Gallerie Commerciali Italia signs with BT for retail digital transformation project
BT today announced it is working with Gallerie Commerciali Italia, part of Auchan Holding, to create new digital customer experiences for shoppers in Italy.
BT to help Gallerie Commerciali Italia, part of Auchan Holding, show how integrated digital technology can transform in-store customer experience
BT today announced it is working with Gallerie Commerciali Italia, part of Auchan Holding, to create new digital customer experiences for shoppers in Italy.
Under a new three year contract, BT will provide Gallerie Commerciali Italia, which owns or operates 43 shopping centers and six retail parks across Italy, with a range of ICT infrastructure services, customer relationship management (CRM) and in-store solutions to prove how digital technology can grow the appeal of retail spaces and provide new business services to retailers, as well as offer an enhanced omnichannel* customer experience to consumers.
The digital transformation project will involve a range of in-store multi-sensory solutions, spanning sight, sound, smell and touch. These will change how customers and retailers interact within stores, offering new ways to engage and communicate using smart screens, mobile devices and in-store radio as well as scent diffusion.
Underpinning the digital transformation project will be a BT network, providing fixed and wireless connectivity. Gallerie Commerciali Italia will use the network to control and bring together data from digital devices throughout its malls and to provide free wi-fi for shoppers. The “big data” gathered by the network will be analysed and used to offer services to retailers to help further enhance customer experience.
The pilot phase of the project will involve three shopping centers, located in Vimodrone, Nerviano and Rescaldina, chosen to reflect the different features and sizes of shopping centers in Gallerie Commerciali’s portfolio. The outcomes of the pilot will provide insights and help fine tune the roll out of digital technologies across all of Gallerie Commerciali Italia malls, comprising 2,200 stores visited by a total of 180 million people annually.
Edoardo Favro, CEO of Gallerie Commerciali Italia, comments: "We have launched an ambitious digital transformation and cross-functional project, with Italy leading the pilot for the international group. The project aims to offer truly engaging customer experiences.
At the same time, we want to deepen our relationship with retailers, leveraging analytics to give them more insight on our visitors’ behaviors while maintaining a single governance process and close control of data. In BT we found a partner with the vision, capabilities and experience required to deliver that.”
Hubertus von Roenne, vice president, global industry practices, BT, said: "We feel very proud that Gallerie Commerciali Italia has entrusted BT with the deployment of this transformational project that shares and embraces our Digital Possible vision. BT, with its extensive retail experience and digital integration expertise, understands modern consumers’ expectations of physical store environments. These environments must offer the same ease and customised convenience of online shopping and be truly integrated with the digital world.
This project shows that digital innovations are not just for online stores. They can help personalise the customer experience of the physical store and make a visit there much more engaging and attractive, as well as increasing the efficiency of retailers."
The Gallerie Commerciali Italia project reflects wider trends in digital transformation captured in The BT CIO report 2016: The digital CIO report. The cross-sector international study finds that the business areas most keen for support on digital transformation programmes are marketing (44 percent), client relationship management (38 percent), research and development (37 per cent) and sales (36 per cent).
*Omnichannel retailing provides a consistent customer experience regardless of how a customer interacts with the retailer either through instore, online, via a mobile ap or over the phone.
ENDS
For further information
Enquiries about this news release should be made to the BT Group Newsroom on its 24-hour number: 020 7356 5369. From outside the UK dial + 44 20 7356 5369. All news releases can be accessed at our web site: http://www.btplc.com/News
About the BT CIO report 2016 – ‘The digital CIO’
The research from the 'BT CIO report 2016, ‘The digital CIO’was undertaken in March 2016 by Vanson Bourne, an independent market research firm. It builds on the insights contained in the 2014 report ‘Creativity and the modern CIO.’ The research was conducted with 1030 senior IT decision makers working for multinational corporations across eleven countries, and additional insight from BT’s technology and advisory experts.
The countries covered by the 2016 research are Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, the UK and Ireland and the USA.
About Gallerie Commerciali Italia
Gallerie Commerciali Italia is a leading real estate company operating a chain of shopping centers in Italy. The company invest in, design, promote, develop, market and manage both fully-owned and joint venture shopping centres and retail parks in Italy. The portfolio currently includes 43 shopping centres and 6 Retail Parks for a total 600.000 mq gross leasable area (GLA) and over 2.200 shops, attracting 180.000.000 visitors per year.
Gallerie Commerciali Italia is wholly-owned by Auchan through Immochan, the international real estate company, leading player in the shopping centres and retail parks sector.
For more information:
Gallerie Commerciali Italia
Ufficio Stampa
+39340.21.87.481
