Ubicua Xperience: How the first Smart Shopping Mall in Europe works

20 April 2015

Researchers from Zendos Tecnología and the IMDEA Networks Institute have developed an innovative tool to analyze the behavior of customers and visitors to Shopping Malls. The result is a technological platform called Ubicua Xperience which allows us to apply business intelligence in order to encourage direct interaction between a shopping mall and its customers, providing customers with benefits such as personalized information, individualized special offers or increased child safety, all in real time.

Ubicua Xperience allows a Shopping Mall to interact directly and individually with its visitors, providing them with personalized information about establishments or activities of interest, based on customers’ behavior and their real experiences during their visit to the Shopping Mall. At the same time, it has associated tools for control and child safety, and personalized promotions for customers as well as permanent bi-directional communication between customers and the Mall during the shopping trip. Customers just need to sign up for Ubicua Xperience with their cell phones when they arrive and once they have done this a whole range of services will be available to them in real time.

The research experience and capacity of the IMDEA Networks Institute in the fields of Big Data, Machine Learning, recommendation and Cloud engines has been particularly relevant in the development of this platform. The result of this collaboration with the researchers from Zendos Tecnología shows how the use of new technologies (Azure, SDN (Software-Defined Networking),..) makes it possible to develop new business solutions. This direct interaction between consumers and the managers of the shopping mall created by Ubicua Xperience, allows us to provide improvements and incentives for the shopping experience, helping customers to make decisions about what to buy in a simple and comfortable way, encouraging competition between brands, customer loyalty and direct marketing opportunities which focus on real shopping preferences and trends (self-experience). The combination of Business Intelligence, Big Data and the precise geolocation of people has made the solution offered by Ubicua Xperience an international market leader.

José Luis Hurtado and Jesús Camacho from Zendos Tecnología have stated that through this platform they have sought to “boost the retail sector through innovation and the use of improved technology” thanks to unique platforms such as Ubicua Xperience “a long term technology project which will continue to evolve and improve, creating a unique experience through knowledge of the needs and wishes of customers”.

On the 24^th of March this year, The TresAguas Shopping Mall in Madrid launched this technological platform as part of what has been called the “First Smart Shopping Mall in Europe”, in an event sponsored by Hewlett Packard Networking and Microsoft Spain. Among those attending the event were David Pérez, the Mayor of Alcorcón, César Vallecillo, the Manager of Hewlett Packard Networking, Ángel Sáenz de Cenzano, Innovation Manager at Microsoft, Rubén Guerrero, the Manager of TresAguas, Francisco Díaz, Chief Executive of Paseo Comercial Carlos III, as well as José Luis Hurtado and Jesús Camacho, representing Zendos Tecnología.

This new Research, Development and Innovation programme, which is now fully operative in TresAguas and has been completely developed in Spain, is expected to become the leading tool to analyze the behaviour of customers and visitors to Shopping Malls.