Doing business in a niche industry such as parking might seem a relatively straightforward task, considering the limited amount of major players, and the still quite recognizable pool of decision-makers to target. However, the digitization of our urban environments has taken a very fast pace and tremendous expansion across all industries and in the Middle East even more so: parking as a service is expected to be as accessible as any other experience that smartphones and digital devices can facilitate.
The parking sector has thus evolved to provide advanced digital services such as e-payment, pre-paid access and booking to drivers, as well as smooth integration with third party apps, remote troubleshooting capabilities and multi-site management for operators (wait – that’s peculiar to HUB, but we can take this conversation offline and explore the JMS world separately!).
While the world of physical retail struggles to keep up to the fast pace of online shopping, one of the main factors of attractiveness for a shopping center is the ease of reach, access and the services therein offered – aside shopping itself.
Parking usually makes for the first impression of the mall that end-customers get, hence plays a preeminent role in creating and setting the right expectations, while it usually represents a jigsaw of requirements, various levels of technology cross-interacting and multiple different suppliers to put together for the operator, or for the Mall owner to list and select since the early phases of project assessment.
What sounds like the perfect formula for a headache is de facto a complex integration of multiple technologies and actors – which an expert system integrator can provide under the form of a turnkey, holistic solution that spans from hardware to parking validation capabilities and business analytics.
When such solution comprises of a cloud-ready platform with a modular architecture, in order to allow shopping centers to integrate multiple technologies and providers, and easily scale with time – only then, one might say it is truly up to the expectations of 2019 shoppers and retailers!
By harnessing the power of innovative digital technologies, online validation and their advanced reporting capabilities, shopping centers owners and operators are empowered to take data-driven business decisions and maximize parking revenues, all the while delivering an impeccable shopping experience to customers.
HUB Middle East team is thrilled to take part into Malls Middle East exhibition next week, and further explore the topic to provide HUB’s take on the evolution of parking for shopping centers in the ME region. See you there, April 16 to 18th!