It was only about a year ago when certain retailers tried to stop customers taking pictures of products and scanning bar codes for use on price comparison sites. The mobile phone was seen as a threat. Some retailers used different barcodes to make it hard to compare product and I heard a rumour that bad phone signals in some store was not always accidental.

Free wifi in retail stores

I remember speaking to one retailer last year about QR codes and he told me that his customers would never buy smart phones because they were too expensive.   How things have changes. Now every major retailer embraces the mobile as a tool to help customer select and buy products and it’s helping them grow sales too.

The final step for stores is wifi coverage. It’s fitting that the first departmental store to install free unencumbered WiFi is John Lewis. It fits beautifully with their message of Never knowing under sold.  Customers can now check for themselves.  It’s no coincidence that John Lewis has an excellent website which will help them grow sales at the expense of certain other retailers whose websites need refreshing.

With John Lewis offering free WiFi a new standard has been set. I doubt that there will be any major retail chain without free in-store WiFi within a year.