How often do we hear that our shopping centre is the ‘community focal point’? Is it? Or do we just pay lip service to the theory? At AMP they take it seriously and each centre identifies a cause that ‘resonates with the local community’. Belinda Daly gives us an overview of AMP’s initiative.

I remember the emergence of online shopping in the retail market and the realisation customers had options beyond just shopping centres. Online shopping created an option that was convenient, fast and met shoppers’ needs. I think everyone in the industry took a deep breath and went about analysing how much the future impact of online shopping would have on our retailers’ turnover. This important cornerstone in our industry also brought on a clear focus for the whole industry, to apply new strategies in improving the experiential and quality of our centres. It’s not just landlords who have taken extreme measures to make shopping an enjoyable experience for our customers – it’s the best retailers who have been making the shopping experience all that much better; personalised products, in-store yoga classes, interactive digital screens and sampling are just some of the in-store experiences our retailers are bringing to customers.

Shopping centres are still the town centres of the community, and what online cannot offer is the interaction with others. There’s something very nice about going to your local centre and seeing people you know. The familiar is very comforting, and shopping centres are often the second home in some people’s lives. The interwoven relationship between a centre and its community and the sense of place is at the heart of what shopping centres are about. That’s why, at AMP Capital Shopping Centres, providing an experience which is an extension of a customer’s life is crucial to creating loyalty with our shoppers.

Based on extensive research, each of our centres identifies a cause that resonates with their local community, something that customers have an affinity with and will want to support. The alignment of the placemaking strategy for each of our local centres together with their community strategy is at the core of success.

A successful example of this is the Memory Cafe which opened at Garden City Perth. The centre resides in an area with one of the highest incidences of dementia in all of Australia. Garden City has launched the first-ever Memory Cafe in partnership with the City of Melville and Alzheimer’s Australia WA. The Memory Cafe opened within one of Garden City’s cafes with the purpose of providing a safe, supportive and inclusive community space where people living with dementia can come together, enjoy a coffee and connect through sharing their experiences and rediscovering memories.

Karrinyup Shopping Centre in Perth launched the Feels like Home project as part of a long-term collaboration with The Salvation Army. The centre wanted to support women and children escaping family violence. It was a difficult cause to support publicly but what the centre knew was it wanted to bring comfort, security and warmth to those who need it most. The centre’s Feels Like Home campaign encouraged visitors to donate from a selected wishlist of household items from Karrinyup retailers. Local stylist and blogger Kyree Harvey of @misskyreeloves styled the campaign, leading the charge for the makeover day which transformed The Salvation Army refuge.

Customers could show their support by visiting the Feels Like Home display in Centre Court during August. All donations over $10 received a free Feels Like Home calico shopping bag plus, for a gold-coin donation, customers could leave a message of encouragement on the giant HOME letters set up at Centre Court. These messages were given directly to the women and children in need. The campaign raised over $6,000 in cash donations, and more than 500 essential household items were donated to the refuge.

Casula Mall is in the heart of a vibrant area of Sydney full of different cultures and colourful characters. The centre took placemaking to another level with the installation of a collaborative artwork created by students of Casula Public School along with artist Howard Matthew. It celebrates the richness and diversity of the centre’s multicultural community.

The area has always welcomed new migrants and Casula Public School is a great example of this multicultural community. Students have explored their family roots (or routes) by collaging torn maps onto their self-portrait. Their countries of origin are scattered along the routes and are just a small sample of the many nations that have settled in the local area. The result was an installation that had a local talkability and celebrated the richness of the community.

At Ocean Keys, in the northern suburbs of Perth, the centre identified that customers wanted more support in their local community particularly for people living in a FIFO (Fly-in, Fly-out) relationship. When it was determined that more than 350 FIFO families lived in the centre’s primary trade area but no support groups currently existed, the centre partnered with local community group i60 and not-for-profit organisation FIFO Families to implement FIFO Families Monthly Meet Ups to cater for this demographic.

Due to high demand for the support group in the area, Ocean Keys has already seen high engagement around the campaign after only three months of implementation, including an increase in centre traffic across FIFO Family Meet Up mornings of +8.8%.

In New Zealand, The Palms Shopping Centre’s community strategy is underpinned by progressing a primary partnership between a community group that resonates with the local Christchurch community. The local organisation Kiwi Family Trust was the chosen partner.

A recent school holiday activation was primarily based around the benefit for both The Palms’ customers and Kiwi Family Trust. This group of over 200 knitters nationwide creates garments for newborn babies with every item donated to families with new babies in the community. Kiwi Family Trust is always looking for wool donations, so The Palms teamed up with the knitters of the Trust to run four kids’ knitting workshops in-centre as a way to create awareness with customers about what the charity does, as well as provide children and families a fun and hands-on experience during the school holidays.

Each child who attended the knitting workshop was given a free starter pack with a ball of wool, knitting needles and an easy-to-follow pattern to take home with them. The Palms has also donated $1,000 for Kiwi Family Trust to buy more wool for the group to continue their fabulous initiative.

Botany Town Centre in Auckland had a shopping centre first activation called Paws for Thought dog adoption drive, to help find new forever homes for dogs and puppies in desperate need. Dogs on death row were given a second chance at life, thanks to this community-focused event that sought to make the dog adoption process far more approachable and accessible.

Aware of its animal-loving catchment, the centre was compelled to host the event by offering an environment in which people felt comfortable to meet and interact with homeless dogs, as opposed to the local council-operated pound. The heartfelt project gained significant attention in the media and across social media. The combined efforts of the shopping centre, dog rescue organisation DC Rescue and dog training company Citizen Canine resulted in the uniting of many lucky dogs with their newfound forever families.

The ongoing advocacy by customers for our centres is critical for long-term success, so these types of collaborations provide the glue between customers and a centre. Our shoppers are humans, the need for connection is central to our social system and, as shopping centre owners, creating those authentic meaningful relationships should be central to what we do.