Retail landlords need to look more at the hospitality sector and create the right environment so that consumers feel welcome and inspired, according to Joan Jove, managing director Southern Europe for outlet center operator McArthurglen.
'You need to create an experience,' he told the ICSC conference in Milan on Tuesday. 'We don't call shoppers visitors, we call them guests. We want to give them a five-star hotel experience.'
Great architecture, food and events are all tools to enhance that experience, he said. 'We organise events to connect with our guests in a deeper way.'
Many of McArthurglen's outlet malls offer a mix of art and culture, for example through sculptures and thematic events like a fashion week. The retail operator also has an innovative collaboration with Universal Music with whom it has a contract for recording songs by a stable of McArthurglen artists.
One of these artists generated no fewer than 600,000 streams of the song in a single month, he noted. ‘We have tried many different things, some work, some don’t. But we are happy to have a partnership with Universal.’
By branding the artist, the artist also helps to brand the operator, Jove said. ‘Consumers connect online and in the centre and you create reasons to come and visit…you have to find reasons why consumers come to you. You need to invest in the overall experience, to create a reason for them to come.’
In 2015, McArthurglen recorded footfall from 70 million consumers at its European malls, Jove said. 'That's not so impressive, but the question is how do they behave. On average they spend three hours in our malls, and that is excluding travelling time. And they spend a lot, on average €50 per person and on average there are two people per car so that means €100 in total.'
Overall, sales totalled €3.5 bn in 2015, good for €8,000 per m2, he said. 'Technology opens doors for many different things,' he noted, pointing, to loyalty programmes and centre beacons. 'You need to find ways to remain relevant by leveraging technology and to innovate in way that is authentic.'
