Retail

STRATEGIES AND EXPANSION PLANS OF RETAILERS

In addition to its function as a supplier to the population, retail is increasingly taking on the role of entertainment. Concepts built around customer experience and gastronomy are now essential components of shopping centers, shows the latest shopping center report on Germany from the EHI Retail Institute.

Changing consumer habits, rising living costs, and a growing awareness of the right balance between price and quality have intensified competition for customers. A recent study by Statista focusing on Germany’s consumer market explores how consumers make purchasing decisions today, what influences their behavior, and which long-term trends are emerging.

At Main-Taunus-Zentrum (MTZ), one of the largest and most successful shopping centers in Germany, ECE Marketplaces has realized a new destination within the center being a further development of the open structure and providing an additional USP of the center. In the middle of the open-air shopping center in Sulzbach near Frankfurt am Main, the new “Food Garden” creates a lively new urban center with a high quality, varied gastronomy offering in five free-standing restaurant buildings for a total of eight restaurant concepts, inviting outdoor terraces, and attractive green spaces.

Las Vegas welcomed its first two Aldi stores in the presence of a large number of expectant consumers, which shows the retailer’s success with its popular brand strategy in the local market. The debuting stores opened as part of Aldi’s 9 billion euro expansion strategy in the country.

Primark-owner Associated British Foods plans to move on with the fashion retailer’s store rollout program in Europe as well as the US, despite current tariff uncertainties.

Under the motto “Creating beloved places – social, sustainable & successful”, the 2025 European Shopping Places Summit brought together leading experts in the retail real estate sector from 14 different countries to discuss how to make shopping places more sustainability-oriented, successful, and impactful on a social level, while giving voice to the different markets in Europe.