Digital and technological innovations mean the impact of experiential activities on shopper behaviour can be tracked more closely than ever before. Laura Heywood finds out how retailers and landlords are benefiting.

Roboshop: Crystal Peaks in Sheffield regularly puts on events to engage shoppers

The latest shopping centre buzzword is ‘experience’, as an abundance of experiential activities grabs shoppers’ attention and encourages longer dwell times.

From interactive demonstrations to live entertainment and dedicated exhibitions, such activities are ultimately designed to impact on retailers’ bottom lines.

Previously changes in footfall, car park revenues, customer surveys and retailer turnovers have all been used by landlords to measure the effectiveness of such experiences and track how relevant they are to the targeted shopper audience. But the advent of increasingly sophisticated technology means the ability to pinpoint exactly what does and doesn’t work has become a much more exact science.

Benefiting from this advance in digital technology is Colliers International, which is working in partnership with retailers at its centres to use shoppers’ electronic footprints - the data trail left by their interactions in digitally enabled environments - to measure the success of the experiences it offers.

Agency director Tom Cullen explains: “Landlords can work with the retailers on-site and other local stakeholders to share information with one another. For instance, a lot of the experiences are linked to a particular day, like a Christmas Shopping Festival including things like live music, DJs, complimentary drinks, giveaways, styling, trend talks, beauty treatments and fashion shows, coupled with a 10% or 20% off voucher.”

On such days, when shoppers present emailed vouchers to redeem goods or get discounted products, “retailers can then be required to share this information with their landlord”, he says.

Collaborative marketing strategies have an increasingly important role to play in tracking the impact of consumer experiences believes Iain Guest, director of the retail property management group DTZ. He points to a growing awareness among property owners, centre management teams and tenants of the benefits of joint marketing.

Detailed sales data helps centre management teams map the impact of activities by sector, audience and even unit locations. This, together with information from social media, can be used to tailor experiences to target specific types of shoppers, Guest believes.

DTZ has created a tool that collects weekly sales data and identifies opportunities for collaborative marketing activity. “DTZ then engages with the retailers to identify areas which would benefit from centre-organised marketing initiatives,” Guest explains.

He adds: “Tailored activity is developed and following the event, sales figures are monitored to track the impact.

“If results do not improve, additional initiatives are put in place. The process has been very successful and delivered major benefits to the retailers concerned and consequently to centre owners.”

However, the process is intensive and requires a significant commitment from the centre management team. Guest warns: “To streamline the process so that it can be managed more quickly and effectively, sophisticated data collection and analysis systems need to be further evolved to give easy access to the most up-to-date centre and tenant data. This requires a high level of trust and information sharing.”

Strong co-operative relationships between tenants and landlords are fundamental to the development of any new systems, and Guest urges retailers to be confident about sharing their data with landlords.

Hammerson is also encouraging retailers to tie up in-store promotions and experiences with centre-planned activities. “For our in-centre events, we encourage retailers to participate with offers and in-store experiences,” explains Peter Cooper, Hammerson’s portfolio director. “This enables us to monitor retailer sales and ensure we continue to attract the right demographic. As an example, at Bullring’s Autumn Fashion Fix, a mixed-fashion retailer that provided product for one of the catwalk shows saw a sales uplift of 68% that day.”

Intu asset manager Charlie Griffiths believes it’s crucial to work closely with tenants to ensure events and experiences “enhance the centre and the retailers’ place within that”.

He says all activities are designed foremost to “increase the enjoyment and experience of our shoppers when in our centres, and bring more people to our centres for longer”.

In the past, Intu has measured the success of experiences through talking to its customers and recording the impact on footfall and sales. Recently it has become more scientific about how it monitors and measures its effectiveness.

According to Griffiths, scores from Net Promoter - a management tool that can be used to gauge the loyalty of a firm’s customers - “are becoming an ever more important measure”.

“We keep a very close eye on social media to assess the impact of our customer experiences as this gives us immediate feedback,” he adds.

Mobile metrics

The development of new mobile technology is accelerating the ability to accurately analyse the power experiences can have in influencing shopper behaviour, according to Alison Bowcott-McGrath, founder and managing director of Bo-Concepts, which specialises in running events and promotions in retail spaces.

Bo-Concepts uses mobile technology to capture and share shoppers’ reactions to promotional experiences. By using mobile photo and video tools, the promotional agency has been effective in “kick-starting buzzing conversations across social media platforms”, Bowcott-McGrath says. “We are then able to track this engagement and go back to our clients to demonstrate to them how people are engaging and sharing the experience we have created for them,” she says.

Digital responses to events, such as likes on Facebook, comments on Twitter and website hits, are all vital tools in helping retailers measure the success of experiential initiatives, agrees Tom Carlton, retail research specialist at property fund manager Legal & General Property. “Advances in technology have meant that we have a number of ways to link the physical and digital worlds within shopping centres with a wide source of data that can be used to analyse centre performance, and this will continue to evolve,” he says.

The latest mobile technology can be invaluable when it comes to giving shoppers more targeted experiences, agrees Paul Sargent, partner at Queensberry Real Estate.

Sargent points to the recent success of flash Sale coupons sent to hand-held devices which attract more customers than traditional promotional activities. “Hand-held devices are now the consumer’s window to the retail world. They are especially important when it comes to the methods we use for sales and promotional activities including events,” he says.

However, while Sargent maintains technology should be used to increase consumer loyalty to a location, he believes it can only be beneficial when coupled with other benefits, for example, on-site services such as click-and-collect. “Social interaction can take place in physical or virtual environments now and they are all opportunities for retail to create loyalty with customers,” he says.

Deborah Owen-Ellis Clark, retail marketing strategist for property investment and development business Quintain, agrees.

While Quintain’s experiential strategy is largely based on delivering events that meet shoppers’ desires, it has found that consumers are more likely to judge the quality of a centre on elements such as “unexpected street theatre and little touches to improve the experience such as mints and mouthwash in the loos, than flashy one-off events”, Clark says.

At London Designer Outlet, which opened last month, Quintain is developing a performance metrics dashboard that collectively tracks overall marketing activity and the direct impact it has on sales, footfall, dwell time and other core business objectives on a real-time basis. “This will help us ensure that the experiences we’re producing for our customers are providing real, measurable value,” Clark says.

When it comes to creating experiences that fulfil different customers’ specific needs, it’s crucial that events are “interactive, personal and targeted”, according to Lee Greenwood, centre manager for Crystal Peaks Shopping Centre in Sheffield, who believes such events “are the most successful in drawing customers to the centre and increasing dwell time”.

“For example, we have seen minimal impact from previous fashion shows at Crystal Peaks, but a body scanner that recommended clothing options to individuals based on their body shape resulted in a notable increase in sales, particularly in recommended clothing items,” he says.

It’s only through closely tracking the impact of experiences that they can be tailored to shoppers’ preferences, says Anna Steyn, portfolio marketing manager for Capital & Regional, who predicts that will become even easier as digital technology develops further. “The development of digital tools will allow for even more sophisticated measurements of marketing initiatives in the future, including dwell time,” she says.

But as always, costs might be the biggest prohibitor. “The only drawback is the costs associated with it - evaluation is really important but it has to be value for money as well,” Steyn observes.

Delivering experiential activities and promotions that make a difference commercially has become a necessity rather than a novelty. And that’s where landlords’ and retailers’ digital capabilities and grasp of new technology have a central role to play.

Delivering experience

A sign of just how important ‘experience’ has become to shopping centre landlords can be seen in a string of recent appointments.

Last month, Intu announced it was creating a new in-house promotional and brand partnerships team called Intu Experiences. The 15-strong team will be tasked with creating memorable experiences through branded promotions.

Intu has set up the team in a bid to engage with its customers. It will work with brands to provide theatre and entertainment across its centres, according to Shirley Wilcock, who is leading the team.

In July, Lend Lease also created what it claimed is an industry-first role - that of head of experience delivery at Bluewater. The role, taken by Jackie Passey, will focus on ensuring Bluewater delivers experiences that help drive footfall and sales, and which create an emotional connection and lasting loyalty among shoppers.

Bluewater thinking

Over the past 12 months, Lend Lease’s Bluewater has been working on enhancing the shopper experience through a series of digital and technological innovations. These include a focus on social media, online advertising, in-mall digital screens and the launch of a mobile-optimised website.

One of the biggest innovations was Bluewater’s inking of a three-year deal with O2 to provide shoppers with free wi-fi access throughout the centre, regardless of their network provider. A co-branded O2/Bluewater mobile web page also means shoppers can view offers from Bluewater’s retailers and restaurants and plan their visit using the interactive store guide.

“The deal with O2, which is a first in the UK, plays a significant role in our strategy of using technology to facilitate enhanced guest experiences in physical environments,” says Mark Boor, head of retail asset management at Lend Lease. For Boor, technology plays a key role in “building virtual communities and creating a sense of place in retail and leisure destinations”.

The deal also enables ‘opted in’ customers to be targeted with specific marketing offers and forthcoming events. In addition, O2 Angels make regular appearances at the centre, selecting Bluewater shoppers for ‘random acts of kindness’, such as complimentary coffee or Bluewater gift cards. This is part of Bluewater’s commitment to creating surprising and memorable experiences exclusively for shoppers, according to general manager Robert Goodman.

“At Bluewater, experience has always been part of our DNA. We have launched Day Makers [a team of specially-trained hosts whose role it is to engage with and assist visitors], we treat visitors as guests, technology is a facilitator of an enhanced experience, rather than an answer in itself, and we have created a series of statement stores,” he says.

Bluewater has the highest UK dwell time - 180 minutes, compared with the regional mall average of 115 minutes, according to independent research by CACI. Goodman attributes this to the centre being a leisure and events hub, not just a retail destination. It has more than 55 cafes, bars and restaurants, attractions such as Pirate Cove Adventure Park and integrated events and exhibition space Glow, which is the venue for events such as Bluewater’s Winter Wonderland and Glow Comedy Roadshow.

The benefits of Glow being integrated in Bluewater include an increase in footfall, increased eating and drinking spend, and an uplift in sales for retailers related to the particular theme of the event, according to Goodman. He also says Lend Lease works closely with tenants to ensure they get the most they can out of the events.