Retail
The growth of online shopping has challenged traditional retailers to enhance the customer experience and create tools that bring the shopper back to the mall and retail center. Shoppers today cannot filter and search across multiple products and retail lines like they do on Amazon.com. 5G and augmented reality (AR) promise to make the retail experience more engaging.
Connecting the in-store experience to 5G mobile applications allows customers to build a stronger relationship with the brand. Immersive experiences where shoppers can explore retail products in-depth without opening a box or using the product will require high-bandwidth and low latency network connectivity.
A recent study from Gartner reported that “100 million consumers” this year will be utilizing both online shopping online and in-store shopping as an integrated shopping experience. The power of connecting consumers to retail brands through their phones creates an opportunity for retailers to build stronger relationships and connect consumers to each other to build brand-centric communities. In-building connectivity will be a requirement and wireless wireline convergence can deliver on that capability.