In order to thrive, contemporary retail needs to be a multi-faceted offering replete with experiential, placemaking and other value-added features to induce consumer loyalty in a crowded, diverse market. David Pardoe, Colliers’ Place Activation Manager shares his experience on how to make this work
Creating “commercialisation” in retail spaces from a management perspective is a subtle business. It’s about finding the sweet spot between maximising revenue-raising opportunities without treading on the toes of existing occupiers, whilst increasing dwell time and going with – not against – the intended vibe.
Placement, intrigue and seasonal sensibility
Just with Aldi’s now somewhat iconic middle aisle, placement plus intrigue are powerful drivers when pursuing consumer attention. A well-situated food and beverage outlet may become a firm family favourite at key times of the week, and indeed year.
Creating a strategy for, let’s say, a mid-sized shopping mall is a finely-honed art, sensitive to season, annual celebrations and rituals without laying it on with the proverbial trowel. From Valentine’s Day through to Halloween and obviously the ultimate sell-in that is Christmas, active retail management is about curating and subtly mixing up the offering to match consumer appetites across the calendar.
Being embedded in locations on a day-by-day basis gives the best property managers the advantage of intimate knowledge of an outlet, equipped with granular insights which a third-party marketing or PR agency could never draw on during a campaign ideas session.
Creating community and sustainability
Curating the right occupier mix is crucial to the enduring success of a retail hub, and five years on from the pandemic, changes in consumer habits have driven the need for adaptation, with landlords looking for a more balanced ratio of independent and local occupiers to global chains. This even goes as far as offering special rates for local start-ups and extending community value-added initiatives such as free space for charities and young entrepreneurs.
At the St George’s Centre in Gravesend, specially designed pods for local businesses have been designed, and we are running a competition to win three months’ rent free space. We build stronger relationships with both neighbours and independent local businesses because not only is it good for business, but because it is the right thing to do. This is true not only from a localism angle, but also sustainability too. Local businesses tend to have shorter supply chains and therefore helps keep carbon emissions down. We are constantly on the lookout for ethical or sustainable offerings to add to a healthy occupier mix.
It is self-apparent that every shopping mall sits within its community, but the extent to which it is part of that community is on an effort and engagement-related spectrum. Annual online retail sales seem to have stabilised around the 26-27 per cent mark, so predictions of the demise of bricks-and-mortar stores would seem to be overstated and basically incorrect.
Commercialisation partners
We have all encountered these add-on outlets, be it promotions, concessions, kiosks or something more experiential in a physical sense, from massage chairs to virtual rollercoasters.
From a management perspective these vendors need joined-up support to help them thrive, so we ensure some promotion via website content and dedicated social media posts. We also carry out two-way whole journey measurement of these offerings, looking for high-quality customer service and presentation in return for the ground support we provide.
Regular cross-team review meetings mean our Destination Managers are privy to insights across the country as to what is working – and what may be applicable to their particular sites – maintaining their role as the heartbeat of the schemes they represent.
Data and ‘smart’ commercialisation
The mechanisation or digitisation of retail intelligence has come a long way from rudimentary beam-activated footfall counters of the 1980s. Today, we are not only able to measure numbers much more accurately, but also demographics, preferences, and physical and digital behaviours which are collated in the spirit of nothing more than finessing our offering.
Data is a powerful tool employed so that consumer demand can best coalesce with planned provision, and ultimately the mall in question can be the vehicle to meet or exceed all stakeholder expectations, from investors and landlords to the family out to create memories on a Saturday afternoon.
