It’s all about selling the holiday experience
Stella Frank, age 5, clutched the letter she wrote to Santa and hoped he would grant her wish for a “dog baby.” Or, as they are otherwise known, a puppy.
Then she scanned her QR code, a matrix of black and white blocks containing the secret digital DNA of Stella’s personalized badge.
For the third year in a row, Stella had come to Santa’s Flight Academy, set in the North Pole and located between the Starbucks and Victoria’s Secret at the Fair Oaks Mall in Northern Virginia. It was 10 a.m. on a Monday in mid-November, but “Jingle Bell Rock” already streamed from an
overhead speaker as shoppers made an early dent on
their holiday gifting. Stella looked up in amazement at Santa’s wonderland, which she could enter only by scanning a badge that contained her QR code, name and photo. As she made her way through, Stella stopped in front of a screen to get fitted for a proper flight suit. She stood in front of a camera and held her arms out, watching as a virtual suit popped up over her tiny frame.
On another screen, Stella pushed a series of buttons to choose Santa’s best flight path. She walked through a room with fake snow falling from the ceiling. And as she reached the end and handed Santa her letter, her name and photo popped up on a screen showing who had made the Big Man’s “nice” list. (Santa keeps his “naughty” list out of view.)
All in all, the installation is “about more than just Santa,” said Ivan Frank, a spokesman for Taubman Centers, which owns and manages Fair Oaks Mall.
As he put it, it’s “a true experience.”
The holiday season is a Super Bowl of sorts for the retail industry. This year, the National Retail Federation expects sales in November and December to increase between 4.3 and 4.8 percent over 2017 results, to as much as $720.89 billion.
But stores, malls and shopping centers know the key to locking in shoppers doesn’t hinge only on keeping inventory in stock. They must also put on a halftime show - their time to entertain, to perform, to tingle shoppers’ senses with Santa’s flight school, falling snow, light installations, free food, yoga classes, cooking demos and more.
That’s especially true when shoppers are projected to spend $124.1 billion online this holiday season, according to research by Adobe Analytics. Ultimately, what draws people from their homes — and keeps them in stores longer — isn’t just the need to shop. It’s the craving to feel something while they do it.
“It’s almost like opening night on Broadway,” said Michael Goldban, senior vice president of retail leasing at Brookfield Properties. “We’re performing. We want to put our best foot forward.”