How Retailers Are Leveraging Technology

“We have to find a balance of what gets automated and what does not.”

LAS VEGAS—“Every generation has a different relationship with technology and that is one complexity that retailers must address.” That is according to Barrie Scardina, President of Americas Retail Services, Agency Leasing & Alliances, Cushman & Wakefield, during a panel session at ICSC Las Vegas on Monday.

According to Scardina, retailers are using technology to make things more efficient but it is about using technology for store locations and void analysis and background knowledge. “Really understanding personalization is key,” she said. “Brands are starting to ship a product to customers to try and wear and return, for example. You are going to see a ton of personalization where people can put their initial on a product or design jeans that fit them better. You are going to see a lot of that and changes in marketing.”

The biggest win for soft good retailers, she said, is the control over their inventory. “Being able to use technology like RFID, for example, and making sure they have the right product in the right store at the right time. That is the win.”

Angele Robinson-Gaylord, SVP, Store Development Americas, Starbucks Coffee Co, says that Starbucks is leaning into technologies on the back end to improve waiting. “We are also leaning into technology from a site selection perspective and using that as a tool to help us identify places we want to grow,” she said. “We are also very curious in how to leverage tools and techniques to improve our efficiencies.”

According to Tabassum Zalotrawala, SVP & Chief Development Officer, McDonald’s Corp., how McDonalds reaches its customers can’t just be in the store. “How we get to those customers is so important. We are always measuring our loyalists on the app but it is also about retention of that customer and about customized focuses on those customers.”

She explained that “We have to find a balance of what gets automated and what does not. We are still a restaurant business. There is a ton of focus on learning and development on how human beings in our restaurants interact with technology. You have to teach your employees how to co-pilot.”

Moderator Naveen Jaggi, president of Retail Leasing and Capital Markets at JLL added that “mixing technology with a human touch is key.

Robinson-Gaylord added that “you need to use the technologies to unlock efficiencies but you need to have both.”

When Jaggi asked how to sustain growth when your brand is already everywhere, Robinson-Gaylor said the importance is “leaning into finding opportunities in secondary and tertiary markets and finding those gaps where we are missing.” She added that “We aren’t just the drive-thru and the café plus drive-thru. Now we have a whole menu of touch points. We are trying to make sure we are populating where people want us to be. It is about building an ecosystem.”

Tabassum Zalotrawala noted that McDonalds is “really leaning in to understand the gaps that exist for us.” But a strength for the brand, she said, is its three-legged stool. “Our owner operators, the company, and our external partners. It is that much more important to proactively sit down with large developers, smaller landlords and more. We want to share our vision. McDonalds has the credibility but sharing where we are going and want to go is key.”

When Jaggi asked about what the conversations look like when talking to landlords about future formats, Robinson-Gaylord said that they “aren’t just limited to the larger developers. We can take smaller footprints. What Starbucks was isn’t what Starbucks is today. It is about bringing more cups to market and ensuring that landlords understand what Starbucks brings to their developments.”

Scardina pointed out that collaboration is so important between the landlord and the tenant. “We all want to put into communities, the best for the community. We are thinking about how we drive traffic to our malls, how we think about repeat visits,” she said. “Those are all characteristics to make that formula of success work. There isn’t a lot of drive-thru space in the US. We are going to have to be creative. The great thing about retail is that it is always evolving. There are always new concepts entering the market.”

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