The New Shopping Generation: Design is the Key
How does the product feel? Can I see and experience the product? What soundtrack is playing in the store? Does the product I’m experiencing have a price tag? (Record needle scratching the music to a halt). Wait…back that up a minute. Soundtrack? Price tags? The next generation of in-store shoppers wants these things, and a more intelligent layout and thought given to their malls and the stores and experiences therein. That’s according to Jeff Gunning, Kyle Jeffrey and Sarah Kimes at design consultants CallisonRTKL, writing for Urban Land Magazine. “Instead of trying to use brick-and-mortar tactics to compete with online-only retailers, stores should try to beat online retailers at their own game, using data and the best technology and research at their disposal to strip waste from their warehousing systems and make inventory as efficient as possible.” Oh, and the price tags? Gen Z wants them so they can “avoid awkward conversations at the cash register and the disappointment of finding out they cannot afford something they really want.”
Brick & Mortar Make Brand Partnerships to Tackle Online Threats
Make no mistake about it: retail has been evolving since the days when the first cave people traded rocks for pelts, or sticks for food. Yes, e-commerce is a fairly new experience in the retail world, but in-store retail is finding ways to adapt and compete and thrive. Writing for Forbes.com, Steven Scala, Executive Vice President of supply chain solutions provider DiCentral, suggests retailers should make better use of their physical space, spotlighting their brands and giving customers better experiences. “The integration of online and digital experiences and augmented reality in the physical space cater to customers’ buying behaviors and may define the next phase of modern shopping.”
500 Million Dollar NJ Mall – Maybe we Can Get a Casino, Too?
New Jersey, the state where they’re still trying to get Xanadu American Dream Meadowlands off the ground, is betting on a 500 million dollar project that’ll re-vamp an older mall, and it’s being called The Heights at Monmouth. A development by the Kushner Companies and Brookfield Properties, the project takes a nearly 60 year-old mall in Eatontown, not far from the famous Jersey shore, and will replace it with a mixed-use complex that also features 700 apartments. NJ.com reported recently that “the project’s residential component would include 88 apartments for people with low and moderate incomes, helping satisfy the borough’s affordable housing obligation.” Now that sports gambling is legal in New Jersey, maybe they’ll want to have that service available at the new mall?
DMM: Data with Experience!
There’s an old saying: “What’s old is new.” DMM has more than 35 years’ worth of archived data, including thousands of listings with hundreds of thousands of tenants, contacts and location information. Past DMM data can be analyzed to forecast future data or trends. Everybody’s talking about “big data” and “data science,” basically applying sophisticated analytic techniques to large datasets. One of the things analysts and economists are doing with DMM data is predictive modeling—using historical data to make predictions about the future. Click here for more detail.
