Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa July 2016 | Page 37

Of particular importance
is clear brand identity and
integrity and providing
super convenience to
make shopping very easy
for time and life-stressed
customers
make shopping very easy for time and life-stressed
customers.
Today’s practical consumers are focused on their
immediate context of connectivity, communication,
improved physical, personal and home appearance, an
appetite to dine out, and of course on value for money,
quality, differentiation and sustainability. This is
shown by top Retail Live categories at December 2015
showing inflation adjusted growth of cell phones,
accessories, electronics, home furnishings and décor,
hardware stores, smaller department stores, sporting
goods, restaurants and coffee shops and men’s wear.
There are retail gaps/ opportunities within the areas of
experiential gastronomy, wellness, personal branding
www.reimag.co.za

and luxury, information overload and virtual vanity,
nostalgia, malls as the ‘third place’ and Generation Z.
Moreover, consumers are displaying ‘lipstick index’
type behaviour - buying inexpensive items such as a
lipstick to apply and feel good in a gloomy climate.
This means malls should capitalize on providing small
relatively inexpensive luxuries that drive big emotions,
as emotions drive spend.
We often see resistance to change and retention of
traditional structures. But non-traditional approaches
are leading to successes and are an important part of
a new way of driving much needed global growth.
Innovation needs new connections to be made, these
new links don’t easily happen in traditional structures,
but are carving out their important niche and will
become more mainstream.
The trends emerging from 2015 full year, December
2015 and January 2016 Retail Live results showed
broadly that the shopping centre model is turning
on its head. In a world of sameness, creative, niche,
differentiated store types now seem preferred to
replicated options. In contrast to bigger being seen
as better, smaller, focused size formats seem favoured
over large cumbersome alternatives.”

RESOURCES

Clur Research International
JULY 2016 SA Real Estate Investor

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