Beth Ann Kaminkow, Chief Marketing Officer of Westfield Corporation since August 2014, led those attending the November CREW Boston lunch through “Mall 2.0: The Next Step in Retail Evolution.” Mall 2.0 is not your grandmother’s mall.
At the well-attended Nov. 12th event at the Hyatt Regency Boston, Kaminkow said retail is being built by both the old, bricks, and the new, clicks. But the big difference on the bricks side is that, with the universal availability of shopping by click, it now has to be not just a place to look and buy – but an experience.
The dying old mall is being reinvented, she said, as a platform in the new age of superabundance, for the sophisticated consumer, based on research into how she/he shops.
Like museums today, the shopping experience is more interactive. Shoppers touch, smell, and discover things. But the experience goes further today than just the physical space, because it is digital too.
Hospitality, entertainment, and art are part of the “convergence” economy. It’s not just about transactions, it’s theatrical. (Buy your ticket now!)
Shopping is not just an exchange of information and money and material, it’s an exchange of emotion, Kaminkow said. She said we are seeing a renaissance of the age of retail, which is not only progress but in some ways uncertain and scary. It is not just about millennials but is cross-generational. Rather than drive them off, retailers should engage their mall-walkers and teeny-boppers, and all would-be consumers in between.
As landlords, Westfield emphasizes consumer centricity. There are more choices, people have less time, and they want more personalization. Retailers engage in anticipatory service, with new physical spaces and amenities.
Kaminkow said there are no longer seasons and occasions that are distinct from one another. She called what is happening “retail-tainment.”
In the retail industry, business-to-business and business-to-consumer are merging. Retailers are using feedback and software to address “pain points” in shopping. Westfield has labs that study the convergence of digital shopping with physical spaces.
Customization and personalization are valued above price points. But it’s not all about throwing out the past. Heritage is employed for reinvention – the old concept of a street café is valued, for example.
Retail “is moving at the pace of culture,” she said, with multifunction spaces, virtual reality, 3D, and a generation “just craving” a sense of comfort and play. Physical retail space has to be living and breathing.
Kaminkow recommended experimentation and taking risks, “the fearless embrace of the power of firsts.” Locally, she cited the mural hung on the west side of the Hancock Towers as surprising and successful experimentation. “People appreciate that,” she said.
“Women are comfortable trying new things,” she said. “Sorry, guys.”
