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Leaders in commercial real-estate, retail and leisure have uncompromisingly analysed the transformation
of their industry during two days of MAPIC Digital live – new for 2020, with the physical event in Cannes postponed to 2021.
Senior
delegates highlighted three major trends to transform successfully
their industry: the increasing development of mixed-use spaces, the
customer experience, and the digital-physical
complementarity.
The
two days of MAPIC Digital live brought together more than 2300
international decision-makers from the commercial
real estate, retail and leisure sectors. The networking platform proved
a great success with 1,272 virtual meetings organised among
professionals, demonstrating both the vitality of the sector and the
suitability of this forum for professionals’ needs.
On
the conference side, the itinerary of 25 live sessions gave the floor
to 114 speakers and brought together between
150 and 460 listeners per session who were able to take part in the
debate by asking questions using the digital conference service.
“Whether
from the UK, Germany, the United States, the Netherlands, China, Italy
or France, a consensus emerged during
the MAPIC Digital debates using analysis of how the industry is
evolving. All stakeholders agreed that the real estate and retail sector
had rapidly accelerated its transformation into lifestyle and
experience destinations. It is crucial to set up a solid
collaboration to define the community of uses of tomorrow in the
territories – and we hope MAPIC Digital helped to support exactly that,”
said
Nathalie Depetro, Director of MAPIC.
Francesco Pupillo,
director of LeisurUp, the recently established leisure event created by
MAPIC and which was the subject of numerous sessions, added “The retail
and leisure industry has demonstrated its resilience many times in the
past and there is no doubt that once the
immediate health crisis is over and we adapt, customers will happily
return to physical places. The spectacular rebound in the sector this
summer is proof of this. Retail will recover and pivot towards more
personal experiences, strengthened by the integration
of digital at all levels.”
Mixed uses
Mixed-use has now become the new normal for both real estate and retail professionals.
Matthijs Storm,
CEO of Wereldhave, explained that his company is committed to
integrating residential, medical, food & beverage and other sectors
into its commercial projects, with a target
of 25% mixed-use space in its centres, compared with 10% to date.
However, “although single-use spaces are becoming obsolete, we shouldn’t simply pile up different use cases,” says
Thierry Cahierre,
Redevco’s Managing Director for France. “It is important that any
combination of uses must share an interest in being together, so as to
create a real community of uses.”
Cristina Santos,
MD Property Management, Spain and Portugal, Sonae Sierra shared her
conviction of the value of integrating co-working spaces in shopping
centres.
More than ever in this period of transformation and economic difficulty, companies must work in a more collaborative
mode. For Gérard Gazay,
vice-president of the Aix-Marseille-Provence metropole and mayor of
Aubagne, “we must not pitch city centres against suburbs, but work
towards mutually enhancing
offers, because it is commercial development that bring these two
living spaces together.
More radically, the American
Winston Fisher,
CEO of Area15, a Las Vegas-based retail and leisure complex, says
“Don’t focus on what was, ignore the past, don’t try to fix it, create
something new”. He is joined in this
by Frenchman Philippe Journo,
CEO, Compagnie de Phalsbourg, who claims that “the golden years when we
spent little and earned a lot are behind us. The past is the past, now
we must look
to the future and change things.”
Leisure: the customer experience as a focus for ideas
Bricks
and mortar retailing today must be able to generate emotions and even
provide meaning for consumers: the customer
experience takes centre-stage and in this respect, leisure is key.
“Entertainment doesn’t dilute the retail experience, it intensifies it,”
says
Jonathan Doughty, Global Head of Foodservice, Leisure & Placemaking, ECE.
Reinhart Viane,
Business Development Director, KCC Entertainment Design, added: “There
should be no more boundaries between entertainment, food and beverage,
living, working and shopping. Entertainment should be the glue to bind
these together. Without doing this shopping
centres could make themselves redundant.”
Generally speaking, professionals in the leisure, food & beverage and commercial property sectors stressed the importance
of understanding a local market so as to choose the right mix- spelling the end of standardisation.
For
Sébastien Vanhoove,
Carmila’s Deputy Managing Director, customers have evolved and are now
more informed, which is why Carmila offers a more local but also more
responsible, innovative and
omnichannel offer, and supports brands that are considered innovative.
As for the Food & Beverage sector, “it isn’t just important, it is “mission critical”,” says
Ian Sandford, President, Eurofund Group, stressing that “it’s not just the amount, it’s the variety of the food.”
Contrary
to what one might think, digitisation ultimately leads to a more human
experience. People are still looking
for contact, but their desires have changed. They want authenticity and
creativity. Leisure is now an integral part of the shopping experience.
Think phygital!
Digital tools are key to establishing a link between retailers and their customers before, during and after the purchase.
So it is necessary to play on mutual support rather than conflict.
Thus for Enrique Martinez,
CEO, Fnac Darty
“a brand like ours has the capacity to transform traffic from digital
to physical. This is quite rare and we can use this new power to attract
customers back into the physical world”.
This is confirmed by e-commerce heavyweight,
CK Chan,
head of Tmall and Taobao, Hong Kong and Macau, Alibaba Group, when he
says, “In the past, brands needed to open stores to create brand
experiences for the customer. Now they can
do that online and the audience is much wider.”
“Like
the industry, we are learning to be omnichannel with the MAPIC and
LeisurUp Digital platform. It was a new
challenge for us and we are very proud of its success. We look forward
to seeing you in Cannes next year for a digitally enhanced edition of
MAPIC but also for a first physical edition of LeisurUp,” concludes
Nathalie Depetro, MAPIC director.
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