Shopping Centres of the future will switch their very fundamentals from tangible to abstract. Their very core will no longer be shops, merchandise and ‘stuff’, but experiential journeys, unique identities and retail encounters!

As the world’s communities urbanise faster, live longer, are more empowered and, of course, are digitally connected to anything anywhere, people want to spend their elective time in the most engaging places that not only give them what they want, but also become part of their personal daily stories. Whether it is accessing a ‘click and collect’ point on the way home, escaping the airline lounge looking for a ‘real’ coffee, finding that new personalised sneaker pop-up, or savouring the latest dumpling offer prior to a big night out, the shopping and dining experience is forevermore connected to these stories. These stories aren’t new – only enhanced by accessibility. The history of shopping has always defined these stories with heritage, quality, value and service.

The new cycle of shopping history must be based on a ‘flipped model’ – where the customer is the ‘centre’. Shops and services used to be in the ‘centre’, but now this offer must go to the customer, wherever they are, whenever they want and however they want.

Unfortunately, retail history does not interest Millennial and Gen Z cohorts – now the largest consumer groups. For them, style and experience are more important than stuff.

The current period of unprecedented disruption and change in the retail industry opens the doors to brands and operators to embrace this new competitive landscape as scalable opportunities that enable new chapters of great retail history to be recorded based on experiences that excite, relax, are social and weave into consumer storytelling.

We as an industry must focus our thinking on customer journeys that consist of episodes that inspire, curate, educate and engage. This thinking needs to have foundations in design planning that balances, directs, places and enables encounters with products and services that are specific to the spirit of a place, time, brand or operator. The behaviour statistics that now challenge the potential outcomes of retail experiences must lead us to think in a way that choreographs experiences – inside-out, top-to-bottom, side-to-side – anyway through.

Value creation in this period of rebirth in retail is totally dependent on the meaning of relevance, pixelated experiences rather that stratified or linear journeys, knowledge of rising consumer expectations, knowledge of the changes in lifestyles that influence how we live, and understanding the synergies that connect customers to products and services. Understanding these influences involves not only demographic category attributes, but also being able to give these demographics a face and a name and ‘map-out’ their daily narrative and enable their aspirations and desires to be fulfilled within a memorable experience.

Let’s approach each project uniquely, but with a constant, focused concern on relevance. This focus can enable teams of designers, creative thinkers, manufacturers and builders to keep customer-centric thought leadership as a basis and springboard to arriving at outcomes that place the customer at the ‘centre’. This involves anticipating trends by ‘looking around’ and making observations that directly relate to retailer demands and consumer desires, which then enables a re-programming or challenge to existing parameters, then stages a series of destinations and experiences strategised through performance-based planning and evocative design.

Rather than waiting for results, continually review each phase of the life of a project to ensure relevant outcomes – Inspect versus Expect.

• Establish a unique identity (Physical/Marketing/Digital)
• Constant Value-Add via experienced and efficient implementation • Sustainable Agenda (environmental/financial)
• Synchronised with Shopping Behaviour
• Delivery on Expectation

By establishing a unique identity, destinations can be created that are virtually and socially connected based upon a compelling experience narrative. This then provides contextual clarity within the chaotic retail environments around the world. This clarity, based upon consumer values, then lends to the creation of spaces and places that support brand initiatives that last minutes or years.

The essence of value-adding is based on a constant effort to maximise efficiencies to drive the highest yields. Considered and tested design, staging, procurement and delivery programs go hand-in-hand to ensure performance criteria is surpassed, yet flexible to be responsive to unanticipated issues and opportunities.

A sustainable agenda not only addresses the environment and emissions, but also attains efficient costs to meet these types of operational concerns.

The future is providing solutions that may re-use and re-program materials and spaces while utilising smart systems and processes. Importantly, ensuring project feasibility is maintained while integrating all facets of design direction and delivery is considered a major tenant of the process.

Being ‘in-sync’ with the consumer involves the design and delivery of projects that is personalised and acknowledges consumer awareness of the ‘best of the best’. It is paramount that we possess a sensitive approach to the usage of the commodity of time by anticipating consumer quests for brand and experience attachment while being focused on a curated assemblage of offer and individualised service.

Delivery on expectation will define new retail encounters. We must be committed to consumer desires and the potential in each project to deliver these desires. The catalyst of inspiration is the consumer, and we must ensure our project solutions are grounded in performance expectations and the trust of consumers knowing that we ‘get them’.

At Botany Town Centre, Ignite Architects has established a unique identity via the direction of the design for the new Garden Lane precinct. This renovation of an existing precinct within the centre enables retailers to re-emerge in spaces that celebrate character and creation. The concept aims to ensure the customer journey is enhanced by ‘guest’ comfort, the right tenants in the right location, is sensitive to customer elective time, grounded with local personality, and connects people via activity-based and digital placemaking. Queenstown Central is another example of identity establishment via place and memory making. Good ideas can come from anywhere and working across industry sectors leads to innovative, holistic solutions that address project challenges and opportunities. The stages upon which our lives are played out are converging. Living, working, shopping, learning and playing become inextricably linked to the environments that we design and occupy. Adaptable space that performs from hour-to-hour, day-to-day and season-to-season is the new desire. Supporting technology continues to transform how we act and collaborate, blurring the lines between social and business activities. New retail is about innovative outcomes as a challenge to the status quo, not parity among competitors.