Colliers’ Anjee Solanki on Retail’s Mixed-Media Transformation

By Dennis Kaiser

Connect Media’s latest 3 CRE Q&A is with Colliers International’s Anjee Solanki, one of our 2017 Women in Real Estate honoree’s. The National Director of Retail Services shares insights into how technology is transforming the retail industry. She takes a look at a few mixed-media innovations you may not have heard of, explains how they might shape the retail site selection process in the future, and sheds light into an “invisible retailer” called Darkstore.

Q: Technology is transforming a host of industry sectors today. What are some of the more innovative and promising mixed media tools and resources being introduced to retail environments? 

A: Today, it’s about further engagement and increasing the customer customization through mixed reality. Retailers who can offer a personalization to their customers to build or be involved in the product vs. just an experience will be the winners. Here are a few groups that are currently doing it.

– Marxent Labs (https://www.marxentlabs.com/ar-solution/vr-for-furniture-retailers/): They are focused on furniture placement in your home. IKEA does the same.

– Yelp uses Monocle, which displays business names real time on your phone when walking down a street.

– Chatbots. We will see an increase in retailers using chatbots to communicate 24/7 with their customers. Its less expensive and more efficient for a retailer to interface. It’s also backed by machine-learning to customize the experience. Retailers such as H&M, Burberry, to Taco Bell have integrated chatbots.

– Facial Recognition. As most wear their emotions physically, we will see the use of facial recognition becoming a part of the ‘big data’ collection. Whether you like or dislike that red sweater will now be known, creating efficiencies for the retailer whether to restock more or less based on the result. Walmart is also creating new ways to improve their business with facial recognition to create actionable steps, such as restocking a product or reaction to product pricing.

Q: What are the expected impacts of these advancements, such as VR, for those involved? Might one day the site selection process be conducted from the comfort of a headquarters office?

A: Although the use of AR/mixed reality is in its early phase with CRE, there are other companies tackling the use of data to provide additional insights regarding a space. One such company is Potloc which captures social data, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, etc. to gather data points to better understand the local interests, and whether your business will thrive in the market. This, of course, is in addition to the conventional way of evaluating space.

Q: What does the term ‘last 10 feet’ mean, and why should those in the CRE industry be aware of its implications for the retail sector? 

A: Consumers have become much more demanding of when they receive their purchase, so retailers (online/offline) must integrate, but how do you find fulfillment centers to accommodate delivery in less than an hour? Here comes Darkstore. Bringing fulfillment centers closer to customers makes the delivery process much more efficient. Where are these fulfillment centers? So far these fulfillments locations are in dense urban markets, in spaces landlords typically may not collect income or it’s not utilized. We will see more changes in this area, with fulfillment/warehousing becoming a regular value creation checklist item.

For comments, questions or concerns, please contact Dennis Kaiser