Lush Asia Limited has selected and deployed Ruckus Unleashed controller-less Wi-Fi in its new 7,000 ft2, five-floor Central Soho Square store and spa in Hong Kong. Lush is the first customer in Hong Kong to deploy Ruckus Unleashed 802.11ac Smart Wi-Fi access points (APs).
To celebrate its 20th brand anniversary, Lush opened a new Spa and flagship retail store in Hong Kong. The store and spa required a fast and reliable wireless network to replace the legacy network, which was incapable of meeting the store’s demands.
The Wi-Fi network needed to support an enhanced shopping experience for its customers, as well as improved back room capabilities, such as wireless scanners, video conference calls and electronic point of sale (EPOS) systems.
“The legacy Wi-Fi network deployed in the Lush retail stores could not support internal use smoothly. We experienced an unstable connection, low speeds and cutouts. Often we needed to reboot the network during important tasks,” explained Victor Ma, IT Support at Lush. “We were not confident the network was stable enough to offer Wi-Fi to our retail customers. When we opened our new flagship store, performance was our top consideration and it was clear we needed a higher capacity wireless network, which was significantly more reliable and capable of delivering higher speeds.”
As the legacy network used across its eight other stores in Hong Kong couldn’t satisfy the needs of Lush’s flagship store, it decided to look for a new vendor. After some initial vendor testing, Lush decided on Ruckus Unleashed Smart Wi-Fi.
“Performance was the top consideration for us. Ruckus Unleashed provided the quality of service, value and ease of use to support a smooth internal operation and an enhanced customer experience,” said Ma.
“Reliable Wi-Fi is no longer a nice-to-have amenity, it’s a prerequisite for retailers looking to create synergies with their website and social media platforms. We are the gold standard in the retail sector, particularly for large, multi-level stores such as Lush,” said Linda Hu, managing director at Ruckus Wireless Hong Kong, Taiwan and Philippines.
Lush has deployed five Ruckus ZoneFlex R500 Unleashed dual-band 802.11ac APs throughout its five-floor store. Ruckus R500 Unleashed enables a controller-less Wi-Fi architecture with superior performance, lower costs and simplified management. This enables Lush to securely manage the network from anywhere, at any time, using any browser or device, all while significantly reducing upfront costs.
Meeting all expectations
Following the deployment, Ma said the Ruckus Unleashed wireless network had met all expectations. “We have been very happy with the speed and reliability of our network. In the seven months since it has been deployed we have experienced very few connection problems. The network has integrated seamlessly into our stores and has been embraced by our customers, with not a single complaint received to date,” said Ma.
Crucial to the success of the deployment was the fact performance was enhanced through integrated BeamFlex and ChannelFly technologies. BeamFlex maximises signal coverage, throughput and network capacity by creating the optimum antenna pattern for each communicating device in real time, while actively mitigating interference. ChannelFly leverages BeamFlex to learn and select the best RF channel, increasing overall network capacity in the most challenging conditions.
“Thanks to Ruckus Unleashed Smart Wi-Fi, we can now encourage our customers to engage on our social platforms to help promote the brand and products. Customers can now check-in, upload photos and share their customer experience over Wi-Fi,” said Ma. “Our staff have also seen the benefit. They can now use smart devices to help improve customer service levels and engagement without the fear of the network cutting out. In fact, the network of the flagship store is much more stable than that of our other outlets and has truly enabled us to elevate and complete the customer experience.”
Following the success of the installation, Lush plans to deploy Ruckus Unleashed products in the Lush Hong Kong office and other retail stores in Hong Kong. The rollout will be prioritised in shops with a high customer density.