Property investment company Attacq is leveraging the use of data analytics and retail banking data to enhance tenant mixes and overall shopping experiences across its malls, including Mall of Africa.
To stay competitive Mall of Africa collects data on Wi-Fi usage and advanced banking data to improve the shopping experience for visitors. The Wi-Fi analytics analyse visitor behaviour and identify patterns and retailer overlaps that traditional methods might miss.
By collaborating with banks, the mall uses their comprehensive transaction data to better understand visitors and tailor its offerings accordingly.
Attacq asset and property executive Michael Clampett told Business Day the Wi-Fi analytics focused more on overall patterns of devices rather than analysing individual devices in their assessment of the retail experience.
How have the insights gained from Wi-Fi behavioural analytics influenced your understanding of visitor patterns at Mall of Africa?
By looking at overall behaviour we are able to identify trends that can lead to an insight or action. One example we frequently quote is if a retailer had a relatively high bounce rate (the number of shoppers that enter and exit a store within 30 seconds) relative to others. We shared this information with the retailer, who then delved deeper into the root cause. They noticed that the queue to be served was visible as you entered their store, so they changed the layout by inserting merchandise that obscures the till section as you enter. Within two months of making this change, their bounce rate reduced dramatically.
What were some surprising findings regarding retailer overlaps, and how did these insights lead to adjustments in tenant mix?
Using the bank data that we access through our partnerships with two SA banks, we can access information on spending trends. These might include online sales, so it is possible to understand if a certain online brand is selling to credit cards in a certain geographic area where there is no physical store. This enables us to have the conversation on whether it is the right time to introduce one.
What challenges have you faced in integrating behavioural analytics into your retail strategy, and how have you addressed them?
The biggest challenge has been convincing our teams to rely on the data rather than our own experiences and opinions only. Experience matters, but the data should be seen as a tool that further supports or informs our decision-making. We used the movie Moneyball as a reference point and asked all our teams involved to watch it. After a movie review we started introducing the data tools so that our teams had context about the expected outcome we had in mind. We now have a number of successful stories in which decisions based on our data tools have yielded positive results. It is important that businesses take their teams on the journey when introducing new data tools.
As you continue to evolve your data-driven approach, what long-term strategies do you foresee implementing to enhance the shopping experience?
Long-term changes are not easy to predict as we are learning a lot as we explore and build out our capabilities and capacity. It certainly is very exciting to be presented with insights we would not have been able to calculate or get to ourselves without the data.
Are there any emerging technologies or methodologies you are considering to further enhance your data analytics capabilities?
I believe the next phase from an industry perspective would be one of collaboration, in which organisations with powerful data find a way to share the information they gather. We make a point of protecting personal information while studying trends and group behaviour in the hope of just giving shoppers what they expect.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.