The first step is to get to know the current management team as close as possible. I would recommend all managers on the edge of transformation of their property to first create a team of professionals engaged into the idea of the new future. They can be found within, brought from the outside, even practicing couches are a good idea for a certain period. To succeed in reconceptualization, one must have a team, which would effectively work with requirements, process new trends and future ideas during the period when no changes are yet seen. Such a team is capable of transforming business and move up to a completely new level.
The next step is diagnostics itself: a comprehensive due diligence of legal, technical and marketing departments. This is when white spots in business processes are revealed, priorities to fix them are set and the growth potential is analyzed. A classical analytical report as for a clean sheet development project is obviously not enough, as it is necessary to keep the continuity, best practices and knowledge as careful as possible, because they have been requested and are going to be requested by the target audience in the future.
It is necessary to analyze the range of goods of each current tenant, their marketing activities and growth plans, their readiness for omnichannel and compliance with the needs of the target audience. In the Armada shopping center, we have analyzed the coverage of the current concept and designed zones for a specialized lifestyle-cenetr. We have thoroughly studied the needs of the current target audience and planned their needs in the future. Besides, we have examined the dynamics of performance of current tenants, shortlisted potentially popular tenants, and zoned out the shopping floor taking into account the selected tenants we must keep for our future concept.
A very important step to make before the reconceptualization is to define the development trends and the audience, which would keep the trends and return again and again. For us it is 30-35-year-old customers, young active families with children, as well as active women and men aged 27 to 44 aiming at self-development. Thanks to internet analytics, we can learn their needs and be quite sure about predicting how the customer spending and likes are going to change in five or even ten years and how Armada is going to change consequently.
It is incredibly important to anticipate requests of the clients. Speaking of our segment, I can see a bright future for transforming furniture and Armada is to host a wide variety of these producers. Not all young families can afford a flat these days, while nearly everyone would like to expand the interior space, especially when your kids are growing, which is why Armada 2020+ will have as many options of this functional and beautiful transforming furniture as possible.
Could you let us know about how you work with the audience, the current one and the future one?
Thinking of the existing trend of transforming a classical shopping center into a lifestyle center, what can you say about the future of a furniture shopping center in general in the near future, say, the next five years?
Lifestyle centers are in general the future for any retail property. It does not matter which property in particular we mean: a specialized furniture or entertainment, or leisure, or