12A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

While conducting interviews, the first person that I had interviewed was a small business owner with 5 retail locations of boutique stores. This serving to be a potential tenant of the lifestyle centers. When first conducting the interviews it had been prevalent that her business had been down over the past two years. Being located in a variety of different locations I asked her what her needs where when looking for new potential location in 2018. 

She had stated that she needed places with “TONS of foot traffic” Her business relies on foot traffic and awareness that her store exists. Her stores that are facing significant loses are ones that have seen a drop in foot traffic due to many people opting to buy things online rather than in person. When looking for new places she is looking for new developments where people will frequent often and areas that are full of other tenants such as restaurants, grocery stores, or gyms. This serves to bring hundreds of people daily. When looking for new locations she consults with a commercial broker. This leading me to realize that making brokers aware of the location with above average compensation of bringing in tenants will serve to be beneficial in acquiring tenants. 

While interviewing a potential frequenter of a lifestyle center they had stated that the need was prevalent for a new place to frequent where everything is in one location. When looking for new places to live and for apartments the broker is once again brought up. This reinstating that brokers will be crucial for acquiring both end of customers for the centers. When asking about finding new areas to frequent on a consumer end, social media is highly brought up. Many people state that they look own social media for new restaurants, shops, and events. Whether it be a concert or a new trendy restaurant, Arya, states that he 90% of the time discovers them through Instagram. This showing that marketing the development on Instagram will be crucial. 

It seems that throughout all interviews that people are very aware of the need for these type of developments going into the future. One person has stated that Amazon is also aware of this problem. 

Amazon had acquired Whole Foods and plans to open up over 200 locations of cashier less grocery stores over the next 3 years. This shows that they too realizes that although commerce is taking over a large part of the market, there will still always be brick and mortar stores that are prevalent in society. However, this shows that they are not betting on malls but rather places people will NEED to frequent such as grocery stores. 

Through the interviews it was displayed that the idea is on the right track, however, there are many unmet needs that will need to be executed on these centers in order for people to be happy with them. Such as high amount of foot traffic and stores that people will frequent. This also brought up a problem in my research on gathering the first few tenants to believe in the idea. When first developing the lifestyle centers, there will not be high foot traffic because the project will not be in existence. I will have to be able to convince potential tenants of the development, that it will possess a high amount of frequenters. In conclusion, once bringing up the idea of these lifestyle centers to all of the interviewers, the identification of the need for these centers when traditional malls are out of business is highly prevalent.