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The concept of what constitutes a good “brand” is not always clear in a retail context, let alone within the shopping center world. It is tempting, and indeed quite common, simply to refer to a brand by name – the world’s great brands such as Apple, Coca-Cola, Louis Vuitton etc. are instantly recognized by name. But what’s in a name and what makes a great brand?

Customers are constantly being offered more opportunities and methods for consumption, both online and offline. Every retailer has to recognize and follow this trend in order to avoid losing out to the competition. We must find a combination of e-commerce, mobile apps or social media, and traditional retail stores. Today’s end consumers are digitally networked at all times and around 63% of buyers use devices like mobile phones and tablets to learn about products in advance or to buy them online.

These days, there has been a large debate about the crises of the bricks-and-mortar trade and the threat from e-commerce.

New projects always involve necessary preparations: We investigate which cities might make sense for us and our customers, look at purchasing power, traffic, development, and infrastructure plans for each region, etc., and define the most appropriate place for a potential retail or logistics property on the basis of the parameters analyzed.

Despite an upturn in the UK shopping center market, few UK towns still warrant retail investment and landlords are looking to refurbishment to drive value. With core retailers still focused on larger hubs, secondtier assets need to ensure they are not left behind.

MAPIC, which took place recently in Cannes, showed once again that the rate of new developments has slowed significantly, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, despite a number of outstanding new shopping center projects. In the end, I dealt extensively with the topic of refurbishment. Unfortunately, I see no sustainable development trend that could leverage the potential that is undoubtedly still there in the coming years.

The physical store no longer holds a virtual monopoly on retail transactions. Consumers can now shop anytime, anywhere, and are not bound by opening hours or physical proximity.

When the entire European shopping center industry meets in Cannes this year, there will be lots of back patting.

A critical evaluation of the centers which have been added to the European market in recent years prompts the following sobering conclusions: Professionalism in design, construction and operation has generally reached a very high level.

As the retail and shopping center climate continues to heat up across Europe and ongoing investment strongly suggests that the future looks promising, it is vital that we remain clear on what it is that really drives our market: the people within it.