After more than one year of intermittent lockdowns and social distancing, we can certainly say that the pandemic has changed how we live and work. This has also caused many retailers financial stress as shoppers have shifted their spending from instore to online.
In Italy, 66% of consumers changed when, where and how they shopped last year. This new behaviour, and preferences for value and convenience, will stay for the foreseeable future. In response, shopping centres and outlets must change with the times if they are to remain relevant and in business. Fortunately, the news is positive.
With offices around the world, we are in a lucky place to closely monitor how organisations have responded to the challenges brought on by the pandemic in the short term while planning for longer-term changes.
The common theme we have seen is organisations focusing on getting closer to the customer. This may not be a shocking revelation, but it’s a fact. Our industry has experienced more innovation in the past six months than in the past six years.
Below, we have highlighted five examples of what shopping centres and outlets have done to stay relevant with customers. Hopefully, you can use a couple of these examples as you continue to transform your business operations to be closely aligned to shopper expectations.
E-commerce
The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of e-commerce, providing millions of people with the means and, in some cases, the only place to buy goods and services. In contrast, physical retail has been closed due to government restrictions.
Depending on your business strategy, e-commerce should be considered an important customer engagement channel for your organisation, even with the expectations of physical retail bouncing back with record sales as people return to shopping centres and outlets.
Creating an e-commerce marketplace will benefit your retailers by providing new opportunities for them to sell to shoppers, even in countries such as Italy, where just 5% of consumers currently buy online. This number will rapidly increase as Italians expect new retail services and experiences.
How do you marry traditional physical retail with digital commerce? If you seek inspiration, check out The Village, a French shopping outlet owned by Compagnie de Phalsbourg, where customers buy what they want online, with access to at home delivery.
Compagnie de Phaslbourg’s marketing team has kept their eyes solely focused on their customers, integrating e-commerce with a loyalty program so shoppers enjoy a seamless retail experience online and instore, so when they buy, they earn exclusive benefits, services, and experiences.
Virtual shopping
People often say that “necessity is the mother of invention.” During the lockdown, innovative retail destinations found ways to generate revenue for their retailers by launching new services, such as virtual shopping.
Designed to bring the retail experience home, customers are able to continue to shop while keeping retail staff employed and safe. A win for everyone.
To shop, customers need to visit a centre’s website, or a specific retailer in the centre, to search and find items to buy. Staff are on call through multiple channels, including WhatsApp, email, or phone, to answer any questions while customers buy items using their loyalty program membership. Items are available for curbside pickup or delivery.
The Bicester Village Shopping Collection has done a fantastic job with its virtual shopping service, providing a unique and memorable customer experience that pays dividends today and in the future.
Geo Loyalty
Geo Loyalty, the convergence of proximity marketing and customer loyalty, is radically improving how shopping centres and outlets understand and engage customers. Historically, brands only know about shoppers after the transaction at the till.
With Geo-Loyalty, organisations such as Irgen Retail Management are able to influence shoppers before they visit, greatly increasing footfall and sales for brands. Marketing teams can also leverage customer location data to send highly relevant and personalised communications, including offers and rewards to get shoppers to spend more time and money while they are visiting and afterward to entice them to return.
Geo-Loyalty is so valuable that Irgen Retail Management plans to increase turnover by 10% this year at its Cilento Outlet. They will be able to hit this target because they now have real-time insight into customer behaviour.
Experiential
For many people, buying goods and services isn’t enough. They want an experience on top of what they have bought, and retail destinations that offer both do very well in profitably winning and keeping customers.
The challenge for shopping centres and outlets is knowing what type of experience to offer customers and where in their shopping journey it should appear. By connecting the online and instore experience, you can understand, engage and influence shopper behaviour in real-time.
Loyalty programs are the ideal platform because they give retailers the capability to provide customers more than they expect. A prime example of this is Madison Avenue, which will soon launch a ground-breaking, experiential based loyalty program.
When customers join the program, they will receive personalised communications to encourage them to visit and spend in local stores, restaurants, and local attractions. When customers buy, they are rewarded. They will receive highly relevant communications and offers while earning currency for future rewards such as invitations to special VIP events.
Community
Successful retail destinations don’t just have anchor stores – they are themselves anchors for their communities.
Shopping centres and outlets have a huge opportunity to attract visitors and to keep them coming back by focusing on the local community. This is particularly important moving forward as people, after months of self isolation and social distancing, seek a sense of belonging only found in their local neighbourhoods. Executives that invest in their community by supporting local businesses will witness higher levels of footfall and sales.
The historic market town of Holt, in England, is launching a new total customer engagement and loyalty program that will help stimulate the High Street by encouraging and rewarding residents and visitors to shop locally.
We cannot deny that the past year has posed many challenges for owners of shopping centres and outlets. But the news isn’t all doom and gloom. There are many bright lights of inspiration, demonstrating that when faced with adversity, the retail industry can innovate like never before. The question is, how will you respond?
We are hosting a webinar on May 12, which will provide practical ideas, and tips on implementing them to help transform your shopping centre or outlet, based on our observations of what’s underway in Italy. To register, please visit our event page here or click the button below!
