Continuing the evolution of retail
Retail is an ever evolving industry. Change is a constant for us. For decades, listening, learning, and adapting to the needs of our customers has been one of our core strengths in Australia.
But few would disagree that the size and scale of disruption currently facing global retail markets is like nothing we’ve experienced in our lifetime.
January 2019 marked the anniversary of Amazon’s much anticipated arrival in Australia. And while a year on it would be easy for us to dismiss the hype of their arrival, the challenge before us, driven by much broader global and structural megatrends, is real and cannot be underestimated.
Now more than ever we need to be using these strengths – listening, learning and adapting – to continue on this pathway of evolution.
Like Amazon, I’m also approaching the anniversary of my time leading one of Australia’s largest and most diverse retail property businesses. I’ve spent much of this time better understanding our operation and the broad range of customers, retailers and markets that we operate in.
I’ve also been investigating and analysing the global megatrends that are influencing and shaping this change to our industry, grounded broadly in economic, technology, demographic and behavioural categories.
What has become increasingly clear is that this disruption, while significant, brings with it huge opportunity if we play to our strengths and pivot on our weaknesses.
As we look to the year ahead, Stockland will be embracing this disruption with a strategy that we believe will position us well in this globally changing retail environment.
Our Retail Town Centre portfolio will be reshaped and defined by metro markets in unique, convenient destinations, like Stockland Balgowlah on Sydney’s north shore, or regional markets in leading destinations, like Stockland Wendouree in Ballarat.
Anchored in the right places, our success will be driven by our clear strategy to position our portfolio for the future, via a focus on our three Cs – Community, Convenient and Curated.
Our centres are the heart of the community
Shopping centres are now a destination, not just transactional and it is important for us to remember this in everything we do. The future of retail is about creating spaces that are at the heart of their community, meeting places for families and friends in the style of a true town centre. These are places that people feel pulled towards because of what they represent as much as what it contains.
This is especially true in regional communities where we are seeing an increasing demand for destinations that combine experiences, services and public places.
We recently celebrated the completion of stage one of our $87 million Stockland Birtinya shopping centre on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Located off major road-artery Kawana Way and directly opposite the Sunshine Coast Health Precinct, this new shopping centre is well on its way to becoming a vibrant and thriving town centre that will serve a future catchment of more than 135,000 local residents and the thousands of people who visit the health precinct every week.
The shopping centre forms part of a broader $830 million Town Centre, which will also feature a new civic plaza, walkable waterfront along Lake Kawana and open green space.
On its completion, Birtinya will be a destination, linking health and education services in a place that is central and easily accessible – a place that connects people for business and fun and, importantly, creates a regional destination for the Sunshine Coast.
We are also creating vibrant, thriving, outdoor dining precincts such as the Avenue at Stockland Shellharbour. These spaces create a great community atmosphere and truly come alive with live music in the evenings and are enjoyable spaces for people to socialise with friends and family.
At Stockland, we strongly believe that our communities and town centres across Australia should be accessible to all people and have continued our commitment to creating inclusive places for the community.
From working with the Touched By Olivia Foundation to create inclusive play spaces in our retail centres, to introducing inclusive amenities like Quiet Rooms and adult change rooms, it is important that our facilities cater to all members of the community and that we continue to provide an inclusive and safe environment for all customers to enjoy.
Convenience
We see shopping centres as becoming not just about shopping but also more focused on lifestyle offerings – giving customers not only food, but also entertainment and options for all their service needs from the dentist, the beautician and the gym, to banking and Medicare.
While some retail categories are being challenged with globalisation and the growth of online shopping, services are performing quite strongly. This shift actually provides a competitive advantage both for the landlord and the retailer as we see increased dwell time and engagement from our customers.
As part of our $37 million redevelopment of Stockland Wendouree last year, we welcomed more than 20 new specialty stores and service providers to the centre, including the region’s first Laser Clinic Australia. Community feedback on the composition of services they needed was invaluable in ensuring we delivered a first-class convenient experience in the heart of regional Victoria. Our customers have been thrilled with the results.
Entertainment providers have also proven to be a drawcard for customers, as we have seen with the recent addition of Hoyts at Stockland Green Hills and Timezone at Stockland Hervey Bay.
By bringing together retail, services, dining and entertainment offerings all in the one place, we can create a sustainable destination that our customers can enjoy now and well into the future.
Curated experiences
Our customers continue to demonstrate their desire for more curated activations and offers, tailoring unique experiences for the local community – including innovative in-centre features, tech-integrated amenity and sustainability led initiatives to enhance their everyday shopping experience.
At Stockland, we are investing in a number of initiatives to help us embrace future change from Electronic Vehicle (EV) charging to social robotics and to give us strategic direction around the opportunities that technology can provide.
Last year, Stockland partnered with the Australian Museum to tour a life sized model of a prehistoric crocodile to four of our NSW retail centres including Stockland Merrylands, Stockland Shellharbour, Stockland Wetherill Park and Stockland Green Hills.
SuperCroc on Tour was a fantastic opportunity for our customers to see, interact with and learn about a popular museum exhibit at their local shopping centre. We also ran a number of fun and educational activities for kids to enjoy in conjunction with the SuperCroc tour and offered visitors the chance to win a family trip for four to the Northern Territory for a real life crocodile experience.
With his fascinating history and impressive size, SuperCroc proved to be a favourite for young and old alike, with hundreds of shoppers getting up close and personal with the gigantic prehistoric predator.
We were thrilled to work with the Australian Museum to take SuperCroc on tour and this is just one example of the many educational entertainment offerings we have delivered to our shopping centre customers in the past year.
Moving forward
To deliver on Community, Convenient and Curated; we need to prioritise a rebalancing of our portfolio to get these fundamentals right.
Our Retail Town Centre portfolio will be focused and defined by metro and regional markets in unique, convenient destinations.
A strategy is nothing without people to deliver it and so late last year we also announced some changes to the structure of our business. We’ve brought in deep expertise and promoted within in order to enhance the capability and adaptability of our business.
There’s no doubt these are challenging times for retail and we must evolve faster than ever before. But there is also great opportunity if we continue to question ourselves and focus on our customers.
About Stockland
Stockland (ASX: SGP) was founded in 1952 and has grown to become one of Australia’s largest diversified property groups – owning, developing and managing a large portfolio of retail town centres, workplace and logistics assets, residential communities and retirement living villages. Stockland is recognised as the most sustainable real estate company in the world by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and as a Global Sector Leader by the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark.
Stockland is also an Employer of Choice for Gender Equality, as recognised by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
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