Written by: Gareth Jordan
The most powerful opportunities in retail property and placemaking emerge when landlords, tenants, and technology providers collaborate in a genuine partnership. This collaboration fosters ambitious and sustainable growth, aligning with the targets of both landlords and brand partners. While this sounds theoretical, it involves some very practical steps: joint business plans, predictive analytics, better communication, and trust built through shared data platforms. Instead of operating in silos, collaboration yields strategic insights that benefit everyone.
Gareth Jordan
Director of Retail Advantage at ART Software Group
Historically, the landlord–tenant relationship was often characterized by caution and, at times, tension. Each side closely guarded its data, with tenants reluctant to share sales figures and landlords hesitant to reveal wider operational performance. This lack of transparency created a transactional relationship in which trust was limited and genuine collaboration was rare. The transition to a collaborative landlord–tenant dynamic has been evolving for several years, driven by factors such as a move towards turnover-based rents and flexible lease structures that thrive on a more consultative association. Ultimately, today’s consumers demand cohesive destinations where every touchpoint adds value, from targeted campaigns and store layouts to integrated services and events.
Consumers expect seamless journeys across retail, leisure, and hospitality, and collaborative alliances are crucial when it comes to transforming fragmented spaces into connected experiences.
Now, we find ourselves on the precipice of another major shift with the adoption of artificial intelligence, which necessitates the strengthening of required landlord–tenant–tech alliances. The landscape is changing, so I am pleased to share some industry perspectives, including insight from groups and destinations that we have the privilege to partner with. They demonstrate how innovation, clarity on data goals, and a customer-centric approach can deepen collaboration with tenants (as partners) and achieve a competitive edge.
COMBINED DECISION-MAKING, BETTER OUTCOMES
Shared insights, predictive analytics, and combined decision-making empower both landlords and tenants to adapt more quickly. Time is precious, and with margins being squeezed, data can feed value into these partnerships. As Alasdair McClimont, Customer Manager at The Crown Estate observes, “Joint initiatives – like co-funded marketing campaigns or shared events – can lead to significant improvements in footfall, average spend, and dwell time for a destination. However, it starts earlier than that; understanding spend patterns and brand strategies enables strong curation of brand mix, which, in the long-term, delivers sales. When we collaborate, we’re able to provide more tailored support, share insights, and work towards common goals. The future of retail isn’t built on contracts – it’s built on relationships. Transactions might get you leases, but collaboration gets you success.”
SHARING DATA, BUILDING TRUST
Another huge shift driving the need to refine traditional landlord-tenant relationships has been the increasing availability and quantity of data. Organizations increasingly view data itself as a strategic asset, a source of competitive advantage simply by owning it, even if they are not yet extracting its full value. Cutting-edge approaches to management involve strong collaboration with tenants to optimize performance across diverse environments. We are seeing significant growth in engagement for various destinations, including full-price retail, mixed-use, and places with a leisure focus (including city center locations). Industry leaders are forging new paths and exploring combined efforts to reap rewards. The industry as a whole is making strides, and the results are evident.
“Data-driven decision-making has always been the norm in retail businesses and is the clear direction of travel in real estate. That means it is no longer sufficient to only provide static information at set times. Instead, we look to provide on-demand data that can be analyzed to suit the needs of the user – Retail Advantage is the delivery mechanism. However, it’s not just about a transactional data relationship, qualitative information and person-to-person relationships are still just as important. With Retail Advantage streamlining the data conversation, that leaves more time for relationship building,” says Alasdair McClimont.
Alasdair McClimont
Customer Manager at The Crown Estate
CUSTOMER-CENTRIC STRATEGIES IMPROVE COMMERCIAL RETURNS
Today’s competitive pressures mean that everyone across the retail real estate industry should provide value for their customers. A truly customer-centric strategy in retail recognizes that every stakeholder has a customer to serve: Technology partners provide landlords and tenants with tools that simplify decisions and unlock insights to serve their customers; landlords provide tenants with analytics, benchmarking, communication, and support for growth. Together, those efforts ultimately serve the end consumer, delivering value, experience, loyalty, and commercial returns.
Alasdair McClimont continues: “My background is in running retail stores, so I have seen the tenant-landlord dynamic evolve from the other side of the fence. In my three years at The Crown Estate, the goal has been to build a collaborative relationship, which is why we refer to our tenants as customers. Traditionally, there was a natural focus on rental income targets and lease agreements, but now I see a real shift towards partnership. We’re moving beyond just filling spaces to working together to create high-performing destinations. Nobody wants shops or restaurants to fail – not the business owners, not the landlords, and certainly not the communities we serve. Genuine collaboration is more important than ever, especially given the pressures on retail and hospitality. When landlords understand a brand’s story and needs, we open stronger, perform better, and stay longer. It’s about building relationships that are resilient and mutually beneficial.”
SHARED INTELLIGENCE, STRONGER RELATIONSHIPS
The Designer Outlet sector has had a head start in the effective use of gathered information, demonstrating a great understanding of the true power that it brings. A partnership attitude paired with the right technology to measure and support tenant KPIs and provide a robust picture of performance, has given outlets a profitable, resilient, and brand-friendly channel. At ART, we work with many outlet centers, where we observe upwards of 98% engagement, highlighting their strong, cooperative working relationship with tenants.
At McArthurGlen Group, Retail Advantage has become an important part of this process. As early adopters of our Retail Advantage solution within their many leading outlets, they pioneered the use of smart tools and analytics to strengthen landlord–tenant cooperation, with a shared focus on maximizing positive outcomes. “Our relationships with our brand partners have always been very collaborative, and ART’s Retail Advantage tool is one we’ve used for many years to provide insightful analysis they can use to enhance performance and drive growth,” says Mario Schwann, General Manager at McArthurGlen Designer Outlet Parndorf.
Mario Schwann
General Manager at McArthurGlen Designer Outlet Parndorf
Strong partnerships are supported through robust reporting and confidence in data that produces reliable insight. By providing functionality like collaborative commentary alongside performance metrics, landlords and tenants can align on strategy, identify opportunities for growth, and make informed decisions. This approach transforms reporting from a static exercise into a dynamic exchange and flow of information that strengthens trust, supports long-term planning, and nurtures a culture of shared accountability. “The platform has enabled us to keep pushing forward our reporting capabilities and analysis, which, in turn, has informed our decision-making about the long-term strategy for the brands at our center,” says Mario Schwann.
DESIGNED FOR COLLABORATION
Maximizing the value of data requires more than human collaboration, it demands seamless technical system synergies as well. When technology partners act as allied custodians, they can aggregate information streams, standardize metrics, and centralize intelligence into a consistent, reliable source of truth. With both landlords and tenants working from the same evidence, transparency is enhanced, disputes are reduced, and confidence grows around customer and operational insights.
Open and efficient communication is central to collaboration, and digital platforms now play a key role in making that possible. At Designer Outlets Wolfsburg, Retail Advantage is not just a reporting platform, it has also become the hub for insight and tenant engagement. “Since launching Retail Advantage as our communications platform with our tenants in April 2020, the Designer Outlets Wolfsburg teams have seen a great improvement in providing and receiving information relevant to tenants. Five years on, we could not imagine working without Retail Advantage. Other than direct conversations, it has become our main communications tool with tenants, providing valuable information for KPI analysis, scheduled events, workshops, and general news from our teams in the marketing, facilities, leasing, accounting and retail departments – and we have definitely seen improved use of the system by our tenants. This has improved processes for everyone involved and has streamlined communication within one tool, which is much more efficient,” says Bettina Wewetzer, Senior Retail Manager, Designer Outlets Wolfsburg.
Bettina Wewetzer
Senior Retail Manager at Designer Outlets Wolfsburg
FUTUREPROOFING PARTNERSHIPS
Augmented analytics further build on this by enabling benchmarking, performance comparisons, and real-time anomaly detection. This drives faster responses and healthier competition. It also leads to sharper decision-making. AI takes it further. It is no longer just a chat tool, but a powerful engine. It surfaces forward-looking insights, identifies opportunities, and predicts emerging patterns.
With Retail Advantage Insights, our AI-enhanced augmented platform, possibilities become even more practical. It enriches datasets with predictive analysis and tailored intelligence. It adapts to constant change. Dashboards link to key performance indicators and offer role-specific views. Teams such as leasing or marketing can use these tools to collaborate around shared goals. Diverse datasets power live insight, from tourism trends to demographics, spending behaviors, and loyalty metrics. Retail Advantage Insights sharpens context, embeds cross-functional decision-making, and supports secure, effective digital transformation – keeping both customer outcomes and portfolio value at the center.
Numbers alone don’t inspire action – but the stories within them do.
By transforming your analytics and information streams into clear, relatable narratives, landlords and tenants can see not just what is happening, but why. This shared understanding turns data into a catalyst for smarter decisions, better engagement, and stronger performance. When customer-centric tools are built for convenience and collaboration, landlords and tenants can truly engage, delivering joint success.
