Cisco and Facebook have recently come to an agreement which will provide customers with the ability to connect to wireless networks at partner merchants using only their Facebook accounts. The service, called “Cisco Connected Mobile Experience (CMX) with Facebook Wi-Fi should begin rolling out to a variety of merchants soon.
This service helps retailers in a variety of ways including increased ‘likes’ and followers because people will be accessing Wi-Fi from their establishment, using the Facebook login. Retailers will also get detailed demographic information, allowing them to learn more about their customers and what types of things they like. When customers log in to the Wi-Fi, they can be directed to a merchant page, which can have special offers or advertisements to help encourage customers to make specific purchases as well, which could be quite a benefit to the merchant.
The customers benefit from the Wi-Fi service, as well as getting access to exclusive offers from the merchant. This service will be widely used by people with smartphones as well as tablets or laptops. With free Wi-Fi, merchants are undoubtedly hoping customers spend more time in their businesses, making purchases while they are there.
Cisco is providing the networking equipment to the merchants so that their Wi-Fi technology will be safe and secure. Cisco is already the world’s leading provider of networking equipment, and expanding into this potentially huge market of small businesses and merchants provides them with another great market for further expansion.
This is a similar service to what Google is going to be offering in about 7000 Starbucks cafes throughout the United States. Specific retailers where Facebook and Cisco will be partnering with has not yet been announced.
