Gruskin Group™ Says Retailers Will Leverage the ‘4C’s’ to Keep Customers Engaged and Their Brand Relevant

Guest Blog post by Gruskin Group a leading retail design firm.

 

What’s Next for Retail Environments: Social Experience Retailing

Historically, conventional wisdom suggested that retail environments be updated every three to five years to remain “fresh” and plugged into the consumer marketplace.  Today, the cycle is more of an ongoing process, say experts at Gruskin Group™, one of the nation’s leading retail design firms, and “social experience retailing” where their virtual and real world strategies converge, is pivotal to how retailers will keep their customers engaged.

“The explosion of technology and the subsequent real-time access to thousands of petabytes of data through smart phones, tablets, and computers, coupled what we refer to as the four ‘C’s’—convergence, convenience, connection, and cost – are having a meaningful and collateral impact on retail.  This, in turn, has allowed fickle consumers in our ‘immediate gratification’ environment to flip the personalization promise on retailers from the very nice ‘have it your way’ offer to ‘provide it my way or it’s the highway,” explained Kenneth A. Gruskin, principal and founder of Gruskin Group.

“As a result, retailers are rolling out ‘experience store’ concepts, combining physical and virtual strategies with localization and individualization to keep customers engaged and their brand relevant to their physical and digital lives,” Gruskin noted. 

According to Gruskin Group, in order to offer this kind of social experience retailing, retailers will offer their own unique recipe of the 4Cs, which are defined as follows: 

Convergence: with the unification of social networking, commerce, and technology, augmented reality (AR) will become a key technology that will help to close the digital divide that separates our physical and virtual domains. Also, retailers will form brand sharing partnerships to provide compelling alignments that will attract customers and get them invited into their lives and communities through the integration of SER (social experience retailing) and CTR (convenience transaction retailing).

Convenience:  retail products, services, and virtual goods being provided through multiple physical and virtual channels will become ubiquitous to the end user. Localization will become “neighbor hooding” with virtual, smaller and better trained, localized brick-and-mortar facilities supporting a retailer’s embedded customer base while offering a global reach.  The supply chain distribution system will be updated to provide instant gratification by delivering goods and services immediately from anywhere to anywhere.  Further, technology and systems will empower customers to learn, explore, and make knowledgeable, informed purchasing decisions wherever they are.

Connection:  Successful retail brands must continuously establish deep, personal relationships with their customer and reflect their value and core beliefs with authenticity if the brand is to be seen as an extension of who “they” are. The brand and retail experience must be literally connected and accessible to the individual wherever they are through the web and local brick-and-mortar stores alike (which celebrate the community in which they are located).  As a result, the design of all of these retail touch points, both physical and virtual, will be more important than ever to keep a brand positioned to be visible, to maintain/improve its perceived value, and to help individuals identify and stay connected with retailers that align with their core beliefs and lifestyle.

Cost:  For the individual customer, cost will be based on their personal view of the perceived value of the product or service being offered. For the retailer, cost will primarily be a function of whether SER or CTR is the priority.  If CTR is paramount to the retailer, lowest cost and convenience will be the priority. For those with SER as the end goal, brand equity, alignment, and integration with their personal goals, lifestyle/life stage and community will be crucial.  For both SER and CTR, global/local manufacturing approaches and supply chain management will not only continue to have huge cost implications, but as customers demand personalization/ individualization of all of their goods and services, being able to manage the costs of customized, mass produced goods “on-demand” will prove to be the real challenge.

“Total convergence of the virtual and brick-and-mortar retail experience empowered by social networking concepts and technology is inevitable. And the relationship between brand equity and cost will be shaped to a large degree by how consistently retailers deploy their brand image.    For retailing, it means the next 10 years, the next 40 years, will be exciting times of experimentation and constant reinvention,” Gruskin added. 

About Gruskin Group™

Gruskin Group™ is an integrated design firm that builds unified brand experiences through architecture, brand development, visual communications, web/interactive, industrial design, interior design, strategic consulting, and sustainable design. 

Ranked by DDi magazine as one of the top 20 retail design firms in the U.S. for the past three years, Gruskin Group was named to the Inc. 5000 in 2009 and 2010.  The firm’s and its professionals’ award-winning work has been recognized by AIA, the Retail Design Institute, New York Ad Club, New Jersey Ad Club, ASID, Graphis, and the Association of Graphic Communications.  For additional information, visit www.gruskingroup.com.

A helpful site with many links to "other" retail industry links

A helpful site with many links to "other" retail industry links.
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Find complete and updated retail research about global and U.S. retail industry stores and sales, including history, numbers data, term definitions, and statistics.

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More information on Directory of Major Malls, Directory On Computer, and other products related to the shopping center/retail chain industry may be obtained from the website www.shoppingcenters.com .

The KISS of Death (a commentary on chain store sales forecast modeling)

Guest Blog post by Jim Stone, Chain Store Advisors

Jim Stone is the principal consultant of Chain Store Advisors, a consulting firm in Reading, MA.  
Chain Store Advisors works with businesses who operate chain stores including retailers, restaurants, and service businesses.  

The KISS of Death 

Most chain store modeling experts will tell you that a “good” sales forecasting model will estimate sales +/- 20% in 80-90% of the cases.

Most chain store real estate dealmakers believe that they need a model with no more than +/- 15% error 85% of the time.

Most people don’t agree on how this error is measured or what the role of human judgment should be in determining the “official” sales estimate used in calculating the projected return on investment.

Everyone wants to “Keep It Simple Stupid” because it’s hard to make decisions when you are confused about the facts or their implications.  This definitely applies to real estate planning and site selection for chain store operators.  However, most sales forecasting models are anything but simple and are often intimidating to those without strong backgrounds in statistics (which includes the CEO, CFO, and VP Real Estate).

 There is a huge push these days to use technology and mathematical models to increase the quality of business decisions.  From the rigorous discipline of “Six Sigma” in the late 80′s to the recent business analytics wins of companies such as Capital One and Harrah’s, there seems to be an unbridled confidence in the application of computers and statistics to financial analysis.

The problem is that some situations cannot be modeled with enough precision to be useful.

 Chain store sales forecasting is one example.  

The reason is simple:  historical data about the retail marketplace are not static and therefore cannot be used to reliably estimate future sales.

A Framework for Complexity

Let’s consider some different decisions that face chain store operators ranging from simple to complex.

A simple problem is one that can be reduced to an equation and applied repeatedly with very similar results.  An example would be the selection of the size of a steel beam to support a roof in a building.  The force of gravity is consistent and can be used to compute the load requirements of structural steel.  Even if the equation is complicated (to those who are not structural engineers), it is simple, straightforward, and reliable.

A complicated problem is one in which the relationship between cause and effect requires analysis and expertise.  Many business problems fall into this category such as staffing for checkout lines to minimize wait times for customers, logistics for deliveries in the supply chain, and inventory management based on seasonality of demand.  In these cases, historical data provide a reasonable basis for predictive models and can provide a solid foundation for planning and investment decisions.

A complex problem consists of a situation where the relationship between cause and effect can only be determined in retrospect, not in advance.  This is due to large number of variables that influence the outcomes, the changing values of these variables, and the non-linear interactions among the variables.

Chain store sales forecasting is a complex problem.

Although our use of statistical models in sales forecasting has outstripped its usefulness, it would be a mistake to simply revert to “gut feel.”  The chain store industry has a great opportunity to build upon the advances in technology, data, and analytical methods and create a new approach that uses the best of “art and science.”

The best tool for integrating art and science in real estate decisions is the oldest tool:  analogs.

Analogs allow decision-makers to look at a new opportunity, find similar situations from past experience, and use them as a guide to estimating the future performance of trade areas and sites.  Computers and market data can be used to present the “patterns” for comparison and the human brain can be used to assess the similarity of the analogs and adapt them to the new situation.

In chain store sales forecasting, the analog method was first formalized by William Applebaum in the 1930′s.  Since then a vast array of methods have been used to create classification schemes for markets, trade areas, stores, competitors, and customers.  The frustration of this effort is that no two entities are exactly alike, and any attempt to fit them into a scheme will result in a large number of cases near the boundaries of the categories.  For example, let’s say that we define “urban” stores as those with a a population density of 5,000 people per square mile within a 2 mile radius.  Does that mean that a store with 4,999 people per square mile is not urban?

 

The computer can easily compute population density for any location in a second; a human being can’t do this in a year.  However, a human can look at a map of an area and instantly classify it based on a variety of attributes:  its density, proximity to major highways, the presence of retail activity, traffic congestion, and relationship to surrounding cities and towns; a task that a computer program would find daunting, generating comical results in many cases.

Over the next few months we will further explore some new ways to integrate art and science for better real estate planning and site selection.

See Jim's original post and others at  Real Analogies 

What You Always Wanted To Know About Restaurant Leasing (but were afraid to ask)!

By Guest Columnist Paul G. W. Fetscher CCIM, SCLS
President Great American Brokerage, New York, USA

A restaurant is a food warehouse, storage, preparation, cooking, assembly, sales, consumption and disposal facility. Consider the complexity of fitting such a manufacturing plant into structures with another function.

Assume a 300 square meter restaurant as compared to a 300 square meter dress shop. The comparable sized restaurant will require 250% of the air conditioning, 10 times the electrical service 100 time the water consumption, plus gas service and black iron venting and exhaust. It will also require an internal 3-hour rated fire wall and a fire suppression system over any open flames.

These requirements make restaurants the most expensive per square meter investment in any retail or hospitality property. Such capital investment requires a concomitant long term lease to amortize such a large investment. Therefore it is extremely important to assure that the right concept is in the right place.

Some restaurants are destinations; and others are parasites. It’s important to have the right fit!

Drawing Radius

Destination restaurants will draw from the greatest drawing radius; have the highest check averages, but the lowest frequency of customer visit. Examples in Dubai would be the Aquara Restaurant, the Al Mahara Seafood Restaurant at Burj Al Arab or Benihana.

Impulse restaurants are usually found within an arm’s reach of desire. Dunkin’ Donuts, Sbarro’s and Starbucks are good examples. These have a high frequency of customer visit, low prices, and are very convenient to a patron’s existing traffic patterns. That might be a cup of coffee on the way to work, or a noon break not far from work or convenient to a shopping trip.

Casual theme restaurants are somewhere in-between. These are moderate priced restaurants such as TGI Friday’s or Chili’s. This is a convenient place to stop for a hamburger or a salad. Typical visits would be a couple of times a month.

A larger project needs a healthy mixture of these three general categories. In an enclosed regional mall, the destination restaurants would face the exterior and be accessible at later dining hours when the main mall would be slack in activity. The casual theme restaurants can be spread out throughout such a project. Shoppers would have the opportunity to stop during their shopping journey to have a meal and restore their energy.
A World Onto Itself

A Food Court can be a world onto itself. The vast majority of shoppers will visit a food court, and THEN decide which of the vendors will be their selection of the day. This is known as the “Restaurant Row” effect. Restaurant Rows became popular in California in the 1970’s. A large number of popular restaurants were aggregated together. Diners would typically go to the area and subsequently decide where to eat.

Modern Food Courts started in shopping centers such as Sherway Gardens and Bramalea Square around Toronto Canada in the mid 1970’s, then migrated to the United States. A number of successful examples now can be found in the Gulf States.

Food Courts benefit from certain economies of scale. While one unit may have strong breakfast traffic, another sandwich operation may peak at lunch while a third operation may be strongest at dinner. Each of these, with different peak hours of operation, will use the same common dining seats; but just use them at different hours. Such efficiencies accrue to the benefit of all the operators in a food court.

Hotels in the Gulf States have strong foodservice representation. The Las Vegas Hilton was once the largest hotel in the world. It boasted 3,500 rooms. That hotel needed a number of restaurants to serve the needs of the resident population. Those facilities range from a coffee bar to a steakhouse to a diner style operation to a Benihana to two showrooms for a total of 11 foodservice operations. The showrooms would serve from 1,000 - 2,500 patrons for dinner and a Broadway style show.

Cinderella's Slipper

The Dubai Marriott Hotel has but 10% as many rooms, a mere 350 keys. However that hotel also boasts 11 foodservice operations. It’s not Las Vegas, but it is a collection of foodservice operations, appropriate for the market, and serving not only the residents of the hotel, but the influx of patrons form other hotels or from the indigenous population.

Restaurant leasing comes down to finding Cinderella’s slipper. Know your market, and deliver what is appropriate for that customer and that retail or hospitality environment.


(Paul Fetscher, president of Great American Brokerage in New York, was the consultant in the restaurant merchandizing for Dubai Festival City. He has worked on projects from Thailand to Alaska and from London and Paris to Shanghai and Beijing. Needless to say, he has worked on projects throughout the United States.
He will be teaching a course in Restaurant Leasing for the Mid East Council of Shopping Centers on May 3rd in Dubai.)

How Some Retailers, Landlords, And Brokers Will Be Able To Profit Fom The Closing Of More Than 200 Borders Stores

This column, Strolling the Agora, will continue to be written as the mood hits, though Shopping Center Digest has ceased publication.

By Murray Shor

The latest shockwave to hit the shopping center/retail chain industry, Borders’s bankruptcy filing, was not a surprise to many experienced dealmakers, especially some of the more astute landlords who have multiple tenant deals with this major book chain. They’ve had the company on its watch list for years.

The retailer stopped paying publishers last December for books shipped for the past holiday season; some estimate that they may receive only 25% of the dollars owed. Dealmakers also pointed out that Borders had begun cutting back and eliminating stores for years, since its high point of 1,329 outlets in 2005.

Some say that the latest plan to vacate roughly 4.9 million sq. ft. of retail space would be an especially cruel blow to those centers anchored by the superstores, and that the vacancy rate for this sector could increase from 4.2% to 9.5%. This, of course, is unrealistic because it assumes that these locations will remain empty; however, expectations are that many would be re-leased, used for other purposes besides retail, and may never become empty space.

Admittedly, though, the filing is damaging to an industry that still has record vacancies and much work ahead to re-tenant shopping centers that have lost so much equity over the last two years.

The larger owner-developers, such as Simon Property Group, General Growth Properties, Westfield, Developers Diversified Realty, Federal Realty, etc., may feel no pain from the bankruptcy since Borders is responsible for less than 1% of the total revenue of these operators.

To Close 30%

In essence, the book retailer listed $1.29 billion in debt, $1.27 billion in assets, and will be closing about 30% of its 642 stores-- ranging from 12,895 sq. ft. up to 42,770 sq. ft.-- in malls, power centers, strips and the like; the largest number, 35, are in California, with another 15 in the Chicago market. In its Chapter 11 filing, it blamed the economy, cost structures, and viability of locations, among other factors.

These factors include, but are not limited to: growth of internet sales by such competitors as Amazon.com and ebay, and not starting its own e-commerce site until 2008, years behind Barnes & Noble’s; the deep discounting and competition from Walmart, Target and other retailers that caused its sales to fall; the introduction of digital books and being late in coming to market with its reader, such as Amazon did with Kindle and Barnes & Noble did with Nook; and that focusing its store expansion overseas had diverted away much its needed financial resources.

There is still a possibility that the initial 200+ underperforming outlets scheduled for closing could be expanded soon to 275.

Some $505 million in debtor-in-possession financing has already been arranged, said Borders. And, the chain stressed that it does not plan to close any of its more than 100 smaller units operating under the Waldenbooks name.

The bankruptcy or reorganization filing is the largest Chapter 11 filing since Circuit City’s in 2008, and though a severe setback to this shopping center/retail chain industry, is not expected to have as much adverse impact since the economy—though shaky—has been improving slightly. In fact, a substantial number of retailers, landlords, brokers and others are already taking action to benefit from Borders’s problems.

First In Line

Heading the list of dealmakers expected to do well from the bankruptcy is DJM Realty, which has been hired to dispose of the unproductive stores. It has already been approached by supermarkets, smaller chains and regional and local merchants, and users who are not retailers.

Depending on the lease terms and specific details for each location, these units could be sold to the landlord, the landlord could be paid a settlement to let Borders out of the lease, or the location could be leased by Borders to another tenant. And the bankruptcy court could also chime in on these issues.

Next to benefit could be the landlords--though some, admittedly, could also be severely damaged by the closings. Those with viable projects may be able to lease the stores to other retailers at a higher rent, break down the larger units into smaller stores rented to other national or local tenants at substantially higher rents per sq. ft., and re-position the shopping center to better reflect the changing demographics within the specific trade area.

With lenders more agreeable now to providing financing, getting rid of a tenant that could be considered a poor anchor may enable strapped landlords to obtain necessary cash to revitalize certain projects. In addition to updating the center for retailing, some projects could be converted to medical facilities, commercial offices, municipal uses as libraries, motor vehicle offices, warehouse space, residential development, etc., many paying a better and more reliable return to landlords.

A Strong Positive

Then, there are competitors such as Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Indigo—and, of course, discounters like Walmart and Target—who could pick up customers from Borders’s list of shoppers, or may be interested in one or more of the locations; retailers from various other categories—supermarkets, drug chains, large restaurants, electronic chains, office supplies, home improvement—are already considering many of these sites as viable for their own expansion plans.

And there are the brokers, eager, aggressive, knowledgeable about their specific markets with a substantial list of local and regional tenants, who have the expertise to put a deal together and earn a substantial commission from it.

A list of the locations targeted for closing has already been released. In addition, a list of 450 Borders and Waldenbooks locations in major shopping centers and malls is available from the Directory of Major Malls; visitors to its website may also download, for free, a partial list or sample of these stores.

So, yes, the first reaction to the announced bankruptcy is horror about the negative impact on the industry overall. However, as in all problems, those with the drive and viable solutions will be able to turn an initial negative into a strong positive.

More information on Directory of Major Malls, Directory On Computer, and other products related to the shopping center/retail chain industry may be obtained from the website www.shoppingcenters.com .

Reporting On Over 7,100 major Shopping Centers and Malls In the US and Canada

Announcement: Directory of Major Malls has just released its 2011 dataset and products focused on the over 7,100 major shopping centers and malls throughout the US and Canada. DMM products includes shopping center and mall locations, details, physical features, demographics, tenant lists, site/plans with contact details including name, addresses, emails and websites. Available online, in print, on CD and through licensed datasets.

NYACK, New York (January 20, 2011) - The Directory of Major Malls has already started shipping and providing online access to its 2011 data and products. An aggressive research effort taken on by the research team at Directory of Major Malls over the past 12 months propelled the inventory of detailed listings to over 7,100 major shopping center and mall records and 290,000 store locations. The addition of over 1,190 listings is a 20% increase and coverage of 3.3 billion square feet of major shopping center and mall retail space in the US and Canada.

An important point to highlight in the Directory of Major Malls coverage is the effort toward continuous coverage of major future and proposed retail projects. Over 450 planned/future shopping center and mall locations are included in the comprehensive 2011 Directory of Major Malls dataset. Coverage of these proposed centers totals out to over 248 million square feet of future retail space with an emphasis on the retail shopping centers classified as Lifestyle/Specialty/ Mixed-Use.

In addition to efforts to expand the coverage of listings for major shopping centers and mall with approximately 200,000 sqft of gross leasable retail area, the DMM team has further increased the level of inclusion of site/leasing plans as additional insight into the physical configuration of the centers. Currently almost 50% of the listings include a site/leasing plan image of a level of the shopping center.

Additionally the 54 full-color metro area maps, a mainstay of the DMM products, have been further enhanced to show Urbanized Area imaging within the highlighted metro market areas and the locations of over 2,600 of the major centers pinpointed on the maps. The longitude/latitude coordinates used to determine the locations of the centers are manually verified for these locations as well as the complete dataset of all listings in the Directory of Major Malls products. These coordinates are available as an add-on dataset in the Directory of Major Malls semi-annual CD release as well as within custom licensed dataset used for integration in third-party GIS/mapping and analytics applications.

Another supplemental dataset for the Directory of Major Malls products is the Trend Demographic add-on dataset creating in partnership with Scan/US of Santa Monica, CA. This add-on component is available as both searchable and informative data fields portraying the four trend variables for 5, 10 and 20 mile radii around each of the US shopping centers in the DMM database. Access to this valuable component is available within the recently redesigned online subscription site at http://shoppingcenters.com, the Directory on Computer CD releases as well as custom dataset licensing.

"With over 30 years of active participation in the industry as a dependable source, the Directory of Major Malls products continue as the leading source of this specialized data to the shopping center, retail and financial industries." said Publisher Tama J. Shor. "Our research team has continued to maintain the highest level of accuracy with our existing inventory of listings as well as continually increasing our coverage."

"In these turbulent times for the retail industry," she continues, "it's even more urgent that a source such as DMM is available to provide retail real estate professionals and the financial industry with accurate, current information. With monthly updates to our online subscription site, Directory of Major Malls on the Web and the semi-annual releases of our licensed datasets and CD product, we're doing just that. Our daily mission is to identify and capture the ongoing ownership and personnel changes, store openings and closings, along with any new and redevelopment project activities."

Shor continues, "30+ years ago when the Directory was first developed, it was at a time when major enclosed mall development was in the early stages and the focus of many retail projects. All this time, we've maintained ringside seats and have watched shopping centers grow and transform several times over. The diversity in the types of retail complexes that now comprise this dominant part of the retail community is just amazing."

"Each listing of the 7,100 included in the Directory of Major Malls products is comprised of a variety of details with regard to location, demographics, physical features, a categorized tenants list and contact details in the areas of development, leasing, marketing and management. At this point in time, our brand name is a bit misleading in the sense that well over 50% of our listings are not enclosed malls as our name portrays but in reality the majority of our major shopping center listings are open-air in design and fall into a variety of classifications such as community, power and lifestyle/specialty and value-retail centers," Shor pointed out. "There's also an increasing number of projects that are planned mixed-use communities that have included a relevant amount of retail space mixed in with residential, office, entertainment and hotel space," said Shor.

"We're quite proud of the achievements of our research team and the longevity of Directory of Major Malls as a significant source to the industry for such an extended period of time. Our customer base covers any and all professionals involved in some aspect of the shopping center industry whether it be retail leasing teams, financial investors, development and management sector as well as firms involved in research, design, promotion, marketing and supplier end of the industry. We'll continue to be a dependable resource and look forward to expanding our coverage and expanding our partnerships to increase the exposure of the DMM dataset as an important element for retail analysis." Shor added.

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Directory of Major Malls, Inc. is based in Nyack, NY. It continues to be the leading source of detailed information on the major enclosed malls, open-air shopping centers, and lifestyle/specialty centers for over 30 years. DMM is used by retail real estate professionals, development and management companies, brokers and financial investment firms, service and supply companies, and government and academic research institutes.

The 2011 products include over 7,100 major shopping center and mall listings, 290,000+ tenant location,3,300+ site/leasing plans, 54 full-color metro area maps and the portfolios of the Top 50 Owner/Developer and Management companies which control over 70% of the industry.

The Directory of Major Malls data is available in our suite of standard products including subscription based on-line and "pay per record" access, on a semi-annually released CD, a hard copy 2,300 page print directory and through individual dataset licensing and a network of resellers. Details of Directory of Major Malls may be found at www.shoppingcenters.com.

For further formation, contact : Tama J. Shor, Publisher at P.O. Box 837, Nyack, NY 10960, phone: (845) 348-7000, Ext. 200, or email: publisher@shoppingcenters.com

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Staying Ahead Of The Trends: Survival Of The Fittest

Since there are indications that the dealmaking is improving as retail sales increase--and experienced professionals in the industry require the best information to benefit from these positive signs, we are making available our blog to a Guest Columnist specializing in essential data.


By Tama Shor, Publisher of the Directory of Major Malls (guest columnist)

The Internet has completely changed the way we communicate, the way people do business, and the way the public is informed, while compelling businesses to listen to the demands of the consumer.
“Survival of the fittest” is a phrase that has far-reaching implications for most industries. Those that adapt and change their business models and marketing practices in line with changing trends and the effects of the Internet are those that by natural selection will survive. Those that don’t will die off. 

The Changing Retail Real Estate Landscape

We now live in a consumer-driven business world where instant and easy access to information is not only what consumers want – but what they expect. The increased volume of e-commerce sites is a perfect example of how consumer-driven our society has become. A consumer-driven e-Commerce model poses a potential threat to brick-and-mortar shopping centers, but it is possible to mitigate the potential losses to physical stores by modifying marketing and business models to accommodate the effects of these technological changes.

François Ortalo-Magné, Director of Wisconsin School of Business Global Real Estate, cites an example of a brand that is revising its business policies in light of the increased e-commerce site usage. He says:
'There are those companies like SFR who are radically re-educating their store staff so that they have the same level of product knowledge as the clients who come to the shop having surfed the web to find about products. There are those companies who see their flagship stores as communication tools. And there are those companies who haven’t yet decided what to do,' he added. (http://www.propertyeu.info/index-newsletter/retail-sector-split-on-impact-of-e-commerce/)

In addition to the trends leading to more e-commerce sites, the recession has also caused a shift in the retail real estate landscape.
What Does This Mean For The Retail Real Estate Market?
Because business today is information-driven, it is important to be able to acquire, access, and manage data in order to make timely decisions, take advantage of opportunities and/or avert disasters.

How and Why Vertical Markets Need to Stay Informed

In order for the vertical markets within the retail real estate market to stay in the game, they will need to have as much current and accurate data at their disposal to be able to make the wisest business decisions.
Retail chains and up and coming retailers need data that can help them locate and analyze new locations, review existing markets, and hone in on their competition. Specialty and seasonal retailers will benefit greatly from having the necessary data to help them identify major centers with seasonal and temporary leasing programs.

Owners/developers and management companies who build and manage shopping centers and malls need tools to help them analyze the tenant mix of other centers in their area, other locations of stores, and to track what companies oversee other major retail locations.

Financial institutions and investment companies managing stocks owning shopping centers need to react quickly to changes in the industry such as store chain closings and openings, the sale of portfolios of shopping centers and malls, new developments as well as properties affected by natural disasters and regional economic shifts. These investment portfolios are affected on a daily basis by the afore-mentioned activities making it all the more important for the financial and investment companies to have access to the most current and reliable data.

Some examples are: When a major department store chain files bankruptcy or a retailer decides to close all the locations of one of their chains, which centers are affected? Who owns these properties? How much of their property portfolio is affected by closings? What effect will that have on the overall stock value for both the landlord and the retail chain?

Suppliers and service companies who are involved in businesses like the sale of security uniforms, recycling services, energy management, stroller rentals, and gift card programs need to be able to identify and contact new prospects and sales leads at the individual centers, and evaluate the size of a company-based upon the number of listings they oversee.

Marketing and promotional companies who help businesses through publicity campaigns and advertising need a resource for marketing analysis and marketing contacts.

Architectural and design firms of the malls or stores who want to promote their services need to have information about other properties and retail locations.

Construction companies involved in the building and renovation of shopping centers/malls, stores, and parking lots, need to know about proposed centers and those under development as well as those planning a renovation or expansion.

What happens to those companies that are not paying attention to their industry’s changing trends? They will eventually lose out to their competitors who ARE utilizing marketing tools and current, relevant data to make better informed business decisions.

Staying true to our brand promise of maintaining the most comprehensive reference of major shopping centers and malls available anywhere in order to provide you with the most current details possible, we are pleased to announce the release of the 2011, 32nd edition of the Directory of Major Malls®. With over 7,000 detailed shopping center listings and 295,000 store locations, you will have access to the most accurate shopping center data available in order to find the locations you need and make the contacts you want. Pre-order your 2011 Print and CD versions for January.

Access 2011 data online today! The Directory's on-line access site is located at http://shoppingcenters.com. This interactive web site is efficient, easy-to-use, and updated monthly. A subscription to the site allows you to search and view our data (including live links to web addresses and emails) and view and print our site/leasing plans and metro area maps.

Customized reports, mailing lists and VIP contact files are available for downloading for an additional fee for both subscribers and guest accounts. Log on to http://shoppingcenters.com to create a Guest account and run a FREE query today.