Member Article

Collaborate to convert: Using data insight to drive mall-wide conversions

While the current market challenges within the retail sector should not be underestimated, it is possible in today’s changing shopping landscape for property owners, developers and landlords to make their assets drive performance. With a strategy in place to leverage data sources across the mall, they will be much better able to support retail tenants, all while enhancing consumer experience.

Here ShopperTrak’s UK & MEA Director, Steve Richardson, outlines five ways that malls can leverage these insights to improve leasing models, drive conversions and boost centre-wide profitability.

**Reassess tenant mix **

Naturally the trend for updating, extending, refurbing and reconfiguring European shopping centres will be an advantage to retail tenants, who rely largely on the look and vibe of a shopping centre to attract the necessary visitor numbers to drive their revenues. Indeed, with the advent of the experience economy, where consumers increasingly want to blend shopping and leisure in their buying journeys, shopping centres are already having to look at their tenant mix to address this need.

This also means aesthetic improvements and marketing campaigns to increase traffic and dwell time are increasingly being accompanied by investment by the property owner in people counting technology and traffic analytics solutions.

This is because landlords want to see a ROI in their new concept centres and marketing spend, so are keen to measure and report traffic, which in turn allows them to structure leasing accordingly, justifying their leasing models to tenants.

**Collaborate to convert **

Key to conversion in modern, multichannel retailing is adopting a more scientific approach to performance. This means landlords are increasingly taking responsibility for traffic generation, benchmarking achievements and building on successes wherever possible. The trend is encouraging news for retail tenants, who should see traffic into their stores improve, and can expect to be far better informed about long-term traffic projections, peak trading occasions in the pipeline, and valuable insights into shopper behaviour patterns around the mall.

Even more welcome is the fact that smart leasing managers are beginning to use traffic data to assess their portfolio of retailers to see who is and isn’t performing, and step in with assistance where needed. This prompts them to ask how they can help the retailer get more people into the shop – whether that’s looking at a particular product offering in the context of the mall, or perhaps moving the retailer to a more appropriate space. By working together in this way, shopping centres and their tenant can optimise their operations to drive success.

**Bring on the experiences **

Increasingly shopping centre spaces are given over to community events, catwalk shows, cooking demonstrations and pop-ups, as experiential retailing is more widely adopted in both local and large destination centres.

Smart landlords will be sure to measure the traffic these events generate, to estimate ROI, and to track the success of activities across a portfolio of properties. Again, if executed well, this is another way for property owners to deliver added value to their tenants, justifying the rents they are charging, and being clear during the negotiation process of what they can offer.

**Optimise staff in line with power hours **

Another easy win for retail tenants in shopping malls that provide data insights, is the ability to tailor their staff scheduling in line with busy and slow traffic times. Ensuring your best sales people are on the shop floor during weekend or lunchtime power hours, for example, can really supercharge conversion rates.

With access to data, shopping centre management and tenants can be fully prepared for known calendar peaks, and able to focus on boosting conversions on key dates. Tenants can be regularly briefed on when to expect weekly or daily power hours, or traffic surges driven by high profile mall events and marketing promotions. The more data that is made available, the better prepared all parties can be, which is why the concept of data sharing between landlords and retail tenants is being so carefully considered just now.

**Traffic data for future growth **

Retailers see the importance of using anonymous customer location-based data to inform decisions about how they configure stores, how they merchandise their ranges, present seasonal promotions, and plan their staff resourcing throughout the week. When their own traffic and shopper movement flow data is combined with mall traffic data, demographics, weather data, sales data and purchasing power information, retailers can begin to create a really compelling shopping experience for consumers, and fine-tune their operations in line with known data points. When Wi-Fi technology and video are factored in, even greater opportunities begin to present themselves

To summarise, if mall management teams are empowered with traffic and behaviour insights they can react to events that are impacting the popularity and profitability of the venue. Crucially, they can fully assist retailer tenants who are striving to attract and retain shoppers and drive conversions in an ever-more competitive marketplace, to the benefit of both the mall and its retail tenants.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Steve Richardson, UK & MEA Director, ShopperTrak .