Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/448937
i n m y o p i n i o n Retail's future has its roots in the past By Ahsin Rasheed Retail is in tuRmoil. online shopping, drone delivery, amazon "commoditizing" and in- novations that have yet to be conceived are dras- tically changing the way consumers shop — and, ultimately, the way retail stores will look and operate in the future. this rapidly changing dy- namic creates a tremendous dilemma if you are considering a new shopping center or the make- over of an existing mall. if a major project like that starts today, customers likely will not be walking in the front doors until Christmas 2017. With so much in flux, how do you make sure your shopping center remains current for at least the next decade? We can get a glimpse into the future by looking at the past. the history of retail shows that shopping has always meant people. and though that dynamic is challenged by the continued growth of online retail, which provides in- stant gratification, e-tail also lacks three key components that have dominated retail for three centuries. the first of these is visual excitement. From the introduction of plate-glass display windows in the 1700s, to the enclosed shopping malls of the 1970s, to today's retail centers that incorporate amusement parks, interior green parks and even ice-skating rinks, retail has always used visual excite- ment to attract shoppers and keep them shopping longer. then there is convenience — savvy retailers have al- ways adapted to help make shopping more convenient: from the department stores that emerged in the 1800s, to the strip shopping centers of the 1960s (which grew in response to suburban sprawl and increased reliance on cars), to today's live-work-play hybrid malls. the third element is community. Downtown shopping areas evolved from individual department stores, then moved to the suburbs as shopping malls, and then trans- formed into the main streets of small towns as consumers became nostalgic. the common denominator, though, was always the sense of community that the retail area created. history suggests that these three elements will continue to play a critically important role in the future. peo- ple will always long for places where they can con- nect with other people, where they can find the things they need and the things they only dream of, where they can be comforted by the familiar and excited by something new and different. Re- tail history also shows that successful retailers are those that have been willing to embrace change in order to respond to an ever-evolving market- place. With these trends in mind, success in the fu- ture would seem to belong to those shopping centers that can use history, human inclinations and technology, not only to reenergize traditional brick-and-mortar shopping, but also to create something brand new, unlimited by past perceptions of what a retail center should be. this could mean that retail stores will be transformed into showrooms that employ online shopping and drone delivery to automatically handle customer fulfillment. it could mean retail malls that incorporate indoor parks with bicycle paths, roller-skating, landscaped gardens and attached condos geared to niche communities. it could mean hotels teaming up with retailers to offer spa-and- shop overnights, where the hotel offers a variety of mat- tresses that a prospective purchaser is looking at buying and permits that person to sleep on them, preselect linens he or she wants to try and then gets the approved prod- ucts delivered directly to that person's door. and it could mean that big-box stores like home De- pot will offer "Kid Camps" where parents can sign up for a day of testing out tools while their children partici- pate in "sandbox-and-blocks" activities. the bottom line is that the sky is the limit. By adopting a mind-set that is focused on selling ideas rather than widgets, the successful retail center of the future will set the direction of the market, not follow it. SCT Ahsin Rasheed is chairman, CEO and president of DDG, a Baltimore-based design and architecture firm. 44 S C T / F e b r u a r y 2 0 1 5