Advantages of an Indoor Navigation System for Shopping Malls

January 02, 2024
Categories:

Big Box Retail & Malls

indoor navigation in shopping malls

A visit to the mall should be fun and entertaining. But that’s not always the case. Finding your way around large retail facilities, especially those with multiple floors, can often be an exercise in frustration, making it clear that having an accurate easy-to-use indoor navigation system for shopping malls or mall navigation apps is critical to the success of any major shopping center. In this article, we will explore the advantages of indoor navigation in shopping malls.

There are a few different types of indoor positioning systems available to help mall visitors find their way, but the most popular among them do not work properly. 

GPS-based platforms, like Google’s indoor maps, are not precise enough for indoor navigation, and the Bluetooth technology they employ requires substantial investments in beacons, not to mention continuous maintenance. To solve the problem of shopping mall indoor navigation for good, we need to look to a brand new mall navigation system.

Mapsted’s latest invention ensures a simple and accurate turn-by-turn indoor navigation system for shopping malls allowing visitors to easily find their way to their favorite shops. This new model of indoor GPS has many advantages over traditional systems and offers practical benefits that increase customer satisfaction, functionality and profits.

11 Advantages of an Indoor Navigation System for Shopping Malls

1. Accuracy:

indoor navigation accuracy

Because GPS was not designed for precise indoor positioning, traditional indoor wayfinding services do not offer location accuracy. In addition, beacons wear out quickly, and cannot work properly long-term. Mapsted has addressed these issues by building a mall navigation system that does not rely on Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or other similar signal sources. The platform is completely self-sufficient and takes indoor positioning system accuracy to a new level.

2. Easy Deployment:

Shopping center operators understand how difficult and costly it is to deploy beacon-based navigation. Mapsted’s cost-free and hardware-free shopping mall navigation solution eliminates the need to buy expensive equipment, install supporting gear, or invest in costly maintenance. The entire process is digital.

3. Saves Time for Shoppers:

Shoppers who spend too much time searching for the retail store or service they want, end up spending less than expected. This negatively affects the center’s overall profits. But with a reliable indoor navigation platform or mall mapping software, visitors can find their way through the mall quickly and easily, allowing them to spend more time – and money – on shopping.

4. Improves Customer Satisfaction:

improve customer satisfaction

Customer experience is gradually becoming the most important element of brand differentiation. Shopping centers need to keep consumers happy in order to stay in business, but if they cannot implement a simple, effective turn-by-turn navigation system to make wayfinding as painless as possible, that customer satisfaction will be difficult to achieve.

5. Increases Customer Loyalty:

This benefit of a quality indoor location service goes hand in hand with the previous one. Visitors who have a positive experience at the mall are much more likely to return and become loyal customers, rather than one-time visitors.

6. Assists Visually-Impaired People:

Retail center operators need to provide an accessible shopping experience for all customers. Indoor mapping is an essential component of a responsible accessibility plan, especially for visually-impaired visitors, who require a reliable orientation tool to find specific stores. This system must include voice commands and accurate directions, as they are often the only way shoppers who are affected by vision impairment can navigate the mall.

7.  Helps with Emergency Situations:

Evacuating a large shopping center can be challenging. Making sure customers can quickly leave the building safely and orderly is what matters most, but this can be a big issue for large facilities. A quality indoor positioning and wayfinding system can go a long way toward ensuring customer safety in an emergency situation.

8. Proximity Marketing:

Personalization, the latest trend in retail marketing, requires the use of automation tools. Mapsted offers you a state-of-the-art proximity marketing platform that drives additional traffic to stores and adds value to the customer experience. It is by far the best way to reduce marketing costs while growing the number of verified leads.

9. Facility Management:

Effective store positioning on site is an important segment of the retail business that affects the ability to attract customers. Indoor location platforms reveal consumers’ interests and wayfinding patterns. These insights can be used to make adjustments to how you position stores in relation to each other, allowing you to increase foot traffic to a particular area, for example.

10. Business Intelligence:

The ability to have comprehensive insights into customer behavior at your fingertips is a major advantage of using an indoor navigation system. You can use this system to analyze the movements of mall visitors, or to evaluate the effectiveness of your sales and marketing activities, allowing you to make quick adjustments to your strategy to ensure success.

11. Boosts Revenue:

Using Mapsted’s indoor positioning system, shopping center operators can increase their sales percentages and rental revenues, boosting overall long-term profits in the process.

A free, Effortless Navigation System

effortless-navigation-system

The practical benefits mentioned above are easily achievable using Mapsted’s indoor navigation system.  

Mapsted delivers a completely free, high-quality indoor navigation platform for shopping centers that enables effortless orientation, and drastically improves user experience. Forget about complex, hardware-based systems that require weeks or months to implement. Mapsted is ready to deploy in just a few days, and it doesn’t require any additional investment.

Mapsted’s cost-free navigation platform can be set up in just three easy steps:

1. Upload Floor Plan:

Provide us with your facility’s blueprint, and we’ll import it into our system. 

2. Calibrate Mall:

Use Mapsted’s calibration app to walk through the mall and gather ultra-precise data on the indoor floor plan.

3. Enable Indoor Navigation:

Your navigation system is ready for use in just 3 business days.

The Bottom Line

Mapsted gives you the simplest and most accurate indoor navigation system on the market, right at your fingertips. Depending on imprecise GPS-based systems and expensive Bluetooth technologies can cause frustration for shoppers, and result in decreased profits. Mapsted offers you unprecedented indoor location technology. If these advantages of indoor navigation systems for shopping malls didn’t convince you, check out our website to test it for yourself.

If you enjoyed this read, you may wish to check out these blogs: Where do You Begin Your Search for the Ideal Wayfinding Partner in 2024? and What Is Location Intelligence and How Can It Be Used in Business?

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do you navigate the store located inside a mall?

A: A mall app that scans wayfinding QR codes from mall kiosks is the next level of indoor navigation. There will be no more navigating complicated menus or asking passersby for directions. The mall apps make navigating the mall layout easier.

Q: What is mall navigation?

A: Mall navigation is an accessibility function because it guides you to your destination while avoiding crowds and unnecessary detours, ensuring that your shopping experience is enjoyable. To install a navigation app, all you need is a smartphone.

Q: What features are a must-have in mall indoor navigation apps?

A: The must-have features in mall indoor navigation apps are mentioned below:

  • A comprehensive list of points of interest
  • Routes exclusively for those with mobility difficulties
  • Audio-visual information about a specific location
  • Parking lot availability information
  • Facility audit feature

Q: Why is indoor navigation important?

A: If you are unable to interpret non-English wayfinding signs or are visually impaired, a reliable indoor navigation tool will come in handy. Having this tool makes you feel more confident about exploring indoor spaces on your own, saving you time that would otherwise be spent asking for assistance.

Q: How does AR indoor navigation work?

A: We now have AR-based indoor navigation technology to replace traditional indoor navigation. It differs from traditional systems in that the information is more visual and personalized to an individual’s preferences. This system would allow users to adjust the level of detail for holographic waypoints with floating signs and interactive elements.

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