Talk given on October 18th 2017 in Stavanger at the Nordic Council of Shopping Centres.

1. The smallest smart city.
What shopping centres can learn from the internet of things.
Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino
alex@designswarm.com
@iotwatch on twitter/insta

2. First UK distributor of Arduino, a cheap electronics prototyping tool.
#iot strategic consultant at designswarm.
Founder of Good Night Lamp.
Organiser of the London Internet of Things meetup since 2011.
Writing a book on smart homes.
Steering a certification mark for connected products.
My background

3. Work done for M&S in 2009.
A strategic report on the internet of things for a global FMCG
company with retail presence in 2015.
A landscape report on Smart Cities for Nominet in 2016.
What I will draw on today

4. Shopping centres are porous

5. Shopping centres are porous

6. Sometimes they aren’t called shopping centres at all

7. Their format also varies depending on location & retail culture
Strip malls
Malls
Markets
Pop-up malls

8. Which means that the potential for technology varies too.
The focus of technology will vary.
The impact of technology will vary.
But none of this can happen without data.
And soon with GDPR, none of this can happen without consent.

9. So let’s talk about tracking.

10. Tracking activity
Wifi triangulation for discounts or security.
Sort of location tracking but depends on the devices used.

11. Tracking activity
Bluetooth triangulation.
Better location tracking but relies on an open bluetooth connection
and an app opened.

12. Tracking activity
Eye tracking.
Requires cameras close enough to see the eye movement or augmented
glasses.

13. Tracking activity
Smart shelving units for luxury goods.
Weight sensors under each shelf to help security services at Macy’s.

14. Tracking activity
Gender.
Looking at gait analysis to ascertain gender.

15. However…

16. Challenges ahead
Young people don’t like malls & prefer shopping online.

17. Challenges ahead
How to overcome this?

18. In-store customer feedback.
HappyorNot at airports.
Dynamic feedback on customer experience.

19. Air quality monitoring.
Air Quality Egg
Showing the benefits of your closed and controlled environment.

20. Usage of collective spaces.
Condeco sensors
Track the use of seating.

21. City farming
CityCrop, Botanicalls, & vegetable boxes.
Letting school children and older people micro-farm on
your property, letting them keep track of the soil conditions remotely.

22. Traffic management & creation
Help people identify events or quiet areas.
Give them decent indoor mapping, work with Mapzen or Google directly.
Your app is problably the first thing they will use.

23. Loyalty
Help shoppers get discounts based on location and frequency of visits.
The airline points model based on Facebook checkins for eg..

24. Loyalty
A ‘personal data’ space that lets them automate searches with dynamic
stock checking across multiple vendors according
to their measurements, budget or preferences.
Mobile notifications & RFID cards are cheap.

25. To conclude
Make use of your physical space to offer convenience, not
only data harvesting.
Make use of your physical spaces to invite interactions that are
unusual but will attract new audiences.
Be transparent to shoppers about what is going on,
you’ll be able to ask more of them. Otherwise you risk bad PR.
Treat your shopping centre as if you were a small city, with citizens
in it.

26. ‘Innovative malls are incorporating value-added elements
that attempt to recast the mall as the new downtown,
including concerts, arts centers, spas, fitness clubs,
and farmer’s markets.
These services provide a level of leisure and
entertainment that can never be satisfied online.’

27. Takk for alt!
Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino
alex@designswarm.com