Podcast
PODCAST | Data collection and digital transformation in retail
August 3 2021, 11:57 am
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Mark Bruce, retail director at British Land’s Meadowhall Shopping Centre, and David Fuller-Watts, managing director of Mallcomm, join Paul Unger.
HOT TAKES
- Data collection is big part of British Land, collected through forms on Mallcomm. BL is able to collect data from nearly 1,000 retailers consolidating it into one central place before it is connected to BL’s reporting systems to evaluate and report back, creating connectivity between landlord and tenant
- A new tenant looking to join the shopping centre can assess at operational level how to staff the store, the best trading hours, categories to introduce in terms of product groups. The tenant can use data to inform them how best to trade their unit
- Retailers can look at how they are trading against their peers, with details such as days of the week that the unit is underperforming
- Sharing information has changed dramatically in recent years – data is more important than ever – BL gets daily requests from tenants about recovery rate and forecasts – BL can only see that with data
- Tech challenge: will retailers actually use the system – breaking down barriers has helped trust – retailers prefer to know what they get back from it, can see it for themselves, they are included in the process
- BL launched sales collection platform in 2018 and the insights have evolved since then. The latest change is year-on-two-year to compare this year not with 2020 but with 2019
- At portfolio level BL can cut and carve the data to understand difference between retail parks, shopping centres and campus sites – to decide where to focus marketing and leasing resource
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