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Top-Tier Mall Operators Overcome Challenges Through Reinvention
The COVID-19 pandemic was widely expected to finish off the shopping mall. It didn’t. Although indoor malls, open-air lifestyle centers and outlet malls continue to face real challenges, a new whitepaper from Placer.ai demonstrates how forward-thinking operators are overcoming them.
“While they may no longer play the central role they once did in Americans’ shopping routines, malls still serve as indoor community hubs where friends and family can come together for diverse food, shops, and entertainment options,” the whitepaper states. “This could explain why top-tier malls keep on coming back despite the seemingly constant obstacles.”
One secret to mall operators’ resilience is reinvention. Placer.ai cites the example of real estate investment firm Centennial, which operates many malls and mixed-use centers. In September 2020, as the pandemic continued to hang heavy over daily life, Centennial introduced a chain-wide omnichannel platform called Shop Now!. The app allows consumers to shop across all Centennial malls in a manner comparable to shopping on Amazon.
The program’s first phase, which launched in October 2020, allowed users to browse an AI-powered search engine connected to the inventory of all the stores operating in their mall of interest. “In February 2022, Centennial debuted phase two of the program at its Santa Ana, CA based MainPlace Mall,” according to the whitepaper. “It allows customers to consolidate orders from several stores into a single cart, get the order fulfilled by personal shoppers, and have the orders ready for same-day delivery or on-site pickup.”
This could have detracted from physically going to the mall, Placer.ai points out. Instead, the program has increased both monthly and loyal visitors.
“In the months following the launch of the second phase, MainPlace Mall saw its loyal visits increase by 5% (from 46.2% in February ‘22 to 51.3% in June ‘22), while overall monthly visits in April ‘22 increased by 5.5% when compared to 2019,” according to the whitepaper.
Click here to access the complete whitepaper.
Pictured: Centennial’s MainPlace Mall.
- ◦Economy
