Company Overview
Placewise (registered as Placewise International AS, formerly known as Boostcom) is a prominent global property technology (PropTech) and marketing technology (MarTech) company that provides specialized cloud-based data management, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and marketing automation solutions engineered specifically for the retail real estate industry. Headquartered in Trondheim and Oslo, Norway, the company has a massive global footprint operating across Europe, the Americas, and Asia, serving more than 1,100 shopping centers, mixed-use developments, and retail parks across three continents.
Founded in 2000, the company spent decades scaling digital touchpoints for physical consumer environments. Following its strategic acquisition by the major software conglomerate Total Specific Solutions (TSS), Placewise has solidified its stance as a dominant sovereign tech provider for physical commerce destinations. The company operates under the leadership of CEO Susan Hagerty Bonsak, focusing heavily on reversing retail space vacancy rates, expanding property asset valuations, and counteracting the market pressures of purely digital e-commerce giants.
Continue…Rather than offering generic cloud analytics or consumer software built for traditional digital storefronts, Placewise provides an all-in-one operational infrastructure layer built specifically around physical retail property ecosystems. Its systems handle more than 1 billion digital shopper engagements annually, aggregating data from disparate endpoints?such as in-mall Wi-Fi infrastructure, tenant point-of-sale systems, website traffic, and mobile loyalty applications?into a centralized data plane to build sustainable consumer foot traffic.
Core Operational Functions & Strategic Framework
Placewise structures its software architecture to address the unique real estate mechanics of physical shopping destinations, running operations across several key disciplines:
1. The Unified Physical-to-Digital Data Layer
The foundational challenge of a modern shopping center is that consumer data is highly fragmented. Landlords often have no visibility into what visitors purchase, while individual tenant brands keep customer metrics within corporate silos. Placewise resolves this by acting as an independent data integration layer. Its software bridges landlord operational networks, in-mall guest amenities, and tenant digital output, tracking consumer intent and behavior across physical property boundaries.
2. High-Frequency Footfall Generation
Traditional commercial real estate relies on passive advertising or events to drive consumer traffic. Placewise switches properties to a predictive model, utilizing specialized automated triggers to nudge local consumers to visit the property based on geofencing, real-world climate changes, or stock variations at local retail units.
3. Tenant and Landlord Collaboration
A major operational bottleneck for large malls is collecting marketing content from hundreds of distinct brands. Placewise builds streamlined software channels that allow individual tenants to upload promotions, inventory metrics, and events into a single portal, which automatically redistributes the data across all consumer-facing screens, web directories, and mobile applications managed by the property.
Product Portfolio & Cloud Technologies
The primary product ecosystem driving Placewise?s commercial offerings is consolidated under the Marketplace Performance Cloud (MPC). This modular cloud environment contains specialized sub-systems configured for modern physical asset managers.
1. Consumer Data Platform (CDP) & Core CRM
The data storage and analytical core of the Marketplace Performance Cloud.
- Omnichannel Profile Aggregation: The CDP captures guest interactions across multi-channel touchpoints?including mall entry, specific sweepstakes participation, guest Wi-Fi authentication, and direct email link clicks?merging anonymous visitors into verified, rich demographic profiles.
- Advanced Audience Segmentation: Landlords can dynamically filter databases to target hyper-specific behavioral groups, such as isolating users who visit the property's food and beverage options at lunch but rarely shop for fashion, enabling optimized tenant leasing and placement choices.
2. Marketing Automation & Smart Messaging Engine
A high-performance system built to scale localized outreach across distinct communication protocols.
- Trigger-Based Orchestration: Automatically dispatches contextually relevant messaging via Email, SMS, and in-app push notifications. If a member enters an active geofence or if a center-wide event goes live, the system deploys targeted messaging automatically without manual administrative oversight.
- Content Recommendation Algorithms: Employs built-in machine learning models to analyze historical shopper trends, serving tailored product recommendations on center web pages or mobile apps based on individual consumer preferences.
3. Web and Mobile Experience Suites
Placewise develops responsive, highly secure web and native application packages that serve as a property?s digital front door.
- Dynamic Digital Directory Websites: Custom cloud-hosted web properties loaded with Content APIs. The layout automatically updates operating hours, directional mapping, and tenant listings, optimized for localized Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
- Tenant-to-Shopper Communications Portals: Integrated modules within the web layout that allow retailers to directly submit product lists, pop-up timelines, and exclusive vouchers to the central mall queue.
- In-Mall Wi-Fi Recruitment Infrastructure: A specialized guest network landing page tool. Property managers can trade free high-speed guest Wi-Fi access for a validated opt-in to the property's centralized digital marketing or loyalty club database.
4. Property Gamification & Loyalty Modules
An engagement platform tailored to maximize consumer dwell time and return frequency.
- Receipt Redemption Systems: Advanced optical character recognition (OCR) structures that let shoppers photograph physical store receipts using a property?s branded application. The system verifies purchases and automatically dispenses points, rewards, or tier upgrades within the mall?s loyalty program.
- Promotional Activations: Features pre-configured digital sweepstakes templates, including "Enter-to-Win" mechanics, holiday gift RSVPs, and interactive barcodes built to increase physical store exploration.
5. Placewise Tenant Connect App
A business-to-business mobile framework engineered explicitly to manage physical property communities.
- Operational Facility Workflows: Serves as the central interface connecting property management directly to tenant employees. Stores use the app to log facility maintenance tickets, view security alerts, and track property financial updates.
- Unified Marketing Submission: Retail staff use the mobile module to snap pictures of incoming products and immediately publish local deals to the consumer-facing mall app, bypassing traditional corporate communication friction.
Data Privacy & Regulatory Compliance Architecture
Because Placewise platforms ingest massive datasets from public venues, consumer devices, and financial interactions across international boundaries, the system features built-in compliance frameworks. The platform handles complex automated privacy rights workflows out-of-the-box, ensuring all data collection loops, sweepstakes rules, and opt-in frameworks remain fully compliant with strict regional data protections, including GDPR in Europe, CCPA in California, and PDPA in Asian jurisdictions. By wrapping enterprise-grade data security around the physical real estate landscape, Placewise gives modern property groups the ability to convert simple foot traffic into highly scalable, measurable digital property value.
