At ART we have been working closely with Landsec over the past 3 years to provide them with performance analysis tools and a community hub to support their retail destinations. This connected environment has been an important feature to assist site staff and brand-partners in navigating what has been a challenging year for most shopping locations.

We caught up with Colin Wilding, Senior Centre Director for insights at Gunwharf Quays, to get his perspective on the situation from the cultural harbour-front location in the heart of Portsmouth, as they head towards a New Year. 

Non-essential retail was raring to re-open for the run up to Christmas, and guests at Gunwharf Quays were welcomed back with the same commitment to safety they experienced during the reopening in the summer, but this time a covered marquee has also been introduced to provide comfort from inclement weather, should guests need to wait for capacity restrictions to ease.  

“The health and safety of our guests and onsite teams remains our priority as we reopen following the second lockdown” Colin says.  “Our team are all supporting our guests with guidance on social distancing and will be available to help answer any questions with regards to the location of retail brands and the centre’s facilities. The centre signage has also been updated to support these important messages.” 

Analytics help designer outlet teams manage, grow community and map recovery, and long before the pandemic Gunwharf Quays has used Retail Advantage to measure multiple metrics and performance. Right now, Colin tells us that for him and his team “data is incredibly important to help ascertain where queues are likely to form and to allow us to pre-plan the flows around the centre. The more dynamic the availability of data is to us the more quickly we can support our guests and our brand-partners to experience a seamless experience.” 

Home to famous brands, Gunwharf Quays’ strong offering of sportswear, homewares and lifestyle, all with up to 60% off regular retail prices, positioned them well for this year’s situation and  trends.  We are yet to see how the great loungewear pivot will trend post-pandemic, but Colin says “we have noticed a strong shift towards casual wear and homewares as more people are – not surprisingly! – spending a greater proportion of their time at home.”  

Collaboration across the retail outlet and leisure destination community is arguably more important than ever, and it benefits the guests, teams and brand-partners. “Regular updates on learnings and sharing new ideas and innovation have become even more important this year. Trends and behaviours have changed rapidly and the need for immediate communication has definitely increased.” 

The pandemic has given the industry a moment to pause, be imaginative, and reflect on past experience.  So, if Colin could offer himself one piece of advice before starting his career in retail, what would it be?

“Listen to others, respect experience and never underestimate the power of a strong team.”

Good words of advice for us all to take into 2021. Forget ‘new normal’, the New Year is a new beginning towards a ‘better normal.’  

Colin Wilding – Senior Centre Director of Gunwharf Quays

The only urban outlet centre in Germany, designer outlets Wolfsburg has now reopened and the team have taken a careful and considered approach in what is a hugely difficult situation for shopping centre and outlet operators. Bettina Wewetzer is however confident that customers can look forward to an enjoyable experience, whilst still maintaining social distancing.

“We are in the fortunate position of being able to open our doors again. We reopened on the 22nd April with a quick turnaround – just three days to get everything going and to transform what is a sensitive and unnerving topic into a fun experience as much as possible.”

The reopening strategy combines a focus on one-to-one service and limiting occupancy in stores to give people plenty of room. “We have reduced our entrances from twelve to four, which are all securely manned so that each customer is personally welcomed. Strong hygiene measures include the wearing of masks, disinfectant, and floor stickers for social distancing. Our modern steel and concrete architecture looks warm with vibrant rainbow coloured chalk signage to guide customers to look after their health. Stores are using things like numbers from the fitting room to manage the amount of people they let in at a time. There is a positive mood in the outlet environment because the customers here really do want to shop.”

Reaching partners and customers with reliable, relevant information is invaluable in normal times to improve operations and profitability, and it is proving particularly crucial now for critical communications. The designer outlets Wolfsburg recently implemented Retail Advantage to collect and connect data across the site. “We have actively used it as a team for a while, but we are just going live with the brands with the reopening, so we are still at the beginning in terms of exploring the KPI analysis and heat mapping tools. We used to provide all communications to brands over email, and now Retail Advantage has become our true platform for sharing information.”  

Sharing knowledge and experience is arguably more important than ever, so how does Bettina build community with the team and tenants? “We are in a unique position in the fact that we are an individual platform, one location and with that comes a small team of twenty people in all,” she says, “communication is very direct and we have daily contact with brands to keep in touch with team changes, products, pricing and deliveries.”  They keep close connection with tools like a news flash distribution featuring the monthly calendar, marketing events and promotions. “We are a close-knit community and have a personal way of doing things, such as providing all brands with specially designed masks, and little easter bunny gestures even though we were closed.”

So, what advice would Bettina give herself before starting her career in retail? “You should always give what you want to receive. Take things with a pinch of salt and have fun” she says. “We are very grateful that none of us have been directly affected by coronavirus, and it is important to remember the bigger picture as everything else will fall into place.  I like to keep a glass half full attitude.”

Bettina Wewetzer – Senior Retail Manager at designer outlets Wolfsburg