LAS VEGAS—By far the biggest trend discussed at this year's ICSC Las Vegas was the return of brick-and-mortar sales as sales continue to climb steadily. That is certainly the case with Joshua Poag, president and CEO of Poag Shopping Centers.
GlobeSt.com caught up with Poag on the subject, and he said that the physical shopping center industry went through an incredible stress test at the beginning of the pandemic but since then, sales have climbed steadily for his company.
"In 2021, sales accelerated as vaccines came on board and stimulus injected money into the economy," he explained. "2022 has started strong, but the effects of inflation and rate increases remain to be seen."
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Other Owners and developers had the same sentiment during a morning panel session on Monday. They discussed that the return of sales also includes the need to continue to revitalize physical space and without that, they could slow again. "It is important to revitalize physical space and look to creative, non-traditional uses in mall properties," panelists said. "Brick and mortar must be turned into new and attractive places to gather."
According to Joseph Coradino, chairman and CEO of PREIT, there are tremendous opportunities to strengthen malls, including using entertainment in different ways to help them transform. Speaker Terrence Maiden, CEO and managing partner of Russell Glen, added that you have to strategically look at class b and c malls across the country for opportunities to reimagine.
GlobeSt.com also caught up with Mark Sigal, CEO of Datex Property Solutions, who said that he is starting to see a real combined focus by real estate portfolio operators and retailers on delivering a differentiated product and a standout consumer experience to the communities that they serve.
"We have a lot of data on how the pandemic really separated the wheat from the chaff in terms of retailers that outperformed, and those that struggled, and so operators are just more attuned to the importance of executing well right now. It's the proverbial 'light is the best antiseptic,'" he said.
At the same time, Sigal tells GlobeSt.com that "the industry at large has begun to show signs of consolidation, which is driven by a lot of factors; namely, oversupply of retail, ever-shrinking risk premiums, Amazon, the aforementioned differentiation challenges in certain segments, and a general changing of the guard."
In Sigal's opinion, this is all a good thing. "Brick and mortar retail is, for the most part, pretty resilient. Change is constant in this business," he says. On this front, he adds, the pandemic has led to a greater awareness of concepts like customer acquisition costs and lifetime value, which he says helps quantify the goodness of delivering a superior experience that drives customer loyalty, repeat business and favorable word of mouth. "It's forcing broader adoption of multi-channel strategies, which delivers a better consumer experience by making it easy to set ordering, and delivery or pickup as local or mobile as the consumer ways, and in doing so sets retailers up to have more of a direct-to-consumer relationship."
One related manifestation of these trends, he adds, is a tighter partnership between landlords and tenants on shopping center marketing, sales detail and visitor analytics. "This is driving a rise in the industry's adoption of data-driven systems that help companies make better decisions, deliver actionable reporting and be more productive through intelligent automation."
Keep checking back with GlobeSt.com for more coverage from the ICSC Las Vegas event. And check out the stories below that you might have missed.
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Natalie Dolce
Natalie Dolce, editor-in-chief of GlobeSt.com, is responsible for working with editorial staff, freelancers and senior management to help plan the overarching vision that encompasses GlobeSt.com, including short-term and long-term goals for the website, how content integrates through the company’s other product lines and the overall quality of content. Previously she served as national executive editor and editor of the West Coast region for GlobeSt.com and Real Estate Forum, and was responsible for coverage of news and information pertaining to that vital real estate region. Prior to moving out to the Southern California office, she was Northeast bureau chief, covering New York City for GlobeSt.com. Her background includes a stint at InStyle Magazine, and as managing editor with New York Press, an alternative weekly New York City paper. In her career, she has also covered a variety of beats for M magazine, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, FashionLedge.com, and Co-Ed magazine. Dolce has also freelanced for a number of publications, including MSNBC.com and Museums New York magazine.
