Retail's new motto is 'Experiences and Shopping'

We are most interested in the idea of shopping as a new kind of public space. How can we enrich these experiences? Can we bring new content, information, ideas and visual experiences to shopping in a thoughtful and dynamic way?

While the main goal of visiting a store or shopping center used to be to go shopping, the new development projects and marketing strategies of global brands are now focusing on experiences, according to DTZ.

These are intended to attract people to shops, where they can also do some shopping. This is evidenced by the new trend of experiential shopping, expressed for example as a children’s city with real stores, strong linkage of entertainment in the form of Jurassic Parks or the chance to dive into a giant shark-filled pool – all inside the shopping centers. 

Experiential shopping is not just about theme parks in shopping malls. It also offers customers a personal experience through shopping so they develop a close connection with a product or brand.

“The driving force behind experiential shopping are changes in consumer behavior. Shopping has become a way to spend one’s leisure time. For a particular segment of customers it allows them to manage many things at once – shopping, spending free time with family and friends, and having fun. Shopping is increasingly associated with a certain lifestyle, to which individual brands are also associated,” explains Lenka Sindelárová, Head of Consulting & Research at international consulting firm DTZ. 

Developers and retailers themselves are trying to move away from product sales towards greater care of customers – their time, family, feelings, and even potential problems. 

“Combining shopping with culture, sport, education or entertainment is one of few ways traditional retail can defend against the internet shopping boom – it has to liven up people’s leisure time,” says Lenka Vodrázková, Head of Property Management at DTZ’s Prague office.

Transforming concepts in retail are also largely associated with the penetration of modern technology into sales and customers’ lives. Brick-and-mortar shops can also make use of digital catwalks or fitting rooms with built-in cameras showing how the buyer looks in clothes from behind.

The massive involvement of social networks in merchants’ marketing campaigns is manifested on the internet. Consumers nowadays want to participate creatively in their brand and communicate with it. For example, Nike has a Facebook page with several hundred thousand active users per month – among other things the company allows its fans to create their own color design of shoes. 

A similar case is the network of Build a Bear shops, where children can create their own teddy bear, including clothing, sounds it makes, padding and create for him his own birth certificate.

“We expect that the customer will have ever more opportunities to take part actively in the creation of a product and thereby get a social connection with a brand. Merchants will then have a better overview of their target group. The customer will have the ability to create their own personalized shopping experience,” adds Sindelárová.

Theater, sport and shopping 

Experiential shopping is mainly associated with the segments of sport, fashion and consumer electronics. The best example among brick-and-mortar retailers in the field of sport and outdoor activities is German company GLOBETROTTER. In its stores with an average size of some 6,500 m² the customer can try out equipment, for example, on a 26-m long and 12-m high climbing wall, in a chamber that simulates rain and snow storms or in a 160 m² pool for testing kayaks, canoes and sailboats. 

Some Globetrotter stores also have a Kinderland where children can have fun. Another sport retail chain that relies on the fact that customers want to try things out and play with them before buying is DECATHLON. Its two branches operate in the Czech Republic.

Entire shopping centers are increasingly following a similar strategy: they spend large sums of money on the overall design and interior of the shopping center in order to impress upon visitors’ emotions. One example is Madrid Xanadú, one of the biggest shopping and entertainment destinations in Europe, with the largest indoor winter sport complex in Europe and many other attractions. 

A further example of these trends in action is the largest shopping center in Europe – Forum Istanbul belonging to Multi Development. The project has a capacity of 175,000 m² including 30,000 m² reserved for entertainment, and some 2.2 million visitors per month pass through it. Besides the most sophisticated dinosaur park it offers a science museum, research center, a huge aquarium, ice museum, a giant virtual reality simulator and other attractions. Another big draw are the educational programs, which link education with entertainment in the form of ‘edutainment’.

The Kidzania chain offers a very original concept combining education and children’s education with fun. The Mexican-based chain of thematic children’s worlds has about 10 branches around the world. In this faithful replica of a city, children learn how to live like an adult – performing various professions, having their own currency and their own government. In addition to fun the children are also learning. This concept was formerly called ‘advertainment’; children work here for example in McDonald’s or at Coca-Cola and the first Kidzania was also 50% financed by corporate sponsorship. 

Shopping center developers in the Middle East go even further. For example, Sahara Centre in Dubai is the incarnation of lifestyle shopping. The main draw is Adventureland with a total area of approximately 22,000 m² and 20 attractions such as an indoor roller coaster, a canal and a billiard hall. The center’s catchment area is 1 million people spending US $1.4 billion per year just in retail. Other unique projects in the region are Dubai Mall, offering an aquarium with the largest transparent wall in the world, Sega Republic theme park, Kidzania, an ice rink and a 150-m high fountain. The first indoor ski slope in the Middle East – plus 520 shops – can be found at Mall of the Emirates.

The Istanbul shopping center Kozzy Alýþveriþ in Kültür Merkezi by developer Renaissance Development has a different focus. With nearly 15,000 m² it offers art and culture, a classical theatre for 400 spectators, a cinema and exhibition hall. Art and culture are also reflected in the center’s design and architecture, for example the video walls, colorful floor and other technologies. The center tries to create a quality public space with an emphasis on social aspects. 

A completely different experience is offered by Centrum Vegas in Moscow. Its 135,000 m² has six thematic zones: Fashion Avenue with the latest trends and international brands is designed in European style. Golden Lane has an art deco style with jewelry shops and luxury goods, Ginza is reminiscent of Tokyo with its neon skyscrapers, and the two-floor Bazaar recalls Asian markets with local merchants and products, etc. 

Of course the large-scale concepts described above combining large entertainment centers and retail work well only in metropolitan areas with a large catchment area and sufficient buying power.

Experiences sought also by Czech customers 

Exceptional use of new technologies is being planned by Multi Development in its shopping and entertainment center project known as FORUM Nova Karolina Ostrava. It will have an audiovisual system called FORUM TV that will be linked by several giant screens – for example the inside walls of the building or a 64-m² LED screen in the food court. LCD boards will also be on each floor of the new center and will serve as information panels for customers.

“We can screen sporting events for visitors to Karolina, thematic videos and spots, on-line fashion shows and other events that take place here,” explains Martin Kubík, Director of OC Forum Karolina, who will have a whole team of filmmakers and a professionally equipped editing room for these purposes. 

Other examples of local shopping centers that offer shopping combined with entertainment include Galerie Harfa in Prague 9. It has a Jurassic Park on the roof and an ice skating rink in winter.

“It turns out that such shops and centers also create a public space for art and gatherings. People can talk about what’s offered in the shops, listen to a concert or watch a performance. Shopping centers include elements of leisure time, entertainment and sport all in integrated entertainment centers. However, this puts great demands on management of the centers and on high-quality services,” says DTZ’s Sindelárová.