Lendlease is transforming retail by integrating dynamic pop-ups and innovative tech-driven spaces that bridge online and in-store shopping. Focused on delivering authentic experiences, the approach blends digital insights with flexible, ready-to-use retail concepts like SmartSpace, making physical retail accessible for online brands. From experiential activations and data-rich screens to electric car chargers and sustainability initiatives, Lendlease creates immersive shopping experiences that keep customers engaged and businesses thriving across its urban precincts and shopping centres.
Authentic retail experiences help businesses thrive. Place-making is at the core of Lendlease’s approach to creating vibrant places and we take a strategic approach to seamlessly integrate connection points between businesses and our customers to cultivate great retail experiences. This may look like an experiential pop up space strategically located along a shoppers’ ant trail or a digital screen that deploys community messaging to a targeted audience.
As the retail environment continues to evolve, we are focused on growing beyond traditional retail spaces and concepts to considering how we can help businesses reach new audiences in unique ways.
Leading with a strategic and tech-enabled approach, our team of experts in pop up and commercialisation add value to small businesses and national brands across our retail shopping centres and urban precincts by delivering creative activations and campaigns to help drive revenue.
There’s no denying the trend towards digital and its endless possibilities, but we also know how much customers appreciate bricks-and-mortar. Experiential activations have remained popular, and customers want to engage with our retail offerings beyond the products and services offered. In some cases, like our ‘SmartSpace’ concept, we’re seeing how the two can really integrate to maximise outcomes for businesses.
‘SmartSpace’ – a tech-driven retail concept
One of the ways we’re helping small businesses is through something we call ‘SmartSpace’. A tech-driven, retail pop up concept that we’re currently trialling at Macarthur Square Shopping Centre, SmartSpace helps bridge the gap between online and in-store shopping. It’s designed to help online brands take the next step into physical retail, by providing insightful customer data while testing their products in a new market.
SmartSpace focuses on removing barriers to entry into physical retail by creating an ideal environment for online brands looking to connect with and understand their customers. This can include integrated tech features such as:
Tech-enhanced insights: From understanding customer profiles to tracking product engagement, brands can fine-tune their offerings, optimise pricing and improve product placement.
Flexible, low-capital entry: SmartSpace provides a fully furnished, flexible retail space that’s ready to go with minimal setup time, allowing brands to jump into physical retail quickly and efficiently.
Support from the SmartSpace team: Whether it’s guidance on display, resourcing or content, the SmartSpace team helps every brand feel supported and empowered through the entire process.
We’ve seen local online operators even collaborating with SmartSpace, bringing to life what they always imagined their first physical retail store would look like.
Helping customers live greener – electric car chargers across our portfolio
Sustainability has always been at the forefront of how we operate. To help customers in their mission to live greener, we’ve partnered with Evie Networks to deploy ultra fast electric car chargers across our entire retail portfolio by 2025. All Lendlease-managed shopping centres will house a minimum of four charging bays, capable of delivering up to 150 kilometres of range within 15 minutes of charging.
This partnership currently delivers infrastructure for customers across New South Wales and Queensland. Once rolled out, customers can visit Macarthur Square, Plumpton Marketplace and Erina Fair in just one charge, or travel from Tweed City to Sunshine Plaza!
Geoff Brady, Chief Operating Officer at Evie Networks, said: “We are thrilled to partner with Lendlease as part of its sustainability journey. Our nationally leading network and unwavering focus on reliability will attract EV drivers to these centres, making them prime charging destinations while they eat, shop and play.”
Don’t forget about urban retail precincts
These successful strategies in pop-up and commercialisation also apply to urban retail precincts. This is allowing new concepts to be incubated and new audiences to be reached by businesses.
In select Lendlease-managed shopping centres, the latest campaign featured ‘Big Aussie Things’, which showcased the network’s true 3D content capabilities. From ‘The Big Banana’, ‘The Big Pineapple’ and ‘The Big Prawn’, to ‘The Big Merino’, seeing these larger-than-life objects jump out of the screen captivated customers and showed businesses the dynamic creativity that is possible in advertising.
The digital screen network was intended to creatively activate spaces and be a communication platform for shoppers – sharing important centre messaging, as well as rich, hyper-localised content tailored specifically for each centre’s customers.
Featuring the latest data technology available, these screens offer advertisers deeper insight into who their audience is and the peak times they move, allowing them to more creatively and effectively connect with their audiences.
Lendlease currently operates a network of 184 digital screens across portrait, landscape and roadside formats, and continues to grow.
This article by Ashley Bell, General Manager, Pop Up and Commercialisation at Lendlease is featured in the latest edition of Shopping Centre News.
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