Axians supplies IT infrastructure for Store of the Future in The Hague

The ‘Store’ is the Netherlands’ very first retail innovation lab, a joint initiative by the Municipality of The Hague and Q&A Research & Consultancy. It constitutes a unique collaboration between more than sixty retailers, brands, property firms, technology companies and retail finance partners. Axians, one of the main sponsors of Store of the Future, implemented the underlying IT infrastructure for the innovation platform in partnership with Cisco.

The consumers of today are becoming increasingly critical, and are shopping in different ways. With the advent of online shopping, traditional shops increasingly have to compete with online retailers. The physical shop of the future therefore has to make shopping more enjoyable, and above all easier, for example by deploying new technologies. The Store of the Future brings the two worlds together, enabling online and offline business to reinforce one another. Retailers can test their IT innovations and new products in a live environment, and make shopping an interactive experience, allowing consumers to get to know their products and services in a new way.

Q&R Research & Consultancy started out by looking for a partner with sufficient experience in the field. “Because we had never set up a project like this before, we asked the professionals at Axians what the ideal infrastructure would look like. Their ideas gave us confidence, and they equipped the shop with a very good functional network.

It was a complex project involving a number of parties, so it was good to have a proactive, flexible partner who thinks along the same lines. This made the collaboration a really positive experience for me. The same goes for the other parties, who also deserve a great deal of credit.”

John Terra is now looking to the future, in which Axians and Cisco have a key role to play as strategic partners. “Now that we have laid the groundwork, we can start discovering what the future will bring. How do we contact consumers via Apps and Bluetooth? How can we analyse the data that we obtain? We want to focus on engagement and interaction with consumers, while continuing to ask consumers for feedback, so that the concept continues to develop.”

Edwin Prinsen, Managing Director of Cisco Nederland, said: “The Internet has fundamentally changed the way we shop. And this is just the beginning. Thanks to the technological innovations in the ‘Store of the Future’, we can see how physical shopping is gaining a new dimension. The ICT infrastructure ensures that retailers have every opportunity to implement their innovative shopping ideas, while also giving members of the public an unprecedented shopping experience. It’s about delivering the best of both worlds, by combining the physical shopping experience with the interaction, engagement and information offering that online consumers are used to.”