It’s gotten much more common today to find businesses that offer complimentary WiFi for their patrons, especially in cities.  Still, there are many places outside of Big-City-America where free WiFi is the exception and not the rule.

If you are on the fence about whether to offer free WiFi to your customers, you may be wondering:  is there any real evidence of the benefits of offering free WiFi?

One recent study suggests that small retail businesses are indeed seeing a return from offering complimentary WiFi to their customers.

Devicescape commissioned a survey conducted by iGR of 400 U.S. small businesses with retail places of business.  The survey found that providing free WiFi for customers increases:

• Foot traffic
• Time spent on premises
• The amount customers spend

The survey focused on independent “mom and pop” retail stores, including bars, nightclubs, restaurants, fast food places, coffee shops, clothing boutiques, book shops and salons.

Biggest Benefits of Offering Free WiFi

One of the biggest benefits of offering free WiFi is that it increases the time spent on premises.  Consumers tend to stay longer if they can use their tablets and laptops via WiFi.  Of the businesses surveyed, almost 62 percent said that customers spent more time in their shop or facility once WiFi was introduced.

Around 50% said customers spent more money, too.  And if you’re wondering how many implied that customers were just hanging around, taking up space and spending less (every business owner’s fear), the answer is only a tiny number of business owners said customers spent less when free WiFi was available.

The graph pictured above shows key breakdowns.

Different business owners have different goals for providing free WiFi to customers.  Some do it in order to provide better customer service (and attract those 5-star online reviews!).  Some do it to bring more customers in the door.  Some deploy free WiFi to get customers to buy more.

The ones who deployed it to serve customers better reported the highest success rates, at a whopping 79 percent.  After that, the ones who offered free WiFi to improve sales numbers had the next highest rate of success (72%).  Increasing foot traffic in the door rated the third highest success at 69%.

Would Small Businesses Stop Providing WiFi?

Not many would, judging by this survey.

Three-fourths of the small businesses surveyed by iGR said they considered complimentary WiFi to be important or very important to their businesses.  Perhaps it’s because the competitor down the street offers free WiFi and so they feel they must, too, in order to compete. Or perhaps it’s because consumers are used to being online all the time and today expect an Internet connection wherever they go.  Or perhaps, it’s because of the dollars and cents benefits described above.

The president of the firm that conducted the survey, Iain Gillott, summed it up when he said, “The availability of WiFi is no longer an innovation limited to the large retail chains — small businesses are now offering the same services in their establishments, for both employees and customers. In the near future, small businesses will consider WiFi as fundamental to their success as electricity or running water.”

Courtesy: Small Biz Trends

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