As our customer expectations are changing daily, our shopping centres must adapt to meet the needs of the communities we service.
Once a week shopping has been surpassed in our Centres by visits 3–4 times per week to meet the changing demands of our quickening lifestyle.
Ten years ago, shopping centres encouraged “linger-time” however the modern shopping Centre customer has become a little more “time-poor” causing a seismic shift in shopping centre design, offer and selective tenancy mix.
At Tinline, defining and delivering a convenience offer has become a key challenge – understanding this in different markets and tailoring to the local area becomes our primary focus. Ease of carparking, industry leading amenities, fantastic choices within food, products and everyday services, and tailoring these offers to our locals is key.
Embracing modern technology, including social media, online shopping and including in our offer a platform to interact socially in real time, touches on several basic human needs – to interact socially and to connect socially. Our centres have already or, are becoming the convenience centres for the communities in which we operate.
Not so long ago shopping centres were individually owned and provided a very basic convenience offer – now professional owners and operators of these centres are specialising and focusing on the right tenancy mix for the markets in which these centres sit.
The new category created for these “Community Convenience Centres” has plugged the gap and brought some much-needed focus to an under performing area of our communities.
“Community Convenience” typically falls in the 15,000m2 – 25,000m2 lettable area sized centres. Typically, with a minimum of 1 supermarket, 1 department store, a couple of mini majors and a range of specialty stores. More typically these days these centres now include a large format offer also.
Richmond Mall is a classic example with 2 supermarkets and a department store completing over 75% of the onsite sales and another 70 specialty stores completing the offer.
Well-rounded offers tend to ride out the highs and lows of global economic cycles as with the focus on the local customers – demand is largely a reflection of the positive trends in regional statistics. Identifying the growth markets to invest in becomes a key growth strategy.
So, what can we expect in the future? History suggests that the NZ market sits about 3 years behind the Australian market so, looking into the crystal ball, we can see the following key areas for conscious investment:
- food services
- customer experience
- choice
A combination of national, regional and local specialty stores offering choices defined by the local markets in which we operate.
Tinlines commitment to meet the needs of our locals remains as firm as ever. Local centre management teams with deep connections and engagement with our local communities ensure experiences, programs and offers have an inherently local flavour including tailored school holiday programs, commitment to town centre organisations, and social media campaigns which receive above national average uptake. Tinline centres work hard to maintain a prominent place in the hearts and minds of residents and shoppers within their catchment.
On site, each of our centres have unique play areas, parents’ rooms, industry leading amenities, convenient parking and locally residing retailers. Shared spaces allow for community meetings, interactions and activations. We engage in casual leasing and incubator sites for aspiring retailers wanting to dip their toes into the shopping centre environment.
Investing in the future of the communities in which we operate ensures future proofing of a non-discretionary offer that our community owns and utilises.
Tinline will continue to invest in fast growing demographic areas and ensure we tap into the local “essence” to transform our spaces into “Community Hubs”.
We build lasting partnerships with our retailers, our customers and our community – to create a convenience offer that will stand the test of time.