Google Maps have introduced an indoor version of their street
maps and it has great possibilities for retailing.
In fact most of the indoor sites listed for Australia are shopping
centres. How does this work? Shopping centres upload floor plans of their
centres to Google. Standard GPS location services don't work great indoors so
Google links those plans with local wi-fi and telephone tower facilities. Once
set up, customers can locate themselves within the building and use the maps to
guide their shopping experience. In the CBD, Melbourne Central, and The Strand
Arcade have the indoor map facility.
QVM's confusing spread of halls, sheds, shops and outdoor
locations would seem to be a perfect target for this type of technology and linked
with a database of stall/shop locations could be of great benefit to customers
and traders.