The 25th edition of MAPIC, the largest real estate event in the world, was held in Cannes in November this year, attracting over 8,200 participants from more than 80 different countries.
MAPIC is perhaps the most important event in the entire retail property world. There were about 2,200 developers, 2000 retailers and 1,300 investors altogether at the event. They were all there to discuss, reflect and debate the dynamics of the evolving retail market.
The theme of this year’s MAPIC was ‘Retail Remixed: Rethinking Spaces and Places’. This theme provided a lot of opportunity for all important industry players to discover the rules of the new retail mix.
The greatest current challenge to the retail property sector is diversification, was discussed in depth throughout the conference. Diversification simply means that retail businesses are all expanding their products lines to tap into a larger market.
For example, shopping places are no longer home to only restaurants and shops. They also have hotels, apartments, sports facilities, cocktail bars, entertainment centers, and even co-working spaces.
The co-founder and CEO of co-working specialist Industrious, Jamie Hodari spoke on the recent emergence of co-working spaces and facilities, saying, “We’ve found that ground floor office space now performs much better than the upper floors. People want to be constantly moving in their life. This plays so well in a mall setting where people want to do their grocery shopping after work, or meet friends for a coffee on their lunch.”
Another major theme discussed all three days of the conference was ‘Innovation in Retail’. Innovation in digital technology has drastically changed the very dynamics of retail.
Retail property players from all around the world discussed the new opportunities that innovation in retail provided them and how to take advantage of these opportunities.
Fundamental aspects of innovation such as customer loyalty, artificial intelligence (AI), performance analysis, traffic, omnichannel services and customer experience were all discussed extensively.
Each of the three days of the conference allowed important retail players to find all sorts of solutions through technology, innovation, customer engagement, and digital transformation of the retail market space.
The CEO of Aura Vision, Daniel Martinho-Corbishley said, “There is much talk about google analytics for real world shopping experiences, but what we have to deliver now is more like superpowers for shopping places”.
The message is clear. The new retail mix comprises of a whole lot more than just stores. It is about everything – food, drink, beauty, wellness and leisure.
The digital transformation has revolutionised consumer behavior entirely. Customers today have needs that are very different from customers of the past. Customers today crave experiences rather than products. They crave socialisation, new discoveries and education.
The Executive Vice President of Tivoli Gardens, Veilstrup Andersen gave a speech on how entertainment and leisure together plays a crucial role in the attractiveness of cities. In his speech, he said, “It is in the synergies between retail and experiences that we will find the future integrated business model of shopping. A distinct similarly between modern retail and attractions is about being something much more important: a meeting place”.
Leisure Day showed that it is crucial to incorporate leisure in both retail and urban spaces. Because of the success of leisure day, Reed MIDEM has announced the launch of an event next year titled LeisureUp.
The two day event will be held on the 17th and 18th of November 2020 in Cannes and will encourage the leisure industry to build and create vibrant experiences for all.
