Designing for Retail Tomorrow Today
More than 300 merchants from Ayala’s Vis Min, Northern, Central, and Southern malls gathered to listen to upand-coming retailing trends, insights and ideas from top marketers at this year’s Ayala Malls Merchant Forum.
Hosted by David Celdran, the forum tackled emergent trends and developments shaping the local and global retail landscapes in this post-digital era. Four major educational presentations each followed by an open forum highlighted the event: Exploring the Future and the Opportunities in Retail by Shane Taylor, Asia Pacific Head of Strategy and Research, CBRE Global Investors; Marketing to the Consumers of Today by Josiah Go, Chairman and Chief Marketing Strategist at Mansmith and Fielders, Inc.; Shopper Trends and the New Consumer by Pamela Pacete- Garcia, Executive Planning Direc--
tor at J. Walter Thompson Philippines; and The Future of Retail in the Digital World by Dr. Tim Denison, Retail Intelligence Director at Ipsos Retail Performance.
Adding a fresh flavor to the forum was Berde Inside the Business Case: Making a Profit
and Going Green by Arch. Rowena Ramos of Ecotektonika, Inc., which called for retail businesses to make profit while protecting the environment through the Building for Ecologically Responsive Design Excellence (BERDE) program.
During lunch, blogger Yuki Tansengco showed everyone how to use Ayala Malls’ A- Portal app. The new smartphone app has everything one needs in one’s favorite Ayala Malls, complete with the list of stores and corresponding maps, dining places, movie schedules, events, promos, as well as a transportation booking service in partnership with Grab.
EXPLORING THE FUTURE AND THE OPPORTUNITIES IN RETAIL
Using chiefly new researches done by CBRE, Taylor shared up-to-date information that predicts the “new retailer” in the Philippines and the whole world.
While Chinese cities continue to be top suppliers, Bangkok and Manila rank No. 5 and 6, respectively. According to Taylor, Metro Manila could potentially be the Top 6 shopping center in a couple of years.
“It’s certainly true to say that in spite of the cautions that they have in this part of the world, many global retailers have still stated intentions and plans to open up in this part of Asia,” he shared.
BERDE INSIDE THE BUSINESS CASE: MAKING A PROFIT AND GOING GREEN
“Before merchandising, there is the involvement of material suppliers and product manufacturers. The consumer is not the end of the supply chain because in the entire process, we generate waste,” said Arch. Ramos. She also added that, sadly, retail is the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the commercial property sector.
By sharing the benefits of going green in the retail business, Arch. Ramos’ presentation invited the merchant partners to undergo BERDE certification, the country’s own green building rating system under the Philippine Green Building Council. A member of the World Green Building Council – Asia Pacific Network, the council promotes sharing of knowledge of green building practices to ensure a sustainable environment.
MARKETING TO THE CONSUMERS OF TODAY
“Marketing is not about satisfying customers. It is the
product or service that satisfies needs and wants. Marketing is a lot more than a product,” said Go, as he tackled the three C’s of marketing — customers, competition, and company.
He described the importance of the “uncommon sense” as a company strategy, sharing various tests that a company can do to check its own sustainability. He also mentioned three levels of sustainability as market-driving strategies and explained how focusing on one channel is better than using all ways to achieve marketability.
Go concluded the presentation by advising the retail companies to be both marketdriven and “market-driving” to achieve a more complete and holistic marketing plan.
SHOPPER TRENDS AND THE NEW CONSUMER
Basing on J. Walter Thompson
Intelligence’s The Future 100 Trends and Changes to Watch
in 2016, Pacete-Garcia tackled 10 shopper trends — new buzzwords that apply to the huge global market and depict the Philippine market pretty accurately.
Topping the list is “empathy.” Pacete-Garcia shared,“If you go look at someone else’s phone and see the top apps that they use, these are the ones that people use for human needs and human emotions… Empathy creates relationships among people based on what they feel as of the moment.”
Most of the trends highlight human behavior and emotion in a growing sea of high technologies. Other buzzwords that were discussed were “masstige lifestyle apps,” “celebrity retail havens,” “food temples,” and “fan-spitality.”
THE FUTURE OF RETAIL IN THE DIGITAL WORLD
There are three main drivers of change in the retail landscape — changing socioeconomics; changing consumer behavior, attitude and expectations; and change in digital technology,” shared Denison.
He added that the retail market has been overtaken by “Generation Z’s” and “Millennials.” Thus, he challenges retailers to operate their business across all channels, maximizing the power of digital merchandising while keeping in mind the importance of a physical, palpable store or pop-up.
According to one of the speakers, “There’s no exaggeration to say that in the last five years, retailing has changed more than in the last 100 years.” Consumer connection in this digital age is very important as everything is already fast-paced. For this reason, the Ayala Malls Merchant Forum promises to continue equipping its merchant partners with up-to-date marketing strategies, from customer service to digital and mobile marketing.