6th ReDI CEE Trade Fair for Retail Investment took place in Warsaw on May 29-30th. It was a key conference and fair event devoted to the development of business in the retail real estate industry. Our topics included visit analysis and marketing for shopping centers. The fair was an opportunity to meet representatives of shopping centers and retail chains, and to participate in interesting speeches and debates.
Similar to the previous year, #TeamSelectivv was present too. Sales and board members were actively participating in the 2-day event and presenting to the participants the possibility of using mobile data both in marketing of shopping centers as well as research and analysis of clients visiting these POIs.
This year we choose two topics to interest visitors in our activities and also to visually explain them. First day was the premiere show of data collected during the opening weekend of Galeria Młociny in Warsaw. Second, we refreshed research on Ukrainian Community in Poland, which we described here.
The new shopping mall was opened in Warsaw on May 23rd. It was interesting that organizers had chosen Thursday for the opening which made us more curious about how the traffic will flow. It is always the context that matters the most, so we focused not on measuring how many people came there but what happened with other major shopping places in the Capital of Poland.
Four shopping malls were chosen based on location, popularity and rating - Złote Tarasy, Wola Park, Galeria Północna, and Arkadia. Nextly, we took “average traffic” on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays for the past year to compare it with a particular day during the opening weekend. In the result we received changes in traffic caused by Galeria Młociny opening.
Data seems to confirm all known assumption that Thursday is not the best day to compete or otherwise: other shopping centres did not lose because of new hot place (on Google Maps it already has over 500 reviews, rate 4,1, constantly “way more people than usual” - which by the way may be caused by unusual traffic in this location before opening - and over 1,300 photos). Traffic changes in mentioned malls were not significant and oscillated around 1-4% less than usual.
Friday was a little more exciting in “competition game” and more noticeable. Złote Tarasy shopping mall noted 12% fewer visitors in comparison to average Friday during last year. Wola Park 5% less, Galeria Północna 3% less and Arkadia 2% less. It is interesting that the closest and better communicated locations noted smaller decrease in traffic (naturally we would assumed that people are choosing the closest and best communicated locations as destination). The brands portfolio collected by Galeria Młociny seems to be more important than distance.
On Saturday we observed the opposite situation to Friday. The biggest drop noted Galeria Północna located the closest (-15%). Also, in Arkadia and Wola Park were significantly fewer clients (-14% and -12%). Złote Tarasy get back to the game and noted only 5% fewer people than usual on Saturday.
But it is just the beginning - just the very first days of new shopping mall in Warsaw operating. We are super curious to find out if Galeria Młociny - fair to say - well located, equipped with shops and promoted, will take away customers from competition.
