Background
The client is a successful, well-established mall owner, with a number of prominent retail
brands trading in the mall. Customer loyalty, evidenced through the repeat visits, along with
the high average spend values and extremely high dwell time has always been the malls
greatest strength.
During the Covid pandemic, retail trading as we knew it was turned upside down. Consumer
buying behaviors underwent a radical shift towards E-Commerce, where consumers were
left with no alternative but to buy their products online. In many cases, the convenience and
multitude of choice provided online meant that this alternative shopping channel has become a way of life. This has ultimately resulted in a drastic impact on the bricks and mortar stores.
For retailers this imposed the harsh reality of facing the choice of “Adapt or Sink”. Retail
had changed and consumers have changed.
The client was facing reduced footfall in the mall, which meant that its tenants’ performances were on a constant decline, stores started closing and the situation needed to be addressed through strategic repositioning.
Problem Being Solved
The client needed to get visitors back into the mall to increase their footfall and retain its
occupancy levels. Shoppers needed a reason to visit the mall and the retailers needed to
give the shoppers a reason to transact. The world has changed, the reason for visiting malls
has changed and therefore this brought into question, how do malls change to encourage
customers to visit them.
In parallel with this, malls have historically been anchored by Big Box retailers, but with the
collapse of many of the global department stores, the void created required an anchor
rethink.
The Solution
The client engaged with a MEAP to strategize how to Create a shopping environment that is
interactive, immersive, engaging and one that embraces E-Commerce, through an Omnichannel platform. This required a strategic engagement of studying behavioral trends by demographic and intensive market studies on retail and entertainment trends. The solution was to create a customer experience, which serves as an anchor, that is interactive, immersive and engaging, while commercial in nature.
Firstly, a Digital Immersive Theme Park was created and built, which serves as a crowd-puller. This theme park uses cutting edge technology, offers a multitude of varied experiences that are engaging, inclusive and immersive and was built on a financial model ensuring that the risks were mitigated and returns maximized.
This was then supported with an Omnichannel new age department store. A unique business model was established, whereby stock holding at store level was not a necessary liability. Customers have the opportunity of experiencing the product, while enjoying the hassle-free benefits of online shopping. The store carries display samples of all products available to purchase, however without the depth of size and colour variations, providing the retailer with greater space for additional product options, while ensuring more productive returns from space allocation. Technology modeled on Amazon’s online store was developed, allowing shoppers the convenience of a user-friendly purchasing interface.
The Outcome
The foot traffic of the mall has continued to grow, the additional new business units have flourished, exceeding financial expectations and customers recognize the service offering aligning with their “new-age” expectations. The strategy developed was ideal for the repositioning required by the client.
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