Retail shopping center owners, tenants and consumers are experiencing an unprecedented economic crunch. In short, all three are drifting in the same boat.
The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), publishes a “Shopping Habits Report” in the first quarter following the end of a calendar year.
As a retail leasing specialist, I digested the entire 2009 report, subtitled, How the Recession has Impacted Consumer Shopping Habits, and discovered that indeed center owners need to be on top of the consumer game.
The “2009 Shopping Habits Report” contains invaluable information about the future consumer trends that will impact center owners, whether large or small in size.
You can read the report for yourself and draw your own conclusions. However, three things stuck out to me in the report:
- 58% of consumers believe their income will stay the same or become significantly less in 2010
- Most consumers have and will continue to throttle their discretionary spending through 2010
- Strip centers and “Lifestyle Centers” attract the highest frequency of repeat traffic
For those of you who are my clients, I want to briefly focus on the strip center/lifestyle traffic models, which run in the 70-75% repeat traffic level. In 2010 and 2011, my Company, is seizing on the concept of “life-styling” centers that have a higher than normal tenant mix by creating “Center Websites” that serve as a marketing destination point for Broker and tenant inquiries and present a center personality to the viewers.
[Read more…] about Consumer Shopping Profile = New Marketing Approaches