Of course this applies to so much beyond the retail and leisure industry. But focussing thought and effort on what can help us as we move forward, actually presents us with a unique opportunity. Destination teams, landlords and those trading in our city streets and shopping environments will have had time to reflect on what they need and want from their retail and leisure spaces. The same is true of the shopping public, who have also been evaluating what they need when visiting these places. Do both visions of what real-world retail should look like, align? 

In the April issue of RLI, ART’s director Gareth Jordan shared steps to cultivate community and spark a cultural reboot ready for the new retail world.

Read the Retail Insight here

Proptech is sometimes linked with disrupters to be wary of, but in 2020 it has come to represent the positive impact that technologies, new opportunities and processes can have in the revolution of real estate. 

Technology should support you and meet the evolving needs of your clients. It is right to demand holistic solutions with software that works with each asset to measure and determine if it is operating at its full potential, as well as providing an investment view.  Purpose-built software is an invaluable foundation to process data and connect users with the capability to work in multiple currencies and languages across a portfolio. Today, if you are not measuring, you cannot be effectively managing.  

Proptech exists to answer questions about how we engage and get value from real estate. We designed our solutions – such as the Retail Advantage platform – specifically to make measuring performance and managing assets easier. For the retail industry, using transaction data and traffic data are often the most valuable sources of customer information used to grow sales.  But data is everywhere, and our solutions not only collect customer insights, we produce analytics and incorporate available sources with feeds from tenant performance and marketing activity to weather and energy data.  Tools like data-rich 3D environments also help businesses really engage with the property they are managing.

2019 was the year that sustainability broke into the mainstream and proptech holds a great opportunity for environmental good and compliance.  A people-centric approach to technology is also gaining momentum by catering to the needs of individual users, tasks and roles.  From improving operations and efficiency to empowering decision-makers, we are in the middle of a digital and cultural transformation for the better.

Please get in touch to discuss your needs with one of our experts. 

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This year’s MAPIC theme was Retail Remixed – Rethinking spaces & places. The trend toward mixed-use environments is definitely breathing new life into developments, but it invariably increases complexity when managing and measuring what is and isn’t working. We have seen and worked closely with developers, owners and managers as the market has matured, so we started the conference with the Outlet Summit to share insights through the example of London’s Wembley Park.

Based upon our longstanding experience in destination intelligence tools, the asset & property manager, Realm and developer, Quintain gave us the opportunity to apply our retail performance suite to broaden insights. We have been working with this hybrid regeneration scheme since the launch of London Designer Outlet in 2013.

One of the main industry-wide changes to impact the retail property sector is diversification. Previously sidelined, out of town and away from traditional retail, outlet shopping is now trending. This has paved the road to the heart of the city with the emergence of new urban outlet centres alongside traditional retail, restaurants, hotels, apartments and co-working spaces.

We are seeing these sites perform exceptionally well in the new retail landscape, acting as cornerstones of community in cities. But just because you make the place for it, this doesn’t mean community just happens, so we shared examples with delegates about how data can power community.

Our Retail Advantage software is designed not only for the management of community destinations, but also for connected working. The platform gives users across the business access to analytics and the communications they need. Often there is a lot of importance given to leveraging the consumer relationship, their loyalty and maintaining that. However, we also see a need – and believe this is becoming a more widely held view across the industry – to deliver community access for staff and industry professionals. Those managing retail assets rely on visibility and strategic tools are essential to give brand-partners the information they need to capitalise and convert sales.

ART’s director, Gareth Jordan delved into tools to track the evolution of different metrics, exploring how to capitalise on London Designer Outlet’s strengths as a destination for tourists, and analysing the impact of events. We also unveiled our newest 3D mapping tool, which is tailored to manage projects such as the extension of Wembley Park for what will be an 85-acre neighbourhood, offering 8.8 million sq. ft of mixed-use development, including over 500,000 sq ft of retail and leisure space.

Today we really understand the value of data, which makes it even more frustrating when it is not used properly and cannot live up to its potential, so we also shared some key points to achieve a better ROI from your data at MAPIC’s Innovation Forum.

Innovation in retail was a dominant theme throughout the conference as technology and new uses continue to radically change retail and leisure destinations. Data is integral in these changing times to allow us to experiment and test things that have never been done before. 

Please get in touch to start a discussion about your data strategy.

Conference images courtesy of MAPIC & the Wembley Park image is courtesy of Quintain.