Knowledge base

Special architectural conditions and needs are common in almost all shopping centres. The main retro t drivers are: (i) improve the indoor environmental quality and functionality, to enhance the customers experience; (ii) reduce the energy consumption; (iii) optimize the building operation and relative maintenance costs and (iv) improve the overall sustainability level reducing the environmental, social, and economic impact.

Welcome to our latest European Shopper Trends report, which offers key statistical insight into international shopper behaviour during the second quarter of 2017 across the European region.

Europe’s retailers experienced a slight overall traffic decline of -0.1% Year-on-Year in Q2 2017. Yet some countries, most notably Austria, Ireland and Germany, saw relatively strong footfall uplifts, driven by returning consumer confidence and falling unemployment levels.

There was also evidence of positive sales growth. A star performer was Poland, which experienced an 8.4% increase in retail sales Year-on-Year. Spain too delivered encouraging retail trading, driven by high levels of consumer confidence, and the outstanding performance of fashion players in the country – Uniqlo, Inditex, and H&M are all expanding their store networks and investing in flagships.

Several European countries revealed static or negative retail traffic results during the quarter, with uncertainty surrounding the ongoing Brexit process causing consumer unease in the UK, and high unemployment still troubling Italy. However, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the rest of 2017, with plenty of retail innovation to be seen across Europe.

The increasing presence of food and beverage (F&B) options in shopping centres – often accounting for more than 20% of units in new and redeveloped schemes in more mature markets – is being driven by rapid global growth in consumer spending on eating out, according to a new report from Cushman & Wakefield. 

With spending on eating out expected to continue growing over the next 10 years, and consumers’ desire to enhance a shopping trip with social and leisure experiences, a compelling F&B offer is now critical to the success of any retail scheme, the report states.

Extensions to established shopping centres will be a significant driver of new floorspace across Europe in the next two years, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s latest European Shopping Centre Development Report.
Landlords are increasingly focused on pursuing the ‘ right’  footfall by focusing on a combination of technology,data, events and entertainment, tenant mix and an improved leisure and food and beverage offer. By usingdata, owners can better target consumers who fit the tenant mix within centres and therefore are likely to have a higher propensity to spend.

The foodservice industry is expanding at an exponential rate with the amount of space dedicated to food growing from five percent a decade ago to 15 percent today. This trend is expected to increase to 20 percent by 2025. ICSC commissioned JLL to deliver a global study that explores foodservice’s impact on retail real estate and strategies to seamlessly integrate restaurants to complement and enhance offerings with the overall retail real estate experience.

Read the full report here.

On the contrary, in today’s era of omni-channel retailing, there has been a convergence of online and offline and bricks-and-mortar remains the cornerstone of retailer strategies, acting as a platform to showcase brands and drive sales across all channels. Therefore, in order to understand the true contribution of bricks-and-mortar to turnover, it is also necessary to consider the online sales of retailers who have a physical store network. This report serves to provide a more accurate picture of the value of retail real estate in Europe and to quantify the retail sales that are owed all, or in part, to physical stores.