DMM Retail Industry e-News Issue #159
“The Battle of E” — E-Commerce vs. Eateries, Etc.
If you’re going to take on the e-commerce trends with your real-w
orld retail shopping center (or lifestyle center), you better do more than add a few eateries. While a new report from real estate services company Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) called “Foodservice Trends 2019” does stress they’re important, it’s also critical to create more of an experience. The report explains there also has to be what it calls the “Experience Economy”—enhanced foodie products and services. “It’s not just about buying anymore. It’s also about building a community, supporting an idea and making a point,” writes Alexandra Pacurar for Commercial Property Executive. “There is still a healthy capital flow in the [brick and mortar retail] sector, and those who understood the new order of things early are the big winners,” said Patrick Ward, founder & president of MetroGroup Realty Finance.
Give the People What They Want (at Retail): Smaller is Better
While the word “Amazon” suggests massive and comprehensive, some retailers are finding out consumers want cozy and niche-oriented. As department stores would carry everything from aardvark food to zip-lining goggles, shoppers like stores that are focused on a particular theme or product, and those that make it easy to find everything in their particular niche. The Hull Property Group, which owns the Auburn Mall, is betting on that very concept in its project that would take over half-a-million square feet in retail space and convert the larger spaces into smaller retailers. “The goal was to keep the mall relevant with a reduced square footage and create smaller shop spaces in order to fill those spaces with retailers that are doing bricks and mortar stores,” said Auburn developmental services executive director, Megan McGowen. “In today’s retail environment there are very few first class uses for a space of this size and age. Demolishing the space will allow us to create sizeable retail offerings and will provide additional real estate for new outparcel opportunities,” said Jim Hull, Managing Principal of Hull Property Group.
Real-World Retail: Making Things Easy and Convenient for Customers
Your humble e-newsletter editor has lately become addicted to a series of web videos called “Pitch Meetings.” They are comedy sketches, about six minutes in length each, involving two characters played by the same person: one is a screenwriter pitching a movie idea and the other is a movie producer who either questions the screenwriter’s story and ability to write too much or not enough. Invariably, the screenwriter character will describe a scene in a film that, in the real world, would be very difficult to accomplish, but in the movie world, “It’s super-easy, barely an inconvenience.” That’s long way of saying sometimes the same can be said about shopping in the fake world (e-commerce) and getting things done conveniently, though it’s a challenge, in the real world (brick-and-mortar). With that in mind, see how Target, according to TheStreet.com, is trying to make things “super-easy, barely an inconvenience” for their online and in-store customers. “I think our decision years ago to put our stores at the center of our fulfillment strategy is paying off with accelerated growth. Our guests are responding enthusiastically, driving rapid growth of our same-day options, including Drive-Up, in-store pickup and Shipt,” CEO Brian Cornell said. Oh, in-store pickup is TIGHT!
Watch a “Pitch Meeting” clip and you’ll understand. Tweet us if you’re as addicted as your humble e-newsletter editor is.
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DMM e-News - Issue #159
