Tagged with 'meraki'

This year at Cisco Live EMEA in Amsterdam, the Cisco Store began a new initiative to continue promoting sustainability in our daily operations. The power for the technology deployed at our travel store was routed through twelve Meraki MT40s (smart power controllers that can monitor and remotely control power). With our devices running 24/7, we baselined the store’s power consumption throughout the event with the help of CAE Labs’ WiserWatts: our total energy consumption for the show was 222.01 kWh. WiserWatts monitors our Meraki devices’ power consumption and provides power-saving, energy-efficient recommendations. Next year, we will schedule our power to compare energy and cost savings to actively reduce our carbon footprint. Similar baselining and consequent power scheduling will be conducted at Cisco Live Global starting this June. 

We similarly baselined our power consumption at our San Jose store, with the total power consumption for 15 screens running 24/7 over one week coming out to 429.72 kWh. With the help of CAE Labs, we scheduled the store’s access points and switches to turn on and off over PoE (Power over Ethernet), and screens were routed through Meraki MT40s. We began shutting off the power during off-hours in San Jose, only allowing screens to remain ‘on’ for 12 hours a day, Monday through Friday: this resulted in our power consumption over one week reducing to 154.87 kWh, a 274.85 kWh difference! 

Compared to the baseline week, scheduling power shut offs during off-hours also resulted in energy costs reducing from $64.46 USD to $23.23, a $41.23 difference (assuming $0.15/kWh in the United States).

As one of the Cisco Store’s six core pillars is Sustainability, we heavily prioritize reducing our carbon emissions. Our scheduled power shut offs also resulted in a reduction of our greenhouse gas emissions (GHG emissions) from 204.96 kg CO₂e to 74 kg CO₂e, a 130.96 kg CO₂e difference.  

The Cisco Store plans to regularly track our energy, cost, and GHG savings with this new initiative, and monthly updates will be published on our Cisco Store Tech Lab SharePoint page (Cisco employees: log in via SSO to view). Be sure to check back in to see our progress!

Interested in learning more about CAE Labs? Visit their page or reach out now.  

Join us as we dive deeper into Cisco and Cisco partner technology deployed at the Cisco Store! We asked Julie Nguyen (Product Manager, Meraki Switching Platform) to discuss how the switches are used in the Cisco Store and the larger retail industry. 

Network switches keep the world connected and moving as devices become smart and integrated. Meraki Switches are the backbone of improving shopping experiences by providing the connectivity needs and network security to support growing businesses with demanding requirements. As part of the Meraki ecosystem, Meraki Switches create seamless connections between cameras, access points, security appliances, and sensors to offer improved customer and employee experience within store and surrounding environments, such as monitoring lighting and HVAC systems for comfort. In addition, the Meraki ecosystem allows for segmentation to enforce network security between enterprise and IoT networks through features such as adaptive policy for secure segmentation of networks.  

The switching portfolio has transformed in more ways than one to serve a range of operational use cases. Higher port speeds are now available in cost-effective switches, while the enterprise level switches are updated with a familiar usability to that of our Catalyst switches. With this unification between the values of Meraki and Catalyst, the platform can help overcome unique challenges in retail such as servicing issues quickly while offering a comfortable shopping and working experience.  

Choosing the right switch is key to a successful and stable network. With the various options throughout the switching portfolio to meet your needs, Meraki simplifies network management and monitoring from a centralized, cloud-based dashboard.

If you’re designing or upgrading your network, what feature and functionality do you need to consider to select the right switch?  

• Do your end devices require PoE and what is the power budget required?
• What port speeds are required (1Gig, mGig, SFP, SFP+)?
• Do I need to operate in more rugged environments with extended temperatures between –40°C and +70°C?
• Is there a growing need for IoT devices and guest access to your network? Which switches may you need to support Adaptive Policy or SGT for micro-segmentation?
• Do we anticipate growth of connected devices in the future and therefore require more ports to expand?

These are a few questions to help you get started.

The level of creativity in retail to offer unique experiences does not cease to exist. Meraki switching will continue to be the foundation of connecting all people, places and things while expanding to environments that may require higher bandwidth and be rougher around the edges. Imagine being able to host more pop-ups or create outdoor spaces by using MS130R, Meraki’s first ruggedized switch, that can operate at extended temperatures between -40°C and +70°C and offer up to 30W of PoE per port to support outdoor cameras and access points. As the Meraki switching portfolio continues to expand, the possibilities are endless. 

Customers continue to look for unique experiences that allow them to consume products, goods, and services that meet their needs. In this ever-evolving world where there’s an expectation of receiving information quickly, it becomes increasingly important to support fast network speeds and reliable connections while integrating various end devices such as access points, kiosks, tablets, displays, robots and more.

For example, the use of QR codes has grown with the desire to become more sustainable by reducing single-use or limited-use items that share information with customers. More restaurants have started to use QR codes to display their food and drink menus, while clothing lines have used QR codes to share product details. Although the initial goal was to reduce waste, this has also positively impacted customer experiences by increasing the accessibility of information and making buying decisions easier for customers.  

These types of experiences need to be supported by networks capable of meeting the various connectivity needs of integrated systems.  

Information is key to understanding customers' interests and habits; therefore, being able to quickly identify shoppers as they arrive would be crucial for retailers to maximize their profitability. Real-time analysis of customer actions, such as pulling items from the shelves, may allow them to potentially receive coupons and deals on complementary items. This curated, unique experience would require considerations of networks that are scalable and reliable to mitigate downtime within POS systems.

In addition, sustainability has also been top of mind for many parties, and the ability to monitor power consumption has been a growing need. Energy saving and monitoring tactics will more likely be considered and implemented, such as motion sensing for lighting and understanding how much power is being used with each device. As investments are made to improve customer experience through integrated systems, a simple, reliable network would help with its manageability while increasing profitability.  

Interested in learning more about Meraki Switching? Visit our page, check out a podcast case study, or request a demo now. 

Join us as we dive deeper into Cisco and Cisco partner technology deployed at the Cisco Store! We asked Angela Huang (Product Manager, Meraki MT Sensors) to discuss how the sensors are used in the Cisco Store and the larger retail industry.

Our Meraki MT sensors are designed to support healthy, safe spaces. They do everything from monitoring air quality, temperature, power usage and even access. And when it comes to the shopping experience — particularly in-store — providing a safe and healthy space is even more important. We see our sensors help in three primary ways:

1. Enhancing shopper comfort: The more comfortable a shopper is in-store, the more motivated they are to engage deeply with its products (and people!) and ultimately purchase. Comfort can mean everything, from temperature to humidity to air quality, and that’s exactly what our sensors can easily detect and alert retailers to.
   One MT sensors customer, SAMSØE SAMSØE, is a Danish retail company with 60+ stores across Europe. They’ve set up MT14 indoor air quality sensors, using MV cameras as a gateway, to ensure that the temperature of their stories is precisely at 22°C, as they found that customer engagement is the highest at this temperature. Stores that are too cold discourage customers from trying on apparel, and on the flip side, stores that are too hot or humid cause shoppers to leave before they’ve had a chance to see the full store inventory. By using this solution that incorporates MT sensors, SAMSØE SAMSØE was able to make data-driven decisions and improve customer engagement.
   Because our sensors are cloud-managed from our Meraki dashboard, retailers can not only act quickly and remotely, but they can view historical data to understand trends and adapt their stores accordingly. 

2. Protecting sensitive inventory: Some organizations require precise in-store environments for their assets to remain usable and compliant, like grocery stores or food and beverage retailers. Our sensor can automate monitoring and alerting to temperature fluctuations, so retailers know when something is wrong and can have a historical log. There’s no longer a need to manually check each fridge to ensure they are compliant with regulations.
3. Supporting sustainability: Operating physical stores requires a lot of energy — keeping lights on, running internet, connecting all the smart devices, and more. Our sensors can help monitor and control power consumption, particularly during off-hours. Retailers can automatically power off devices such as display screens when stores are closed so they can reduce energy waste and, ultimately, operational cost. Even in our San Francisco Meraki office, we found that we could save thousands of dollars a year by powering off just a few Webex screens during off-hours!

At first glance, they should almost be invisible — they were designed to blend seamlessly into any environment. But, if you do spot them, here’s what you need to know:

1. Yes, they are as easy to deploy as they seem. And they connect seamlessly to our entire Cisco Meraki portfolio. You don’t need to be a tech expert to set these up.
2. They’re efficient and don’t need to be changed out frequently. Our battery life can last up to 10 years!
3. Part of the magic of our sensors is our alerting capabilities, and we offer flexible options across SMS, email, push, and webhook.

In the future, stores will be able to search for and digest their sensor data more easily. Given that many stores tend to have multiple retail locations, which can sometimes be spread across different cities or states, it is important for store owners to be able to quickly look across their locations and identify where there are issues. We plan to release additional, more advanced reporting features that will summarize information in the most helpful way, including surfacing information such as alerting MTs, length of time of alerts, etc. This will help direct a store owner’s time and attention to stores that need it the most.

1. Speed and convenience: Shoppers have more options than ever with regards to channels to purchase from. They want to be able to access, experience, and purchase products quickly.
2. Customization: With so many purchasing channels now available for customers, they will expect that the products they see will be customized to their preferences. Sharing products with shoppers that are aligned as well as possible to precisely what they are looking for will help them feel that it is a good shopping experience and will encourage them to return to that store in the future.
3. Ethics: Consumer awareness and desire to put their dollars towards products that reduce harm is growing. A study found that 82% of shoppers want brands to embrace sustainable and people-first practices, and three quarters of Gen Z shoppers cite that sustainability is more important than the brand name when making purchasing decisions. Stores can respond by assessing their value chain and ensuring that they are supporting ethical practices at each step, as well as sharing externally what they are doing to support sustainability.

There will likely be close monitoring of physical environments to make the in-store experience as personalized as possible for shoppers. Secondly, retailers will begin to prioritize solutions that save store managers’ and associates’ time, so they can focus their attention on providing the best possible customer experience. And lastly, there may be a focus on differentiating the store from others to grab shopper mindshare.

Interested in learning more about Meraki MT sensors? Visit our page or request a demo now.

Meraki’s smart cameras offer businesses an easy-to-deploy way to monitor their physical security, with the added benefit of being managed entirely on the cloud. Various Meraki cameras are deployed in the Cisco Store, including the outdoor smart cameras MV63 and MV93, which have long been useful in the Cisco Store. The MV63’s wide-angle, fixed-focused lens monitors the entrances and exits of the store, while the MV93’s 360° fish-eye lens offers panoramic wide area coverage, enhancing surveillance capabilities even in low lighting. Both cameras have helped keep the Cisco Store secure by using important features such as intelligent object detection using machine learning, motion search, and motion recap.

Now, these two cameras have indoor counterparts. Launched in February 2024, the Meraki MV13 and MV33 cameras will continue to improve security measures with even clearer footage, higher performance, and stronger analytics. Meraki’s latest camera features, attribute search and presence analytics, will further improve these cameras’ capabilities. 

The new Meraki MV13 has a fixed lens and is ideal for monitoring indoor hallways and spaces. It is easy to deploy and offers some of the best visual components like 8.4 MP image quality and up to 4K video resolution.

Meanwhile, the Meraki MV33 has a 360° fish-eye lens and 12.4 MP image quality, and can be used to monitor general indoor retail, hospitality, education, and healthcare spaces.  

Meraki simultaneously launched two new features: attribute search and presence analytics.

The attribute search feature is an easier and faster way of parsing through video footage based on a person’s clothing color (both top and bottom) as well as a vehicle’s color and make. In the event there is a suspicious person or theft, this feature would allow security teams to quickly filter through footage by these attributes from up to four cameras, thus improving store security measures.

Meanwhile, the new presence analytics feature includes area occupancy analytics and line-crossing analytics. These will allow security teams to define areas to be analyzed and then accurately gain insights on people movement in those spaces.  

Both the MV13 and MV33 will add to Meraki’s broader portfolio of cameras, giving organizations more flexibility and ways to monitor all areas of their buildings with ease, including in the Cisco Store. Attribute search has been incorporated into both the indoor Meraki MV13 and outdoor Meraki MV63, while presence analytics is now available on all second and third generation cameras. By creating tracking areas and easily being able to adjust those lines, security teams can customize what they monitor and then receive analytics that help them identify suspicious activity and gain insights into crowds. 

The new MV13 and MV33 smart cameras will be deployed in the Cisco Store in San Jose, California this week! To get a sneak peek, watch our Tech Lab expert Brian Domine showcase the two cameras at Cisco Live EMEA in Amsterdam.  

Interested in learning more about the Meraki MV13 and MV33? Request a demo now.  

Understanding how to best serve customers is a primary focus for retailers. However, gaining this understanding can be complex. Retailers need to know what their customers are buying, when they’re buying it, and their feelings while shopping. Stationing staff members in the store to gauge customer reactions is not an efficient solution. This is where Meraki and EVERYANGLE come into play, enhancing the customer-focused daily operations of the Cisco Store.  

The MV12 and MV63 are directional cameras. The indoor MV12 offers a choice of a wide or narrow Field of View (FoV) and provides intelligent object and motion detection, analytics, and easy operation via the Meraki dashboard. The outdoor MV63 monitors the entrances and exits of the store.  

Meanwhile, the MV32 and MV93 are 360° fish-eye cameras. The indoor MV32 combines an immersive de-warped FoV with intelligent object detection and streamlined operation via the Meraki dashboard, in addition to addressing major security vulnerabilities. The outdoor MV93 offers panoramic wide area coverage, enhancing surveillance capabilities even in low light.  

The data from these Meraki cameras is utilized by EVERYANGLE in the Cisco Store in various ways.  

A challenge for physical stores is obtaining metrics comparable to online stores, making it difficult to tailor the retail experience effectively. EVERYANGLE’s technology levels the playing field for physical retailers.

EVERYANGLE uses data from the directional cameras MV12 and MV63 to help the Cisco Store better understand its visitors. The Next Generation Footfall App breaks down customer genders and ages, monitors their satisfaction levels post-visit, and tracks the time spent in various store sections. For example, data from a Cisco Live event revealed a 50:50 male to female customer ratio, contrary to the expected 60:40, leading to adjustments in the Store’s product range.  

EVERYANGLE determines purchase conversion rates at physical locations by analyzing integrated sales data and foot traffic. Their machine learning and AI algorithms provide 95% accurate customer insights. Staff members are automatically excluded from these insights, ensuring data accuracy.

EVERYANGLE’s True Customer Identification accurately distinguishes genuine shoppers from non-customers. This empowers retailers with precise customer data, crucial for targeted strategies and store optimization, ensuring decisions reflect real customer activity.  

The Cisco Store can thus easily gauge customer demographics, engagement, and group dynamics without a heavy in-store staff presence, adjusting displays and marketing tactics accordingly. Fortunately, we have seen an increase in positive sentiment from when customers enter the Cisco Store to when they exit!  

This data is used to maintain smooth store operations and continuously improve performance. The fish-eye cameras MV32 and MV93 are used to monitor the checkout lines: a threshold on the queue count allows for staff adjustment at checkouts as needed. If people spend a comparatively longer time at certain stations, we can begin to understand if that longer dwell time means more sales of those specific products.

Meraki’s people detection capabilities, integrated with EVERYANGLE, help the Cisco Store maintain top-notch security. Cameras, integrated with the point of sale (POS) system, anonymously track high-value purchases and returns, aiding in fraud prevention.

Meraki and EVERYANGLE enable the Cisco Store to better understand its customers and serve them effectively, prioritizing their security and privacy. The analytics and dashboards facilitate customer service improvement, ensuring customers leave with a positive shopping experience.