Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2019 | Page 29

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The artist’s vision
“Currently, perhaps 10 % of all con-
sumer purchases are made online. It’s diffi-
cult to pinpoint the actual impact on shop-
ping centers,” she says.
Food is the New Fashion?
According to Aho, however, businesses such
as fashion stores – where a consumer can go
try a dress on at the store and then order it
online – may be decreasing their presence
in shopping centers while cafés and restau-
rants are perking up.
“In addition to food and beverage,
also all types of experiences are very much
a trend as REDI and Tripla are demonstrat-
ing. Still, also smaller centers can boost their
experience by offering various events, for
example.”
Aho believes that people will still
enjoy going somewhere where there’s other
people and activity – whether it’s a cup of
coffee, going to see movie or doing some
Christsmas shopping, shopping centers sim-
ply “meet the need” in many regards.
“I don’t think that we will ever witness
a situation where actual, real-life retail com-
pletely disappears.”
Destination Driven
Internationally, there are even widely rec-
ognized “destination centers” – such as
Xanadu in Spain or the Mall of the Emirates
in Dubai – which offer compelling attrac-
tions such as theme parks, indoor ski slopes,
large c ­ inemas and theaters, museums and
art galleries, event space for concerts, food
festivals...
According to American consultant
agency A.T. Kearney, future CESs will be
environments where people gather to engage
with friends, seek out unique experiences,
reaffirm values, and interactively relate to
brands; commercial transactions will be a
by-product of socialization and engagement.
A.T. Kearney argues that CESs may resem-
ble today’s shopping centers and malls or
look quite different, but their common focus
will be on creating platforms that facilitate
sales by recognizing, understanding, affirm-
ing, and connecting individuals.
Shopping center owners must, how-
ever, learn to embrace new technologies
to reach this new golden age. For stores,
there are handy e-tools to identify individual
shoppers, track purchases, analyze behav-
ior, communicate with customers, and cre-
ate real-time commercial opportunities.
More and more, consumers will expect –
and demand – highly curated, frictionless
shopping experiences.
Action Agenda
According to A.T. Kearney, some physical
retail spaces will take the form of smaller,
“smart,” dynamic formats serving as hubs
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