OCM Boosts Customer Experience with AI-Driven Networking | Juniper Global Summit

0:57 -Hello everyone, my name is James Morgan

1:00 and I'm vice president of enterprise for EMEA at Juniper Networks.

1:03 Joining me today are Simon Drees

1:05 who is the director of omnichannel services

1:07 and innovation and Sebastian Stelter,

1:09 project manager and service support team lead

1:11 at Outlet City Metzingen.

1:14 OCM and Juniper have got a long-standing partnership focusing

1:17 on offering visitors the best shopping experience

1:19 across any touchpoint.

1:21 To achieve greater digitalization of the shopping experience,

1:24 it is deployed Juniper wireless networking powered by Mist AI.

1:28 The Wi-Fi covers 40,000 square meters retail floor space

1:31 as well as outdoor areas and parking garages.

1:34 Gentlemen, welcome, and thank you for joining me today.

1:37 Juniper and Outlet City Metzingen or OCM

1:40 as I've called it already, we've partnered together

1:42 to achieve greater digitalization of your shopping experience.

1:45 Can you just tell us how OCM's vision

1:48 and the strategy you are taking to be able

1:49 to innovate in digitalization?

1:52 -Yes, sure, James.

1:53 Thanks again for the invitation.

1:56 First of all, let me introduce Outlet City Metzingen

1:59 because I think that some of you don't know it already.

2:04 So Outlet City is one of the biggest factory outlets in Europe.

2:08 More than 500 brands in our channels.

2:11 And our Outlet itself is located in Metzingen.

2:14 It's a small town about 30 kilometers south of Stuttgart.

2:17 And you know Stuttgart where Porsche and Mercedes are from.

2:20 -Oh, yes.

2:22 -And pre pandemic 2019,

2:24 we had about 4.5 million shoppers from around the globe.

2:28 What's special for us is that one-third

2:31 of the revenues is done from customers outside Europe,

2:35 especially from China, Russia, and the Arabic countries.

2:39 We've got premium and especially luxury brands like Prada,

2:43 Burberry, Moncler, Nike, Adidas, Tommy Hilfiger, and so on,

2:48 but one thing that makes Outlet City really special is

2:51 that we were the first location,

2:54 the first fashion outlet with an online shop.

2:56 We launched back in 2012.

2:58 Due to this online shop,

3:00 we gained really strong know-how

3:02 in the future of digitalization like online marketing,

3:06 building a shop, building websites, create content,

3:09 do websites analytics, and so on.

3:12 Both channels, the retail business

3:14 and also the eCommerce profit from this know-how, of course.

3:18 Our mission is to provide the best shopping experience

3:21 for our guests in all channels, retail and online.

3:24 To do this, we need digitally-driven towards

3:28 as part of this experience.

3:30 A few years ago, in 2018,

3:33 we initialized an omnichannel program

3:35 to deliver this exact experience.

3:37 For example, we came up with was a loyalty concept,

3:40 the Outlet City Club, where our customers can collect points

3:44 for the revenues or a whole new Outlet City smartphone app,

3:47 which helps the customers when he is in Metzingen to navigate,

3:52 to find special offers, and so on.

3:55 On top of this,

3:56 we have a state-of-the-art footfall tracking both indoor

3:59 and outdoor to get like Google Analytics insights

4:04 of our retail business and,

4:06 of course, we have a powerful free Wi-Fi especially

4:10 for our non-European guests I mentioned before.

4:14 -Obviously 2020 brought a lot of changes to many industries,

4:18 and particularly the retail and fashion industry has barely

4:22 been out of the front page press

4:24 in terms of the challenges there.

4:26 How have you embraced technology to extend the reach

4:28 of your selling and distribution channels?

4:31 -Yes, James.

4:32 As you can imagine, COVID-19 impacted heavily.

4:35 Just let me give you an example.

4:37 In Germany right now we have strict

4:39 regulations regarding retail shopping.

4:41 There are limits on how many guests

4:43 are allowed per square meter in the stores.

4:45 Normally this will lead to heavy queuing

4:47 in front of the stores, would be really,

4:49 really crowdy in Metzingen, which we don't want, of course.

4:52 To avoid it and to make shopping more convenient

4:56 on the one side and also more safe

4:58 on the other side is that our developers

5:01 created the mobile check-in within a few weeks.

5:03 The mobile check-in is a web app

5:05 where a guest scans the QR code

5:07 in front of the store and then is queued up virtually

5:10 and as the guest sees when it's time to go

5:12 to the store and make use of the spare time like,

5:16 for example, have a coffee or visit another store.

5:19 The doorman of the brands have a special view

5:22 in this web app where they can see the allowed limit

5:25 of customers and the current utilization.

5:28 To make this mobile check-in happening,

5:30 we need the footfall sensors,

5:31 we need the Wi-Fi for the guests and the doorman, of course,

5:34 and we need this digital know-how we gained

5:38 through our online shopping experience.

5:40 Here you can see how different parts

5:42 of the digital infrastructure enable new services on top of it,

5:46 and in sometimes mobile check-in really made

5:49 the difference for us between

5:51 able to open up or to be on lockdown.

5:54 It's absolutely business-critical.

5:56 Of course, our online shop also became much more important.

6:00 When there was a complete lockdown last year,

6:03 of course, our retail business was closed too,

6:05 but despite all other outlets,

6:07 we were able to continue business through our online shopping.

6:11 Even before 2020, the online business was growing strongly,

6:14 like 20% or 30% per year, but 2020 really topped it all

6:19 and the numbers have gone through the roof.

6:21 -yes.

6:22 The success of our online shop is really amazing.

6:26 We also had a need to find ways to reach new customers

6:32 as well as engage existing customers.

6:35 Social commerce and event-based shopping

6:38 has really, really taken off.

6:40 We were using Instagram, WhatsApp, live streaming events

6:46 which is very popular with customers in China.

6:50 Let me throw in some numbers.

6:54 2019 Taobao Life, that's in Alibaba's streaming platform

7:02 made already over $2.85 billion in revenue

7:09 with the single-day shopping event, with one event.

7:12 That's over 7.5% of Alibaba Group's overall revenue.

7:17 That are really big numbers, so sounds great, right?

7:22 What about the potential in Germany?

7:26 China is really big.

7:28 That's a whole different game.

7:30 What's the potential here in Germany beyond

7:36 the influencer management and already known

7:39 and successful social media strategy?

7:43 Our own sales and tourism team has proven

7:47 that high numbers on live streaming viewers

7:50 and views are also achievable here in Germany.

7:53 For example, our China team managed

7:55 to get over 112,000 viewers with

7:59 one-day live streaming event last year, and that's in Metzingen.

8:05 They were setting a record

8:07 on the popular Chinese traveling team platform,

8:11 Mafengwo, and until today,

8:16 so that's a great success, I think.

8:19 Outlet City Metzingen is a top destination for customer's shopping,

8:26 shoppers not only in Europe but worldwide.

8:30 The enormous potential is there

8:33 and we are closely working together

8:36 with international companies, platforms,

8:38 influencers, brand partners to find

8:43 and test successful concepts.

8:45 It really is an important market for OCM.

8:50 Really, Juniper Technology helps us

8:54 to reach our goals by providing a great Wi-Fi experience.

8:59 I think that the technical infrastructure overall we've built

9:04 is the base for everything we do.

9:08 -Truly impressive, again,

9:10 when you think an Outlet City and a destination,

9:12 a physical geographic destination but,

9:14 of course, you use technology just

9:16 to smash all the boundaries geographically

9:19 and I think also demographically.

9:21 Absolutely very, very impressive and huge,

9:25 huge numbers and statistics.

9:27 Of course, also reacting to the challenges

9:30 of a pandemic and the platform that gives you

9:33 the ability to ebb and flow with that.

9:36 How do you see the needs and the demands

9:39 of the retail customers and,

9:41 of course, the brands as well,

9:42 because you have a number of stakeholders

9:44 that you need to keep satisfied.

9:45 How do you see that changing, going forward?

9:49 -Due to COVID-19,

9:51 there's a tremendous acceleration of the digitalization,

9:55 as you can see by the examples

9:56 that Sebastian and I have given before.

9:58 There is no going back.

10:00 In future, both the digital

10:03 and the traditional distribution channels will embrace

10:06 and get stronger altogether.

10:08 Also, new technology will enable new features.

10:11 One example I came across was a real-time track

10:16 and analysis of in-store customers

10:19 where an AI does an analysis,

10:23 whether, for example, it's necessary to open a new register

10:26 even before there is a queue of the already open registers.

10:30 Also, a big trend for the fashion industry is sustainability.

10:35 It's not totally connected to digital business,

10:40 but it's a absolute global megatrend and it's far beyond fashion,

10:44 and especially fashion is not a perfect track record

10:47 when it comes to sustainability.

10:49 There will be

10:50 big changes and there are already

10:52 some good things going on like,

10:54 for example, Outlet City is producing green energy

10:57 with solar and water power and this

10:59 energy is used in our stores.

11:02 We are providing our retailers with green energy

11:05 and also we are providing charging points

11:08 for electric cars for our customers, for our guests.

11:11 We use super-eco-friendly LED lighting settings.

11:16 What's not just we as Outlet City,

11:17 but also our brands find new ways

11:20 when it comes to sustainability like producing

11:23 more eco-friendly products with organic cotton,

11:26 which are fair traded and so on.

11:28 You can see the whole industry is changing

11:32 when it comes to this part.

11:36 -Very impressive.

11:37 I think across the number of different verticals

11:39 and industries we see similar trends.

11:41 Being somebody who's just invested in an electronic vehicle,

11:45 the charging points automatically,

11:46 it means that's the destination I head for.

11:50 It makes a real difference,

11:51 so I certainly appreciate that as well on a personal level.

11:54 Juniper, our True North, our mission statement

11:58 is all about experience and experience first networking.

12:01 You talked about a couple of examples there

12:04 where customers experience,

12:05 where predictive analytics play a role.

12:09 What's your view on this in more detail maybe,

12:12 and how are you really driving

12:14 that user experience for your customers

12:17 and the brands that you work with?

12:19 -James, I think a great experience

12:22 is based on many different factors.

12:25 We aim to develop ourselves

12:28 to a fully customer-centric thinking company.

12:32 That means we want and we must build

12:36 a great relationship with our customers and partners.

12:40 This can be achieved in many ways,

12:44 but one thing is really essential.

12:48 We must create a great experience

12:51 at any touchpoint with our customers and partners.

12:56 We are working hard with our colleagues

12:58 and teams to create a seamless and great user experience

13:02 from many topics like seamless Wi-Fi coverage, high connections,

13:08 the ability and speed, state of the art technology,

13:12 app and website usability, premium quality design

13:17 for digital products in our buildings,

13:19 our prize-winning architecture, and amazing brand portfolio,

13:25 amazing restaurants and cafes,

13:28 and very important outstanding customer service online

13:32 or online shop and on location in Metzingen.

13:37 Last but not least, many people are shoppers.

13:41 We need to have great prices and benefits for our customers,

13:46 and I think the innovative technology we talked about

13:50 is really helping us to give that experience,

13:56 to create a experience and new possibilities

13:59 for new technologies to create that great experience.

14:02 -Some really great insight into the here and now

14:05 and the decisions that you took a couple of years ago maybe,

14:10 that have led to being able to deliver that kind of experience.

14:14 What's next?

14:15 What's next for the industry and what's next specifically for OCM?

14:20 -Looking at OCM,

14:21 of course on the shorter we have

14:23 to get our retail business back online.

14:26 Right now, as I mentioned,

14:28 we are running on a strict limitation due to COVID-19

14:31 but in the near future,

14:32 I'm sure things will get back to normal.

14:36 A few days ago I talked to some customers at Outlet City

14:40 and they are really happy to be outside

14:44 to do shopping again for example,

14:47 and I'm sure that our customers will come back.

14:51 Another part is the non-European customer as I mentioned,

14:55 but I'm sure that also tourism will come again,

14:59 will rise up again as well.

15:01 Everybody is tired of staying at home and not being able to travel.

15:06 When this will come back, I'm sure our guests will also come back.

15:11 Let's talk about the future.

15:13 In general, traditional shopping,

15:16 traditional retail shopping is under pressure

15:17 by e-commerce because of our already existing online shop,

15:21 we will benefit directly from this trend.

15:23 Our retail business itself is also more than ready

15:26 to pick up the challenge.

15:29 In my opinion, retail shopping must be

15:32 an event for the guest and in Metzingen almost everybody,

15:36 every guest's plans is visiting.

15:39 They come with family, with friends

15:41 and they plan their stay during holidays

15:44 and they go shopping, they go eating,

15:46 they enjoy special events, and just simply have a good day,

15:50 and they are looking forward to go to Metzingen.

15:53 We do everything possible to make their visit here

15:55 as pleasant as possible.

15:56 New digital tools will support this trend.

16:01 What we will do is we will address our guests

16:03 on a more personal level to guide them through their experience.

16:07 I think location-based services

16:09 provided by the Juniper access points,

16:12 for example, in combination

16:13 with hyper-personalization tools in our app,

16:16 for example, or in our club,

16:17 will become crucial through all our channels,

16:21 our website, our app, and so on.

16:23 Pre-COVID, we were growing stronger

16:26 than the overall fashion retail market in Germany,

16:29 and I'm sure we will continue to do so.

16:32 What we want to be is the best host

16:36 for a shopping experience, both online and in retail.

16:39 I'm really certain that,

16:42 together with our brand partners in Metzingen,

16:44 and the passionate professional and hardworking team

16:47 we have in Metzingen, we will achieve this goal.

16:51 -Well, listen, I love when customers

16:55 such as yourselves take our technology

16:57 and completely transform their business

17:00 and really drive great innovation.

17:03 Simon, Sebastian, thank you very much

17:05 for your time and your insight.

17:07 It's been a real pleasure.

17:08 -Thank you Very much, James.

17:10 -Thank you, James. yes.

17:11 [music]