Which new customer habits and behavior have been driving dynamic changes.

Coffee shops and restaurants operating on the premises of shopping centers have had one of the best results in the entire retail sector – the turnover in 2017 was as much as 8% higher than the year before, with a robust growth these last few years being a strong encouragement for further development. The biggest threat for these companies is the Sunday trade ban, which may to a large extent hinder the positive trend. To counteract such negative impact, the HoReCa sector turns to digitalization, automated sales and marketing processes and has started testing new products, services and e-commerce solutions.

Prominent agencies anticipated the rise of importance of entertainment (in the broad sense) in shopping centers a long time ago. However, these last few years, the shopping centers monitored by Retail Institute have not shown any particular changes in this respect. Coffee shop and restaurant tenants continue to occupy not more than 4% of shopping center GLA, whereas in case of entertainment this figure is approx. 8.6%. Do leaders in this sector see any space for new businesses? What changes should be implemented to transform shopping centers into social space?