Lush Hong Kong gets stable Wi-Fi at new store with Ruckus Wireless

Source: Ruckus Wireless case study. Lush in Hong Kong.

Established in the UK in 1995, Lush is known for its fresh handmade products, ranging from bath and hair products to skincare and cosmetics. Part of the appeal of the Lush brand lies in their innovative design and branding of their retail stores, as well as its excellent customer service. Currently Lush has a presence in 49 countries, with nine stores in Hong Kong.

To celebrate its 20th brand anniversary, Lush opened Lush Spa and a flagship five-storey store in Central Soho Square, Hong Kong. To enhance the shopping experience for its customers, as well as improve backroom capabilities, such as wireless scanners, video conference calls and EPOS systems, Lush required a fast and reliable wireless network.

However, its current Wi-Fi provider for the eight other stores in Hong Kong was not satisfying its needs. Lush decided it was time to look for a new vendor.

“We experienced an unstable connection, low speeds and cutouts. Often we needed to reboot the network during important tasks. We couldn’t even offer Wi-Fi to our customers in the store to elevate their experience. It was an awkward experience for both the staff and customers,” explained Victor Ma, IT Support at Lush of the legacy Wi-Fi network. "We were not confident the network was stable enough to offer Wi-Fi to our retail customers."

Part of the problem was the complex radio frequency (RF) environment of the stores. The materials used in the design and layout of the store, particularly wood and metals, are known to cause wireless interference which would lead to slower performance or disconnection from the Wi-Fi network. This could not be tolerated in the new spa and flagship store.

“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,” said Ma.

The new wireless vendor needed to support around 60 connections per hour for its internal operations, such as wireless scanners, videoconferencing and EPOS systems, as well as the use of tablets and smartphones for customer engagement.

After some initial testing, Lush decided on Ruckus Wireless and deployed five ZoneFlex R500 Unleashed dual-band 802.11ac Wave 2 Smart Wi-Fi access points, which have been located on each level of the store.

"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,” Ma said.

Ruckus R500 Unleashed enables 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 any device, all while significantly reducing upfront costs as separate controllers and access point licenses are no longer needed.

Each access point is capable of supporting up to 500 clients, with user throughputs of 867 Mbps (5 GHz) and 300 Mbps (2.4 GHz). Each unit also provides concurrent support for HD IPTV, VoIP and isochronous, multicast IP video streaming.

The Ruckus ZoneFlex R500 Unleashed integrates patented BeamFlex and are technologies which was crucial to the success of the deployment. 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 challenging conditions.

“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. “The Ruckus Unleashed network has made life easy for our staff with simple access points which work independently. If one is down, the others will not be affected,” concluded Ma.

Since the deployment of the Ruckus Unleashed Smart Wi-Fi network, Lush has seen several benefits, not only for its customers but also in the delivery of its services, as it embraces new technologies and social media platforms to attract customers into its stores.

“We encourage customers to take photos of the colourful interior designs of the Lush shops and upload the photos to social media platforms to help promote the brand and products. The Ruckus Unleashed Smart Wi-Fi network has provided us with a stable and reliable network allowing for instant uploads, check-in on social media platforms and sharing of customer experiences in our stores,” explained Ma.

The new Ruckus Unleashed Smart Wi-Fi network has significantly aided Lush in achieving its efforts in elevating the customer experience by enabling the company to offer a range of exciting new services and promotions, as well as support internal operations. In fact, Lush has found the Ruckus Unleashed Wi-Fi network is much more stable than that of their other retail shops.

Following the success of the installation, Lush plans to deploy Ruckus Unleashed products at the Lush Hong Kong office and other retail stores in Hong Kong. The rollout will be prioritised in shops with more customer density.

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