For those of you keeping up with these articles sent to your inbox each week, this is the last in the series of Tourism Trends that I will be sharing. Did you catch the others?
- Food and Culinary Tourism
- China Tourism to the U.S
- Trends from Explore Marketing, LLC
- Social Media Trends
Today you will get to learn about Retail and Tourism trends from my friend Carolyn Feimster. ( Carolyn was featured in this Tourism Pro Talk interview)
2020 Retail Trends for 2020 and Beyond
#1. On-line Disruptions – What is Next?
The on-line disruption of retail sales may finally be reversing itself! If so, how can we work with this knowledge and actually capitalize on it? To begin with, shopping center owners, developers, management companies and retailers need to understand the potential of the visitor market.
While your local market is busy, tired and at home on their computers making their retail purchases… visitors to your destination are relaxed, have the time and money, and most importantly, they have the desire to shop and buy. Disruption causes innovation…and as a result, we know both the visitor and your local market do not want “stuff,” they want authentic, unique experiences. Do not just say you will; actually give it to them!
Here are some great examples:
Fifth + Broadway Nashville, a new mixed-use project under construction in downtown Nashville, is opening the Fall of 2020. What is the main anchor? Not a typical retail store but the country’s first and only National Museum of African American Music. Combined with a stellar dining experience with 23 curated stalls and a Rooftop Terrace, along with an eclectic mix of retail….this is the type of center that will draw from both the local and visitor markets.
In today’s world, offering real customer service can become a true experience – Madison Avenue Business Improvement District (BID) in NYC curates custom experiential luxury tours complete with personal shoppers, either in-store or in the visitor’s hotel room; beverages such as champagne; package delivery; and so much more for the Travel Advisors to offer their clients. The difference is that the BID customizes the store experiences based on actual client requests, working one-on-one with the stores, alleviating that task from the Advisor making their life easier!
Think cutting-edge – Mall of America has collaborated with an international management consulting company, McKinsey & Company, to open a new retail concept, Modern Retail Collective, a space that tests new retail concepts by incorporating multiple technologies allowing the consumer to interact with retailers in new ways and across a variety of channels. Cutting edge data will determine what retail concepts and innovations will resonate with their consumer.
Specific examples that have already been launched include interactive hot spots that provide single tap access for product details, smart mirrors and fit predictor software for virtual trials of products, and faster payment options, including mobile and cryptocurrency.
Instead of just offering an “experience” this sounds more like a laboratory of “experiments” to determine what will work best for the retailer to capture the consumer dollars via brick and mortar instead of just on-line.
Faneuil Hall Marketplace/Quincy Market – Not only housed in 300-year old buildings with merchandise from around the world, they have effectively curated their outdoor common area into a “community center” of family activities such as ping pong, pool, board games with friends, painting/drawing at the outdoor art studio, or reading a newspaper or book from the reading room.
Old Town Kissimmee/Orlando – built to appear as an authentic “Floridian old town” with multiple attractions, activities and local merchants, it is a great alternative to the expensive theme parks.
American Dream in NJ – a long time coming, and worth the wait as it is as much of an entertainment center as retail center.
Small Towns/Main Streets
The heart and soul of so many American cities that once were thrown into decline due to the development of the suburban mall now have the ability to step in where a lot of traditional malls fall short of delivering what today’s consumer wants.
By curating experiences that keep the destination authentic, these smaller towns can provide multiple reasons for a family to spend time together. Shopping is no longer a solo activity but part of a bigger picture that includes recreation, entertainment and dining. A several block district can be filled with local art galleries, antique stores, craft shops, local designers, farm-to-table cuisine by local chefs, health studios with yoga classes, medical clinics, wine tastings and places for the kids to hang such as pinball arcades.
The last thing a small town should do is to try to look like a mall. Keep it real with landscaping, easy parking, ice cream and coffee shops so the residents can visit with neighbors. Be a connector by bringing people together. Add a residential component and you have a winner because there is a market for housing where you can walk to your local breakfast place.
Action Items:
DMO – Work closer with your municipality, city, county – I have seen too many disconnects where the DMO is promoting the destination but the politicians running the city are not convinced of the value of the visitor dollar!
Some DMOs could benefit by establishing closer working relationships, providing visitor stats and educating the politicians on what types of activities the visitor is seeking. This information can be very useful information to a city/county economic development office.
Retailer – Be an innovator, not a follower. Keep up with the latest trends with the use of data and technology. Interact with your customers and continually test new concepts.
Use the Omni-Channel approach and provide an integrated shopping experience and consistent messaging with every method of communication, including online from a desktop or mobile device, a telephone, and the brick-and-mortar store experience.
#2. Continued Focus on ROI
How do you convince your owners of the value of the visitor market? Show the ROI, do not just say it but demonstrate it. Not so easy since our shopping/dining destinations are not gated attractions thus difficult to collect accurate data unless you are committed to on-going intercept studies, which actually is a great idea to determine markets who are your most productive based on their spend.
Of course, you can continue to measure voucher redemption and commissionable packages visibility on the OTAs. However, moving forward, the trend is to become more promotional in your thinking with tour operator partnerships that result in increasing your tourism ROI.
Launch sweepstakes with tour operators where you can collect social media matrixes such as the number of posts, likes, the average number of people reached, average engagement, etc. Initiate booking incentives where you can benefit from tour operator’s databases and website exposure. Of course, wherever possible…leverage the promotion with your DMO.
Take advantage of a Multi-channel approach…in retail we call it Omni-channel, in travel and tourism we call it the Multi-channel approach, which personalizes a customer’s desired level of service based on their demands and requests. This sends a consistent message through all channels such as print, outdoor, digital, social, etc. Examples include integrating all components such as building social media customer service teams to quickly react to all on-line posts and utilizing advance available technology to speak directly to the customer with the message they want to hear via mobile messenger apps.
#3. Bring it down a notch!
The emerging trend of ‘slow travel’ is visitors choosing to slow down the tempo and experience destinations on a deeper level – making more genuine connections with local people and cultures along the way. With these less packed itineraries, visitors have even more time to shop and dine in authentic shopping destinations that provide locally made products and locally produced cuisine. How to reach them? Read trend #2!
#4. Investment Tourism
And finally…what is the latest in travel and tourism trends that is all-encompassing? Investment Tourism – a new platform that effectively brings an improved ROI not only to mixed-use developments/retail centers and to downtown retail districts but to entire municipalities and counties. It all “starts with a visit” and with the properly defined “message points” to the visitor market to educate them on investment opportunities in an area they already love to visit, you can quickly get their attention. Now combine that with the appropriate economic development tools to motivate and make it easy for the visitor to invest in your destination. Now you have an entirely new market of consumers with money to bring life back to your community, to fill space in your downtown, and to help your residential markets.