UK Shopping centres are facing a (r)evolution. Pressure is coming from multiple directions in an ever-evolving landscape. Their role in the UK retail space and UK communities is, by necessity, changing.
There are solutions: new approaches to managing the resources, processes and thinking of how a shopping centre is managed. To be successful asset managers must access new tools and make use of data analysis and experts to provide insight and expertise.
Why the world of retail spaces and shopping centres changed
The nature of the High Street has fundamentally shifted. Pressures like the post-COVID move to online shopping (seeing a 75% increase in online spending* ), the ongoing challenges of the frontline staff gap and the economic crisis have changed the landscape. Footfall in shopping centres has declined. Brands like Debenhams, BHS, Toys R Us and Top Shop have disappeared from the UK shopping centre.
When they do venture out, customers want an experience tailored to their specific requirements - one that speaks to their needs, and their community; one that is multi-purpose, safe, hygienic and offers diversity and inclusion.
Impacts on shopping centres and the retail experience
Consequently, facilities and asset managers are under increasing pressure. Tenants want shorter leases, there is high turnover and shopping centres face changes in tenant and shopper demographics. Further complications lie in the evolving world we are living in - from changes like those in the COVID pandemic to the security challenges seen in recent local civil unrest.
Suddenly, facilities and asset managers need to be experts in multiple new fields, to find new models, processes and solutions to new problems. They face unprecedented challenges at an unprecedented pace. They must break established patterns and procedures and create new processes in areas not necessarily across their traditional areas of expertise. And they have to work together at the tactical and strategic level to see the crucial role facilities and frontline services play in the long term return on investment for the property.
The proactive asset manager who sees the opportunities in a collaborative approach with their FM providers and is willing to think beyond the service charge to a different way of working has the opportunity to be a disruptor in a long-standing industry.
Finding a new approach
A new approach is needed – one where asset managers keep their business moving forward in these changing times. They need to partner with experts who can advise them in new areas, ways and angles to answer these new challenges. Their tenants and their customers want a new shopping centre experience. To answer these challenges new solutions are needed. Ones that sit necessarily outside of their business expertise.
There are three key areas where they can start:
Security solutions:
Shopping centre security is no longer as simple as a uniform presence. Security starts outside the shopping centre. Facility managers and security officers must be cognisant of and understand the community and be proactively prepared.
Data analysis, risk management, working with local police, government agencies and social agencies, are all part of the new world toolkit. It is more than just a security desk and some CCTV.
The need for specialist knowledge, the ability to scale up and down as needed based on real-world information. It can feel complex and it is certainly not part of the standard contract worker model. Data can model anti-social behaviour based on local environments, proactively finding real-world, real-community solutions that work for specific shopping centres with real results.
Cleaning and Hygiene
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a lingering effect. Tenants and consumers demand a standard of hygiene and cleanliness that is more than simply about a cleaner. UV light button sterilisers, robot cleaners are all becoming more common and indeed expected. Facilities managers must plan for a future for these customer expectations while managing overheads. What technologies to adopt, how to manage customer expectations and how to balance expectations, realities and requirements are all part of the need.
Not all changes need to be big or immediate. Many shopping centres already have existing infrastructure in place post-COVID that can be repurposed, retrained or repositioned. There are simple solutions with simple deployment but often they are ones that no one has time to implement.
Tenant Expectations
In the changed world, tenants have different and increased demands. Understanding these requirements and implementing a plan to approach, address, and engage with them is vital. As is engaging with and onboarding new tenants and supporting tenants who may be facing challenges.
Understanding footfall issues, and addressing those issues is essential. If an asset manager can understand where even a small part of their footfall issue lies and resolve it, it can result in an incremental revenue increase for their tenants and, as a knock-on effect, higher status retailers being attracted to take on a lease, leading to increased footfall… It becomes a virtuous – and profitable – circle.
Looking to the future – partnering for solutions
All of these areas of change require changes in facilities management. However, not ones that are necessarily part of an asset manager or facility manager’s immediate remit. The tools needed do not necessarily sit within their purview. They require specialist knowledge, information, skillsets and indeed outsourced workforces and resources.
To survive in this changing, evolving and unpredictable world, facilities and asset managers in the shopping centre industry must seek a more robust and holistic view of their environment, working with partners that bring this skillset.
To learn more about how Anchor Group Services can help you with your facilities management, contact us now.
* https://www.serendipityint.co.uk/how-the-covid-19-pandemic-has-permanently-altered-uk-consumer-behaviour/ https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/retailindustry/articles/howourspendinghaschangedsincetheendofcoronaviruscovid19restrictions/2022-07-11
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter