What do consumers want in a mall? For Lucille Louw, Atterbury Property’s Executive Director and consultant for Atterbury Europe in Cyprus, the answer to this question is threefold: shop-a-tainment, sustainability, and the convenience of online shopping merged with the touch-and-feel appeal of traditional retail.
“Shop-a-tainment is a new catchphrase, and it is the strategy of combining traditional retail shopping with entertainment. But you need to work with what you have and although our retail space is limited in Mall of Cyprus, we create moments of entertainment throughout the year in the mall’s common areas,” Louw explains.
This strategy provides a constantly changing backdrop for customers who are demanding to be entertained, and it keeps the mall relevant, while offering something that online shopping can’t compete with, she adds. “So alongside the formal retail options, we keep our customers entertained with spontaneous events that pop up informally, adding to our annual signature events, such as the Cyprus Padel League event, Running Under the Moon race, and the Christmas light-up event. And our customers keep coming back, because it’s boring to just buy a shirt online, when at the mall you will also be entertained.”
Coming up with the right activations to keep the shoppers delighted are what the Mall of Cyprus management team are great at, Louw says. During school holidays, for instance, the common areas of the mall are turned into entertainment areas, so that there is always something happening to keep the kids busy. “We do activations for fashion too, so aside from the formal retail, a shopper might encounter a fashion shoot taking place in the mall,” she says. It is all about interactive entertainment that is unrelated to formal retail, to keep visitors surprised and delighted while they go about their regular shopping.
The second element that the management team in Cyprus have identified is sustainability. “Consumers have high expectations, and landlords need to use the opportunity to introduce eco-friendly practices such as waste reduction and recycling, and introducing renewable energy resources, rain harvesting and water purification,” she says. “Our customers demand that we are environmentally conscious.
“As a landlord we endeavour to educate ourselves as well as our tenants, and insist that they embrace sustainable practices, whether it is through their packaging or energy-efficient measures.”
The most impactful eco project so far is the solar-installation project at Mall of Cyprus. It generates about 35% of the electricity demand for the common areas of the mall. For the rest, says Louw, they purchase green energy from a third-party service provider that generates 100% solar energy.
“Our next project, still in the development stages, is a water-purification plant, where purified borehole water will be discharged into the domestic line.”
The third focus point that Louw has focused the team’s attention on is e-commerce, and how to incorporate that into a bricks-and-mortar mall. “We can’t compete head-on, but what we can do is integrate online shopping into the shopping centre. One example is to create click and collect points for online shopping inside the mall.”
For the customer, she adds, this creates a safe and convenient collection point where they can stop after work. “You create a driving pattern, so that all roads lead to the mall, and while someone is coming to collect their parcel, maybe they’ll quickly stop at the supermarket, or buy something else that they need.”
In Cyprus, fast-food delivery is still the strongest online trend. “We want to encourage it because it is turnover for our tenants. So how do we make it convenient? We worked out that we must have the nicest waiting area for the delivery drivers to park their vehicles, charge their phones; and by doing so create a comfortable spot for them to wait for their orders to be prepared.
“By doing so, if they have a choice of where to collect, we want them to choose Mall of Cyprus or Mall of Engomi, because it is comfortable and convenient. No-one looks after the delivery guys, and that is an opportunity just waiting to be exploited – we want them to come collect at Mall of Cyprus or Mall of Engomi because although the transaction happens online, the sale still goes through one of our stores.”
…/Read more about how Mall of Cyprus uses technology to serve their customers better in the next installment of Lucille’s Insights