Symbol Technologies And MerchantWired Develop The Wireless Mall
Tuesday May 29, 11:02 am Eastern Time
Press Release
Companies Partner to Provide Wireless Retail Solutions With Low Cost of Entry Using Symbol Spectrum24® Wireless LAN
HOLTSVILLE, NY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 29, 2001-- Symbol Technologies (NYSE:SBL - news) and MerchantWired announced today they have entered into an agreement to provide innovative and economical wireless solutions based on Symbol's industry-leading Spectrum24® wireless local area network to mall retailers across America. The solution allows mall retailers to remotely access the MerchantWired network to perform a number of traditional retail applications, such as real-time price lookup, item ordering and inventory management, credit card processing, intra-company communications and loss prevention.
The initial rollout is scheduled to begin in June with installations in 10 malls operated by the MerchantWired consortium, which includes Simon Property Group, The Macerich Company, The Rouse Company, Taubman Centers, Inc., Urban Retail Properties and Westfield America Inc.
The wireless infrastructure will be installed and managed by MerchantWired, and will be built around the Symbol Spectrum24 High Rate wireless LAN (11 Mbps) and the Symbol StoreWave(TM) retail suite of application software. As part of the agreement, MerchantWired will be the exclusive ASP of StoreWave.
The benefits of the wireless mall to retailers are numerous. It provides enhanced speed, accuracy, customer service and a competitive advantage for retailers of all sizes. The cost of entry has been greatly reduced due to the aggregation of retailers on the MerchantWired network, and time to market is significantly shorter since the applications are hosted on the network, not by the retailer.
``This is the next step in a move to level the technology playing field for retailers in shopping malls,'' said James R. Giuliano, III, president and CEO of MerchantWired. ``We're moving technology out from behind the sales counter and onto the sales floor where it can be even more productive for retailers and shoppers alike. The value of the 'wireless mall' is that it cost effectively extends the MerchantWired network to multiple retailers and allows retailers of all sizes to benefit from the same high levels of productivity and efficiency once reserved for the large scale general merchandise stores.''
``The wireless mall is just the beginning of a new wave of information access for retailers,'' says Tomo Razmilovic, president and CEO, Symbol Technologies. ``This allows retailers, who may have been slow to invest in wireless infrastructure, to begin using an array of wireless applications.''
Individual retailers will be able to incorporate any number of wireless applications to enhance customer services, optimize in-store efficiencies, and cut operating costs.
MerchantWired's retail-exclusive network and applications provide benefits such as substantially faster credit card processing at the point of sale and improved loss prevention capabilities, both of which are not possible in a traditional dial-up access environment. Extending the network with wireless capabilities allows retailers to easily reconfigure store layouts such as moving the checkout counters or setting up temporary POS stations during the holiday season or for special events, without the complexity and cost of running network cables or reloading applications.
Symbol's Spectrum24 wireless LAN also enables retailers to implement kiosk technology and mall-wide, multi-retailer gift registry applications.
MerchantWired (www.merchantwired.com) delivers managed network services technology solutions, and integration services exclusively to the retail industry to help improve store performance, enhance customer experience and increase profitability. MerchantWired can deploy network and solutions resources on demand to store locations throughout North America.
MerchantWired works in partnership with a coalition of property owners including The Macerich Company (NYSE:MAC - news), The Rouse Company (NYSE:RSE - news), Simon Property Group (NYSE:SPG - news), Taubman Centers, Inc. (NYSE:TCO - news), Urban Retail Properties, and Westfield America, Inc. (NYSE:WEA - news). |
