HI-LO Food Stores has partnered with Columbus Business Solutions (CBS) to offer free Wi-Fi at outlets islandwide, a move aimed at enhancing the customer experience at the Gracekennedy-owned supermarket chain.

Hi-Lo customers are now able to use the Internet from their smart phones and tablets while shopping. Upon gaining access to the Internet after switching on the Wi-Fi, customers will also be provided with information on in-store promotions and specials through a home page powered by CBS’s sister brand Flow.

“It is part of our plan, in making people’s lives easier,” said Peter Bailey, Hi-Lo store manager in Barbican.

Bailey said that the collaboration with CBS has set Hi-Lo in the direction the company wants to go, adding that the improvement in communication with consumers, enabled by Flow UnPlugged, will be a positive.

In addition to providing a means to promote special products, Bailey said another benefit of the collaboration is that it will enable customers to provide instant critical feedback. “Customers can ask questions while in-store, without having to wait to get home to send an email,” he said.

Denise Williams, corporate communications director at Columbus Communications Jamaica, operators of both the Flow and the CBS brands, said the collaboration with Hi-Lo “… is part of a broader series of partnerships to ensure that business customers and their clients have access the best broadband products and services for both business use and to enhance their customer experience”.

She added: “We are very happy to partner with Hi-Lo. You can find Hi-Lo almost anywhere in Jamaica via their supermarkets, administrative offices, processing and packaging plants. This means more customers can benefit from the Wi-Fi experience and this fits perfectly with our aim to ensure that we helped HiLo to meet their goal of connecting their locations and utilising technology products to enhance productivity and profitability and serving their customer better.”

The Flow Unplugged Wide Area Network service provides customers with fast download speeds which enable customers to browse websites, check e-mails, exchange social media messages and all the other activities they do online with a smartphone or tablet.

Having Wi-Fi access with Flow Unplugged means shoppers at Hi-Lo Supermarkets are now part of a growing worldwide phenomenon of being connected as they shop.

In 2008, Tech magazine PC World reported Stan Schatt, VP and research director of the wireless connectivity practice at ABI Research, correctly predicted that global hotspots would increase by 40 per cent. The report pointed to fast-food stores such as McDonalds and Starbucks outfitting their stores around the globe for Wi-Fi connection and in so doing morphing the businesses from being drive-through destinations to a place where people go to meet and socialise or play.