In 2018, consumers are shopping for experience as well as products. Millennials demand multi-sensory activities, and shopping malls are answering those demands by providing a unique user experience, wellness programs and pick-up stores.
Unique User Experience
Malls are moving from a hub of retail to a total user experience. What does this mean for you? Malls now seek to fuse entertainment and shopping. In between shopping, play a round of mini golf or even take a ride on a kids train through the mall area. Entertainment how also been incorporated into many shopping malls and will be even more so in 2018. Although providing entertainment does not being in revenue, it can direct shoppers to stores they may not otherwise have patronized.
Wellness and Lifestyle Programs
The Center for Client Retention explains that Westin Hotels helped lead the way in creating wellness and lifestyle programs within shopping centers with RunWESTIN, a program of scenic three and five mile running routes available to hotel guests. Lululemon, a yoga clothing specialty retailer, began offering yoga classes and running clinics, and Williams-Sonoma now provides in-store cooking classes in some of their brick and mortar stores. These services enhance the shopping experience and increase the number and quality of human-to-human connections between associates and customers.
Pick-Up Stores
Because online shopping is increasing in popularity, the centralization of order pick-up areas in shopping malls is becoming more and more prominent. Shoppers are then able to return to the store later on to purchase new products, making it a win-win situation. In the next online checkout, consumers can decide whether they want to pick-up their purchases at the store itself or in the closest shopping mall, adding foot traffic to the shopping centers.
Real-estate developers understand the average shopper in 2018 and are adapting in the appropriate ways. A unique user experience, wellness and lifestyle programs, and pick up stores are keys to keeping shopping centers booming in 2018.