Photo: RetailWire
At an NRF Big Show session exploring digital retailing's impact, Steven Lowy, co-CEO of Westfield Corp., said greater collaboration around data needs to happen to take the experiences found at physical retail to another level.
"Today, the relationship between retailers and real estate developers is designed to open stores and the relationship has essentially ended there. I believe this needs to be turned on its head," the shopping center exec said.
Mr. Lowy envisions a shopper arriving at a mall and being instantly recognized by license plate or smartphone, enabling the mall to curate a shopping experience based on their favorite retailers, tastes and behaviors. But the industry is far from this realization.
"Data sharing is not about moving customers from one retailer to another," said Mr. Lowy. "It's about building the best customer experience for each customer."
He shared three pillars of future success in the changing industry:
Collaboration is the new competition. While the industry has fiercely protected proprietary intellectual property, an always-on retail economy is raising shopper expectations for more personalized and intuitive shopping experiences. Said Mr. Lowy, "Are we going to free our data from its silos, leverage the power of our collective knowledge, and create more value for the customer?"
We are driven by data. And data is driven by scale. With collective insight into shoppers' browsing habits, geo-location and online activity, shopping centers and retailers can make the most of data in real time to seamlessly blend digital and physical shopping experiences. Said Mr. Lowy, "If physical wants to compete with digital, it needs to be as good or better with the data."
Make experiences matter — across the industry. Digital can "take some of the friction out" of physical retailing. Said Mr. Lowy, "Human interaction is still at the heart of what we love to do. When they're done right, shopping centers can bring people together and give customers experiences that they simply couldn't have anywhere else. But we also know that digital can create an added element of interest, engagement, and value to the customers in our centers."