John Lewis leading the way with free WiFi access for customers

Nation’s favourite  retailer aims to become the first UK department store to offer free WiFi access to customers in its shops nationwide
 
This is the latest move by the John Lewis to offer its customers a fully multi-channel, multi-platform shopping experience and capitalises on the boom in m-commerce.

More than 60 per cent of John Lewis customers research products online before visiting a shop to make a purchase and in-store WiFi access allows them to continue and complete that journey, accessing product information and viewing ratings and reviews to influence their purchase.
 
Customers will be able to surf all areas of the internet including competitors’ sites to compare prices, reinforcing John Lewis’s pricing promise to be “Never Knowingly Undersold”. It also underlines John Lewis’s commitment to providing excellent customer service as Partners (staff) will be trained to help customers make the most informed purchases. Alongside this, Digital Champions will be in each branch to help customers to shop online as part of John Lewis’s commitment to Race Online, the government initiative to encourage people to use the internet.
 
The WiFi access from BT Openzone allows wireless connectivity to the internet for John Lewis shoppers via any wireless-enabled PC, tablet or smartphone. It is free to all customers who register once with an email address. It gives shoppers in all areas of John Lewis shops faster access to www.johnlewis.com and the internet than when using 3G. It also provides access to the John Lewis mobile site, including My John Lewis and the Wish List which will automatically sync between a customer’s home PC and their mobile in-store.
 
John Lewis is also developing an iPhone App to further enhance customers’ in-store shopping experience. The App, which will launch soon, has a number of features to help customers access John Lewis online assortment, product reviews and video quickly and easily in-store.
 
John Lewis IT Director Paul Coby said: “This is a major development in John Lewis’s vision for multi-channel retail. We have made great progress with online which is now growing at between 25% and 30% compared to last year and amounts to circa 20% of our revenue. We know our customers are mobile and want to be connected anywhere, anytime and any place. This of course means in John Lewis shops and we are committed to providing that connectivity and easy access to our fantastic assortment through our customers’ smart phones, iPhones and iPads.”
 
John Lewis Head of Multi-Channel Simon Russell said: “We recognise that mobile phones have become a crucial part of people’s shopping habits. The roll-out of WiFi in our shops is a big step forward in helping customers to have all of the information they need at their fingertips to make an informed purchase.”