Case Study: Decathlon achieves seamless, secure, cloud-managed in-store digital experiences with HPE Aruba Networking

Responding to Seismic Changes in Retail Sector by Creating a Dynamic, Digital Experiences

Decathlon, one of the world’s largest sports retailers, faced a shifting retail landscape as customers moved online and the business pivoted from mega‑stores to smaller, digitally driven high‑street outlets. Ahead of a major June 2018 reopening of its Surrey Quays flagship (4 floors, 8,400 sqm, plus head office), Decathlon needed seamless mobility, omnipresent wireless coverage and secure, role‑based access for staff, customers and IoT—delivered with minimal disruption to trading.

Decathlon deployed an Aruba cloud‑first solution (802.11ac APs, 2930 switches, ArubaOS 8, ClearPass and Aruba Central) for zero‑touch rollout and centralized management. The result was a high‑performance, secure network that powers staff tablets, instore wayfinding and payments, digital signage, building systems and data‑driven customer insights—improving the shopping experience, enabling new app features and providing a repeatable platform for rollout to other UK stores.

Decathlon

Laurent Briffaud

Head of IT