Shopping malls: how to convert likes into sales

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With mall visitor metrics at technical zero and sales at most operators at the same figures, the time has come to think about opening doors and preparing to welcome customers again. The facilities must be safe spaces from a health perspective, and welcoming and pleasant places to recover the vibrant feeling of shopping. That is the hardware part that must be well polished and fine-tuned.

Cleaning failures, excessive capacity or carelessness in customer service will not be tolerated. But in addition to this essential part, something else will be needed to recover customers and visitors. Consumers already know that they can live with less and buy almost everything from home through e-commerce. So, why go back to the shopping centre?

With the lockdown, digital transformation has accelerated. Social media usage afghanistan phone number list time and internet traffic have skyrocketed, setting the trend for business development in the coming years. Super-digitalisation is here to stay, and we must be prepared for it.

Despite what it may seem, this is not necessarily a threat to the shopping centre. Large operators know that making the online and offline sales models compatible produces improvements in conversion for both. In fact, large retailers already know that there are not two separate and independent worlds.

In the medium term, and within a broader context of digitalization, digital commerce in all its forms will be the main spending center for families, due to its efficiency and the habits acquired during quarantine. This is something that goes beyond simply selling through a website , and impacts the entire process prior to the sale, the transaction and the after-sales process, both online and in physical stores.

Shopping centres that want to be successful must blur the imaginary line between online and offline and create hybrid territories for their communities. How can this be achieved? Let's look at some examples.

All shopping centres, like other businesses, are on social media (with their followers and likes) and have websites (with their visitor metrics). Now it is essential to convert these virtual numbers into physical visitors and buyers . To do this, the digital marketing team must develop a good O2O (online 2 offline) strategy that generates interest on digital networks and platforms and culminates in a visit.
If large retailers have their e-commerce platforms and there are countless local commerce initiatives for this, why can't a shopping centre manager have its own? Omnichannel solutions are already on the market and will allow smaller operators and franchises to enter the e-commerce playing field.
There are more and more direct-to-consumer brands that are skipping physical stores, as well as small artisans and creators who take great care of their image and only sell their products through online channels. Both do not want or cannot maintain a 12-month lease on an 800-square-metre surface. But why not offer pop-up spaces for seasonal campaigns? It is not about an island in a corridor with a roll-up to aggressively sell energy, banking or telephone products, but about creating a carefully curated space for artisans, makers or artists that works as a temporary attraction. Why not offer a Chelsea Market or Camden model?
In the post-lockdown reality, it will be necessary to take care of the merchant and the customer more than ever. To do this, it is necessary to know them intimately and to promote the conditions for them to meet. And this involves working on a good CRM, which is capable of segmenting well, offering relevant information to each public and which makes the operator connect with it through digital channels (email, messages, etc.).
If the consumption of digital content during confinement has been overwhelming, the return to the shopping centre will be conditioned by a high level of demand regarding the quality of the productions. The way of communicating on social networks and on the digital signage channels of shopping centres must be sophisticated and refined. To do this, videos and interactive elements must be used that meet customer expectations.