Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa April/ May 2020 | Page 46

RETAIL
Digitalisation is not
the end of real life
How pop-up shops benefit commercial
property investors in the digital age
JANINE JOHNSTON
Learn from
the best
Tips from SAs Small
business success stories
A
s failing South African parastatals continue to
put huge pressure on the economy and negative
international sentiment makes corporate investors
nervous, the mission to grow the country falls increasingly
at the feet of entrepreneurs.
O
ver the last few years, the South African commercial
property industry has seen a spate of major retailers
closing doors or significantly downsizing their floor
space in malls. Every time an anchor store or even a smaller
destination store closes its doors, a group of shoppers may
drift away and never return regularly to that particular
shopping centre. The pressures are huge. But this landscape
left by struggling retailers is creating new opportunities for
commercial property owners and innovative retailers alike.
Pop-up shops
For retail brands, popup shops range in purpose from
discovery, experience and innovation and of course, sales.
Short term leases make it possible for brands to test new retail
concepts, engage new customers and get real time feedback
from shoppers while landlords get a stream of revenue, even if
only as a gap lease between long term tenancies, plus a unique
retail experience. By hosting new retail tenants on short-term
basis, as ‘fillers’, shopping centers can eliminate empty shop-
fronts and the negative perceptions these can create.
Some popup brands quickly manage to drum up a loyal
in-store shopper base with their unique products and special
experiences, and this makes it easier for short-term retailers
to consider a long-term lease. On the other side of the
marketplace, landlords and property-letting teams have an
opportunity to see whether new, especially. Emerging retailers
will complement their shopping centres' community and
tenant mix, and meet the business requirements that go hand
in hand with commercial lease agreements. So, there’s massive
win-win opportunity for commercial properties and brands.
While there is finger-pointing to the impact of online
shopping’s growing popularity on brick and mortar stores’
ability for successful trade, there’s increasing evidence that
what people actually want from shopping destinations is
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APRIL/MAY 2020 SA Real Estate Investor Magazine
experience, which these days is as important as products
and prices. The ‘experience economy’ is a mantra that every
business needs to live by.
So, does the short-term retail business model help drive
innovation by enabling brands to experiment and create fresh
types of experiences that will, according to pundits, save our
shopping centers from terminal decline?
That’s the theory. In practice though, one of the challenges
facing newcomers to the South African retail market is
to find spaces in areas that attract sufficient numbers of
potential customers on terms that are flexible enough to
allow experimentation. Simultaneously, commercial property
owners want to ensure that they maintain the overall quality
of experience of their malls, ensure sustainable rental income
and growth, and accommodate the shifts in consumer
expectations.
These are the needs that PopUp brand owners addresses
with their online marketplace that connects various brands
and investors in the retail to commercial property sector.
PopUp shops aim to make it easy for leasing and commercial
property managers to attract and contract short-term lease
agreements with qualified brands. They also help players in the
retail industry match appropriate pop up areas in shopping
destinations. And they facilitate the entire leasing application
processes, making it pretty seamless for leasing teams to plug
the gaps with quality concepts and generate incomes.
With this kind of support, South African shoppers and the
commercial property sector can look forward to a lot more
innovation in the coming retail seasons.
SOURCE PopUp Shop Shop (Pty) Ltd
MANAGING
Building a new company out of an idea isn’t for the faint of
heart, it is for this reason that Absa WorkInProgress, an Absa
innovation lab, a workspace for start-ups and entrepreneurs
was developed. This is where four of the country’s
entrepreneurial stars were asked for advice on how they got
their ventures off the ground and what drives their success.
Learn from your failures
diiVe co-founder, Elspeth Boynton says not only do you need
to learn from your failures in the start-up space, you also need
to move past the failure and rejection, as quickly as possible.
“It happens a lot in the early days and don’t forget to
celebrate the little wins, along the way!” she says.
Amanda Louw Bester, founder of digital-first consulting
firm Pragmattica, says that her mantra for the first two years
of starting her business is “patience and persistence leads
to perseverance, leads to meaningful growth and eventual
success”. She says that doing is better than strategising. An
entrepreneur ‘does’, a ‘wantrapreneur plans and plans and
plans.
Surround yourself with like-minded people
Boynton says that a co-working space that comprises an
array of entrepreneurs and innovators is critical in all stages of
starting and running a business.
“Surround yourself with people that are willing to provide
advice, business support or contacts that enable you to learn
quickly, save unnecessary costs, and grow your own network,
whilst still keeping your main team lean and agile,” she says.
Bester also cites the incredible sense of community and family
at the Absa WorkInProgress space as a contributing factor to
the growth of her business.
Kuba’s Jacques Sibomana says that advice he has received
from individuals who have gone through what he’s going
through has been invaluable in his business journey. Kuba
aims to formalise informal enterprises by providing them with
tools needed to facilitate easy access to market, while making
it easier for corporations and individuals to buy and work with
small business owners.
“Surround yourself with
people that are willing to
provide advice, business
support or contacts that
enable you to learn quickly.”
Be single-minded, but not inflexible
“Develop less and listen more to your customers,” is Sibomana’s
advice to any prospective entrepreneur. You may have the
world’s greatest idea, but without being open to input and
diverse perspectives, you’re creating a product that will only
have one perfect customer – yourself,” He says.
it’s key not to hesitate at that big opportunity for your
business, don’t over think things, in the early stages of
entrepreneurship you have to seize the opportunity fast. The
more you hesitate, the more you overthink and procrastinate
will lead to talking yourself out of taking action and making
progress.
“Entrepreneurs need cheerleaders but they really need smart
people who aren’t afraid to tell them when they’re heading down
a blind alley,” says Charmaine Lambert, head of WorkInProgress,
an Absa innovation lab. “We aim to cultivate a community of
talented, driven people, who are as interested in developing
their own businesses as they are in seeing others thrive.”
SOURCE Absa
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