Westfield Malls Use Digital Transformation to Disrupt Industry in Need of Change

Today’s retailers understand that if they want to stand out from the pack, they must engage every shopper with a personalized, enjoyable experience. Westfield Corporation has been delivering superior retail experiences for more than 50 years. With 35 properties in the United States and the United Kingdom and more than $16 billion in annual retail sales, the firm is constantly employing new ways to learn more about its customers – and keep them coming back.

Westfield upgraded its Century City property in Southern California – easily the company’s busiest location at 20 million visitors a year – with innovative technology to transform the visitor experience. The goal was to set the brand apart for shoppers, while providing growth opportunities for its retail, entertainment, and hospitality partners, by getting to know their customers better.

A Springboard for innovation

Westfield’s strategy included collecting data and building user profiles to enable real-time engagement and applying these business insights to attract flagship-level tenants. In support of these efforts, Westfield also sought to digitize its advertising platforms, with location-based digital content delivery across fixed and mobile screens.

To bring its vision to life, Westfield partnered with Cisco to create a digital-ready foundation for its SmartCenter initiative. The blueprint employed Cisco UCS, Cisco networking, mobility, collaboration, analytics, and software solutions to help make the retailer’s IT more agile, and its innovation more accessible. The entire solution was based on a Cisco Digital Network Architecture (Cisco DNA™) for retail, which uses automation to simplify network management, analytics to provide customer insights, and embedded security everywhere.

In addition, Cisco wireless solutions support a public high-density Wi-Fi network that delivers a premium customer experience where visitors can enjoy wireless connectivity everywhere, taking advantage of applications such as self-service ordering and checkout, as well as easier customer returns. Using Wayfinding navigation tools, visitors can quickly find the retailer, dining, or entertainment for which they are looking, while the mall engages visitors with event-driven personalized messaging.

The Cisco Advantage

To gain better insight into its shoppers and operations, Westfield utilized Cisco Connected Mobile Experience (CMX)Advanced analytics. With a better understanding of customer behavior, the mall can now enhance the delivery and relevance of ads and promotions, as well as optimize the layout of its tenant locations and its lease rates.

Westfield also applied its end-to-end SmartCenter environment to non-retail operations, such as parking and energy management.

Future-Proofing

Knowing it needed to deploy the SmartCenter solution to its other flagship properties, Westfield also utilized the Cisco enterprise agreement to help simplify complex licensing, while including an allowance for growth and scalability.

“We couldn’t succeed without the right partners, and Cisco has been just amazing,” said Denise Taylor, Westfield CIO. “The enterprise agreement allowed us to be very agile. It became the building block of how we future-proofed our centers, enabling us to be nimble and flexible to make adjustments as necessary as our industry continues to evolve.”

From Shopping Center to Destination

Westfield defined new levels of retail innovation through digitization and Cisco’s support, replicating its SmartCenter model and employing it as a blueprint that it can apply to other properties around the globe in the future.

With Cisco’s help, the company is expecting a dramatic return on its investment (ROI) for the multiphase deployment, projecting a 100 percent increase in customer data capture and a 50 percent increase in digital advertising revenues. As it adds more digital value across its properties, the firm also anticipates a 10 percent increase in tenant revenue.

With a solid SmartCenter vision and an end-to-end data strategy across the entire shopper journey, Westfield continues to build a new business model that redefines the mall experience. Through digital transformation and a strong partnership with Cisco, Westfield is disrupting an industry in the midst of change.