More retailers installing wi-fi to web-enable stores
Wi-fi, the wireless technology for providing Internet access, will be in nearly 40% of specialty retailers within two years, research and analysis firm LakeWest Group LLC says in its 5th Annual POS Benchmarking Survey.
LakeWest says 33% of specialty retailers currently have wi-fi Internet access in their stores, and that another 6% plan to have it within two years. “Until recently, only laptop PCs were known for incorporating wi-fi,” LakeWest says in the study. “With wi-fi technology at the store level, retailers are better able to leverage web-enablement at any location within a store.”
Wi-fi, or wireless fidelity, provides broadband wireless Internet connection through a system of antennas that extend Internet access from fixed telephone lines. Among retailers installing wi-fi in retail locations is Starbucks Corp., where customers who subscribe to mobile Internet access from T-Mobile can log on to the web from their wireless laptops. But wi-fi analysts note that other retailers, such as department stores, will install wi-fi access throughout their stores to make it easier to provide web access to computer terminals.
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