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MAPIC 2015 highlights

The 21st MAPIC, The International Salon for Professionals in Commercial Property, opened in Cannes just days after the explosion of indiscriminate, unbridled terror in France’s capital a thousand kilometers to the north.

Clearly, security had been rapidly beefed up: discipline and patience demanded of the 8400 delegates at the entrances; arrangements for arrivals of supplies to the Palais tightened; inside, unobtrusive, but reassuringly present, controls and surveillance.

The atmosphere was different…

It was probably too early for planned direct discussion of how the attacks in Paris might impact the work of the retail professionals. Over the months and years to come this is very likely to change.

The business of locating, designing, financing and marketing premises whose aim is to attract visitors en masse into retailing, dream-creating, life-style oriented consumption centers must already find itself facing complex questions.

Particularly, one might think, since there is, apparently, an alternative – the digital universe. But it is not that simple:

‘Cross-Channeling’ or ‘Omnichannel’ were already destined to be MAPIC buzz-words this year, meaning sales begun by customers on digital but not completed on-line, or vice-versa

As MAPIC Director, Nathalie Depetro, put it, “It’s now a virtuous circle. It’s not online or offline, it’s both together.”

Savills’ Director of European Research, Eri Mitsostergiou, said that shops must become like “walk-in-web-stores”. He could have added the opposite, that web-sites must become more like shops, because his own company’s report “Megatrends: What lies ahead for the European retail industry?” said that while online sales are still rising, the physical store remains “a magnet for social interaction and will continue to be core to the shopping experience”.

Peter Gold, Head of Cross-Border Retail at CBRE for the EMEA* regions, backed up this view: “it is increasingly important for retailers to have a strong physical network of stores to effectively represent their brand”.
*Europe, Middle East & Africa

Then there is the up-and-coming concept of the Pop-Up Store, a variant of a physical store. As the IFLS (Institut Français du Libre Service) defines it: “a shop installed and open for a relatively short time… somewhere between street marketing and retail”

According to an IPSOS survey for HopShop, reported by IFLS, 82 % of respondents believe “it’s better to have shops that change often than empty commercial premises”.

Or more positively, shopping center specialists like Klépierre — amongst those who stand to be the most disrupted by the trend — have embraced the notion of ephemeral stores, the company’s Guillaume Lapp told a MAPIC panel . “Our revenue from pop-up is doubling every year. We can do €4-6000 per square meter (in sales) with pop up stores - often more than traditional retail”.

For the official Mapic News daily “Confidence is back in the retail property market”.

“Retailers Looking to Global Opportunities” blazoned the magazine’s lead on Day 3.

The recent years’ explosive growth of Malls continues unabated, as does the frantic search for mall formats that offer something different.

The magic word everywhere in malls is ‘Retailtainment’:

Steven Shash, of FORREC: “In today’s changing world, when customers go shopping, they don’t want just to shop, they want a shared experience, a reason to leave the couch.

Christophe Chauvard, QubicaAMF Worldwide: “in retailtainment, ROI is important, but not essential. It’s a way to attract customers to your stores, to “bring life to your space, to make your mall live”.

For Nicole Carter of DreamWorks Animation: “our DreamPlace product is exclusive and not available to everyone. “Some customers fly from other countries to London just to get this experience”.

Barnabas Nanay of INDE, a company creating virtual reality, mentioned edutainment as a very important and growing!

We have to skip scores of interesting ideas and opinions, on issues like Big Data, Sub-Saharan Africa, Forget what you are hearing about China…

Let’s finish with another topic with potential to become a thorny issue for the near future:

- TRAVEL RETAIL –

“How to turn transit zones into terminus retail destinations?” was a panel, co-organized by the McArthurGlen Designer Outlet (UK).

Their Anthony Rippingale said “shops, indoor activities, beauty care and other services in transit zones have become a new life-space for travellers”

Here again customer inclination to linger there may well be impacted by recent aviation shocks?

MAPIC 2015 highlights