management, or property-management company, you'll also have an "in" for other properties in their portfolio. Some mall managers expect a small fee for granting you preferred-provider status; others regard the program as a way to gain (or retain) tenants and do not assess a fee.

Wi-Fi, like all technologies, requires an initial learning curve, but it can give a salesperson a significant advantage over those who are less tech-savvy. Anyone can provide a credit card processing solution. Sales agents focused on providing greater value and flexibility will be the winners.

Biff Matthews is President of Thirteen Inc., the parent company of CardWare International, based in Heath, Ohio. He is one of 12 founding members of the Electronic Transactions Association, serving on its board, advisory board and committees. Call him at 740-522-2150 or e-mail him at biff@13-inc.com .