The expansion of modern retail, a key indicator of economic progress, has generated a transformation of India’s urban landscapes. Over the past decade, retail real estate has come into its own as an asset class and as a barometer of Indians’ growing lifestyle aspirations. And at the 700-odd shopping centres dotted across big and small-town India, the focus has shifted firmly to experiential differentiation.
For the shopping centre visitor, however, the experience begins well before the mall entry. Unlike in evolved markets such as the US, malls in India are largely located within cities. And given Indian cities’ high population and road traffic density, this translates to challenges in navigation and parking. It is little wonder then that parking has become a key pain point — or USP, if managed well — for shopping centre developers.
Enter digital transformation. Over the years, developers and service providers to shopping centres have increasingly leaned on technology to up not just in-mall customer experiences, but also to enhance the overall destination features, including traffic management and parking. And now, the 2020 pandemic has served to further accelerate this digitalisation journey.
One-stop solution Mumbai-based startup Parkr is looking to convert the current challenges into differentiation opportunities for malls.
Launched in 2018, Parkr’s aim is to digitise contactless solutions in a manner that leads to not just minimising parking challenges, but also to enhance in-mall experiences through visitor data integration.
“The parking industry — including on-street and off – street — uses a huge array of hardware. Barriers, loops, sensors, terminals, cameras, readers, scanners, displays, pay stations, among others. The Parkr solution minimises the complexity of these multiple systems, with a single, 100% painless, touchless parking interface that measurably elevates customer experience and engagement,” says Wali Kashvi, Co-Founder & CEO, Parkr.
In addition to enabling touchless parking, contactless payments and pre-bookings, Parkr deploys AI and IoT to leverage visitor data — leading to superior customer identification, classification, mining and predictive analytics.
Following a one-time registration on the Parkr app, customers can search for available parking spaces in real time, pre-book spots and pay digitally. The solution is currently deployed in 147 locations across Mumbai, India, with 1.7 crore cars having already been registered through the system.
“Parkr’s robust ahead-of-the-curve solutions integrates with our mobile platform incorporating IoT, Analytics and AI. The mechanism helps the customer navigate to the required parking space, book the parking slot in advance and pay digitally. For the shopping centre, this boosts space efficiency, reduces revenue leakages and builds sustainable revenue,” adds Nirav Ganatra, Co-Founder and COO, Parkr.
Retail Data Integration
“Our ValetDesk innovation takes the convenience and experience a notch up, with a combination of technology and assisted service. The in-built flexibility of the Parkr solution allows customers to self-checkout from their phones promotes social distancing or use a dedicated Valet, if required,” Kashvi says.
The flexibility extends to the in-mall experience as well. Parkr can be integrated with the existing shopping centre app to create a single view of the customer, from entry to exit, and to create customer incentives. Every in-mall purchase can be consolidated with loyalty points using the Parkr system, and reports can be generated for every retailer in the centre.
“This kind of 360-degree data is an invaluable asset for both retailers and shopping centres. Intensive customer segmentation can enhance personalization opportunities, leading to higher engagement and mall ‘stickiness’,” Ganatra adds.
Parkr’s current client portfolio across industries includes DMart, Galleria Mall, Larsen & Toubro, JLL, Fun Republic, Dorabjee’s, among many others.
“We are now poised to expand our operations at a rapid clip, with several new large-box locations in the pipeline,” Kashvi states. “In addition, we are also extending into installation of complete end-to-end parking infrastructure — sourcing, execution and management — for sites including corporate institutions, airports, public parking lots and Smart City projects.”
CORE PRODUCT OFFERINGS
- Citizen App for the end customer
- Operations App for on-ground team
- Printer/No Printer Integrated PoS to replace existing ticketing method
- Digital Payments for all transactions including FASTAG
- Unique Disruptive Valet Services
- Cloud based server for Parking Management System with open API for third party integration
- Single App for Malls to manage footfall, CRM, Loyalty, Shopping,
- Food & Beverages
