Mall Do’s and Don’ts: Merge your malls with omnichannel

DO… listen, research, and learn. You can’t go to different communities with standard formats that you try to fit in anywhere. Involve the community and give the community ownership of the place.

And do make your place more relevant to omnichannel. Increase the levels of service. For years developers have been fighting online shopping. Now we know that omnichannel is the ultimate channel. All the major online retailers need brick and-mortar stores. Provide in-store pick-up, curbside delivery, home delivery. Use technology to give shoppers access to your property and its merchants online. We’re doing that at Galleria Dallas today.

DON’T... do nothing. Evolve or die. If you’ve got a dated mall that hasn’t been transformed or rethought in the last 10 years, it’s going to become less relevant every day. Evolve or die. What if a fashion store sold the same fashions every year? We are in the daily-monthly-annual transformation business.

Customers have high expectations. and they should. Your outlet has to be an omnichannel-worthy location and it has to be aligned with the behavior of your shopper. If you don’t want your mall to die, you have to have a stewardship that’s going to evolve. Invest in and make the changes that will allow it to live on.

Terry Montesi’s Trademark Property Company will be demolishing half of the North Point Mall in Alpharetta, Ga., and turning it into a walkable mixed-use village.