How Carmila uses Cloud4Wi to strengthen customer relationships

Carmila is the third-largest retail-property company in Continental Europe, with 215 shopping centers and retail parks across France, Italy, and Spain. A leading player in Europe’s commercial-property market, Carmila has more than 6,280 retail partners, and 87% of its shopping centers are leaders or joint leaders in their catchment areas.

As one of Europe’s leading retail property companies, Carmila knew that it needed to offer next-level customer experiences to stay competitive.

The company was aware of the rising expectations of customers when they visit retailers and shopping centers. Today’s shoppers don’t just head to malls because they want to buy something; they do it because they want to be entertained, attend events, and connect with the community.

As such, Carmila wanted to ensure that customers have excellent experiences in its properties. The company wanted to offer the best WiFi services to customers and make them feel at home.

In the same vein, Carmila needed a cutting-edge solution for the brands that operated stores in its properties, so that retailers could market to shoppers more effectively.

As one of Europe’s leading retail-property companies, Carmila knew it needed next-level customer experiences to stay competitive. Shoppers increasingly visit malls not just to buy but to be entertained, attend events, and connect with the community.

Carmila wanted to ensure excellent experiences in its properties — offering the best WiFi and making customers feel at home — and a cutting-edge solution for the brands operating stores there, so retailers could market to shoppers more effectively.

On the hardware side, Carmila chose a cloud-based solution from Cisco Meraki, suited to a lean-IT approach. On the software side, after evaluating the market, Carmila chose Cloud4Wi — impressed by its ability to gather and extract valuable customer insight from the Cisco Meraki access points, unlocking use cases for the brands in its centers. Cloud4Wi’s intuitive dashboard let the team get up and running quickly and extract actionable insight at a glance.

Carmila took a systematic approach: define best practices in one country, then apply them elsewhere. In summer 2017 it deployed Cloud4Wi across 124 locations in France; two years later, 25 locations in Spain.

Rollout was easy, and Cloud4Wi let Carmila customize captive portals per location — tailoring look, feel, and language. Multiple login options (social and email) lifted the opt-in rate by letting customers choose, all in compliance with GDPR. Carmila also used email validation to keep collected details clean and campaign-ready.

Notable KPIs

• 33,000+ opted-in contacts per month
• 91% opt-in ratio

Beyond growing its database, Carmila used analytics to understand in-center behavior — where customers went, dwell time, and return frequency — building detailed profiles fed into Cheetah, its digital customer-engagement suite. Combining WiFi and online data created 360-degree profiles, letting Carmila offer data-driven marketing to its brand partners: personalized messages, higher engagement, and more conversions.

That data proved especially useful during COVID-19: Carmila used what it had already collected to stay in touch with customers through lockdown with timely, relevant messages — strengthening relationships and staying top of mind.

Looking ahead, Carmila is exploring the integration of behavioral metrics directly into their CRM, enabling more precise customer segmentation and helping marketing teams craft even more targeted, personalized campaigns with relevant offers and coupons.