Aruba Mobility Solutions Expand Revenue Streams for China's Wanda Group Malls and Plazas

Aruba Networks, Inc. has announced that Wanda Group, China’s largest commercial property company, is deploying Aruba's wireless LAN (WLAN) solutions across 59 malls and plazas in Guangzhou Baiyun, Fuzhou Financial Street, Fuzhou Cangshan, and the Dalian high-tech zone.

When customers visit Wanda’s retail establishments, they are now able to not only access high-performance Wi-Fi for personal web browsing, but also gain the benefits of interactive and personalized shopping.

Wanda operates department stores, restaurants, cultural and entertainment centers and manages the country’s largest number of commercial properties. In 2015, it aims to build 140 Wanda Plazas in China to cater to an estimated two billion guest visits per year.

To support its large volume of guests, Wanda is taking a leadership role in driving new revenue streams and improving the shopping experience though mobility. The Online to Offline (O2O) trend, a blend of using the Internet to drive commerce activity and facilitate payment options in stores, has become an important new way for retailers to generate more revenue, while attracting and retaining consumers.

Equipped with Aruba mobility solutions, Wanda is expanding its focus to provide consumers the best O2O shopping experience. Aruba Networks has not only served as a foundation for business innovation in Wanda’s commercial properties, but its mobility solutions also enable a powerful and advanced network infrastructure for Wanda’s O2O strategy.

Smart mobile network is the "economic base"

A well-known adage in the Chinese culture is, "the economic base determines the superstructure.” Similarly, the O2O experience in large commercial areas is based on the network infrastructure. None of the business models enabled by the combination of O2O experience would be possible without an intelligent mobile infrastructure with exceptional Wi-Fi access.

Wanda required a mobility solution that could operate in diverse environments. For example, high-density user access is needed to accommodate a variety of guest promotional activities near the concourses, and simple yet powerful indoor turn-by-turn wayfinding is needed throughout the malls. These requirements can only be satisfied by leading-edge technology, support, and customized network designs.

Aruba offered its unified wired and wireless LAN solutions to address Wanda’s stringent network and application requirements, including high-performance wireless access points, Mobility Access Switches, indoor navigation and integrated AirWave Network Management.

As the network infrastructure necessary to serve Wanda’s O2O strategy, Aruba’s mobility solutions deliver an excellent wireless experience for consumers in Wanda Plazas, fostering an important entrance for online traffic, and creating an effective tool for growth.

"Aruba’s mobility solutions play an important role in enhancing the customer experience across large commercial complexes," said David Fung, President of Aruba Networks China. "Aruba is very pleased to be the long-term partner of Wanda, the nation’s leading commercial property owner. Our ability to deliver a reliable and high-performance wireless environment will assist Wanda in realizing its O2O strategy.”