While you may think there's nothing that can beat good old fashioned in-person canvassing, you can and should start moving your efforts online (if you haven't already). Not only can you cover more “ground”quickly, but contacts and retailer information are just a few clicks away - giving you the data needed for personal outreach.

To make the most of your online canvassing efforts, there are a few things you can do that will decrease frustrations and increase success.

Tip 1 - Target specific retailer types (or even specific retailers) to maximize your digital canvassing efforts. It helps you get to the retailers who could be potential tenants. Identify what uses the center needs, check non-exclusives of tenants to see what is and isn’t allowed based on who currently occupies space, and do void analysis - what’s missing from the area. 

Tip 2 - Be armed with the right toolkit . New tools launch daily claiming to solve all of your problems. But too many tools can lead to an overwhelming feeling. This usually results in scrapping everything and going back to what you were doing before. While we believe Retailsphere should be your first option for digital canvassing, there are others you can use to get you started in the right direction. 

Yelp can be a great place to start identifying retailers who are well loved by learning the number of five star reviews they have from customers. Beyone reviews, their mapping feature lets you navigate a particular area with simplicity.

Blogs can be another beneficial resource to your canvassing. Try searching local blogs where authors focus  on finding the coolest new restaurants or shop at unique boutiques or perhaps partner with retailers. Many bloggers create lists of trending brands as well. 

Once you’ve done some prospecting and outreach, you’ll need to keep track of your efforts. The Retailsphere all-in-one CRM allows you to prospect and lead nurture in the system. Yes, it’s time to kick those excel or Google Sheets to the curb. This is an outdated way to keep track of progress. Other helpful systems include Airtable or Monday.

Tip 3 - Conduct Void Analysis. While retailers in nearby shopping centers may be a good fit for your vacancy, they are also clearly your competition. Looking at these centers can give you an idea of what types of retailers you may want to avoid.Or look at it from a void analysis angle - what is the area lacking? This can be done simply by using Google maps. Plot your shopping center and search around that retail corridor.

You can also leverage a tool like Retailsphere to speed up the process. Simply navigate to the "Shopping Locations" section and search by distance from your location, type of center, or number of units. 

Here, you will find an extensive list of shopping centers, each with a profile that includes: general center information, ownership information, contacts, key demand drivers, and most importantly, tenant information. Simply select the shopping center you would like to canvas to open up that profile.

Once you select a location, select “tenants” from the navigation and go “door-to-door” virtually, reviewing the retailers in that center.

Tip 4 - Utilize Social Media Social profiles can often give you an idea of the size of a brand and if they are poised for expansion. For retailers where it’s not as obvious, you can send a note on Facebook Messenger  or try sending a  DM (direct message) on Instagram to begin a conversation.

Tip 5 - Lead Nurture . The most important part of prospecting is your follow-up. Rarely do you get exactly what you’re looking for with the first message. You must keep track of your prospecting data and create a follow-up system for yourself to build on the relationship with your prospective tenant. If you use a tool like Retailsphere, you can log all of the businesses you’ve reached out to. Since the system was specifically created for commercial real estate professionals, it includes natural next steps in the CRM like Prospecting, Flyer Sent, Booked a Site Tour, or Lease Negotiation.

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There are plenty of ways to canvas for opportunities in the digital world. Tools that can help you digitally canvas in commercial real estate include: Yelp, Google Maps, blogs and social media - all great ways to get started. Ultimately, you need a way to tie everything together and ensure you’re converting prospects into closed deals aka tenants. That’s where Retailsphere lends a hand.

Retailsphere is THE commercial real estate tech tool that gives you the data you need to target the right retailers - those that are expanding, prospect to the right people - inclusive of contact information, and track all of your progress and conduct lead nurturing all in one place - in its custom designed CRE CRM system. 

This is an updated version of an article posted August 2020.

The post Tips for taking your CRE canvassing online appeared first on Retailsphere.

You and your commercial real estate team can only move as fast as your slowest and most outdated part - so it’s time to say goodbye to Excel and hello to modern pipeline management. Here are a few reasons why you should ditch Excel and graduate to a better way to manage your deals:

1. You can manage more leads, more effectively

Excel is great for holding a lot of data but it’s not great for maintaining complex relationships. As a commercial real estate professional, you know how important it is to work with your team to nurture new leads and build lasting relationships. While Excel might be able to keep track of the number of times or the ways that you’ve reached out to a lead, an integrated pipeline management solution can  notify you when to make a call, tell you when a prospect lapses, or remind you of important site meetings -  all ensuring opportunities aren't falling through the cracks and providing a greater chance of closing more deals. 

2. Digital pipeline management automatically updates information across your organization. 

When vetting leads and managing your deals, you should be confident that the information you’re looking at is accurate and up-to-date. An Excel spreadsheet is only as good as the person who may, or may not be, updating it. Face it, commercial real estate can be hectic and fast paced and making sure your Excel spreadsheet has the latest information in it is not always top of mind - and that’s okay! Let a digital platform maintain the most up-to-date information on deals, leads, and contacts, plus if you’re using Retailsphere, our database is automatically integrated, allowing new information from our research team to update in your pipeline without anyone ever thinking about it. 

3. It’s like having a digital assistant to ensure you don't miss anything

To close most deals, it usually takes on average up to 18 touchpoints, and that's a lot to keep track of on your own. An up-to-date, modern deal flow solution, lets you add notes to interactions, attach important documents, and set up future reminders so you don’t miss anything in. your day. And some tasks can be easily automated like reaching out on your behalf, pulling in the latest data, or sending you reminders to call, text, or message a contact; and the best part is that it’s incredibly easy to set up. Yes, it’s possible to automate an Excel spreadsheet, but have you ever tried to set that up yourself? Getting the most out of Excel is almost like having to learn a new language. Instead, let a pipeline management system help you make more money for you and your clients.

4. You need actual (and automated) reporting to better manage deals

Excel is often used as a reporting tool, but if you’re managing information and trying to analyze it all in one spreadsheet, things can get messy. Pipeline management tools let you keep track of your deals in a more effective way and create automatic reports for you so you can see what is happening at a glance and take action quickly. This means you can access and track the data you need when it matters, and have the system generate reports for you (without extra effort) so you can improve your interactions and close more deals. Leveraging a CRE specific tool like Retailsphere also means having access to lease information, space requirements, and retailer profiles to enrich your reports and add a layer of analysis an Excel spreadsheet can never deliver. 

5. Excel spreadsheets just aren’t the best tool for CRE pipeline management

Microsoft Excel has been around for nearly four decades - it’s had a good run, but you don’t want you or your team missing important opportunities or client connections. To ensure that you are staying up to date with your clients and giving yourself or your team the best information, it’s important to make sure that you’re using the right tool for the job. A modern pipeline management solution provides your staff with an easy-to-use management platform that keeps them up-to-date, on task, and in touch with the right people. 

Looking for a solution? Look no further. Retailsphere has been developed from the ground up for the commercial real estate businesses. Retailsphere integrates all the information and tools you need into one space, including a pipeline management tool that caters to the specific needs of CRE professionals.

With Retailsphere, you have built-in prospecting and lead nurturing tools, a complete contact database and management system - all-in-one. Just think about how many Excel spreadsheets you’d need to accomplish that!

Learn how Retailsphere can upgrade your CRE business.

The post Its time to ditch excel for modern pipeline management appeared first on Retailsphere.

This year, retailers will open more stores than they close for the first time since 2017, according to JLL research. If you have vacancies to fill, now is the time to step up your efforts to find the right retailers to fill those spaces. 

Here are five strategies to consider when searching for retail tenants. 

1. Use Data to Identify New Tenants

Access to robust data will help you identify retailers that will prosper in your space. So, what type of data is useful when searching for prospective tenants? 

You’ll want a database that helps you answer questions such as:

• What retailers are expanding and where?
• What demographic requirements do retailers consider in their search for space? 
• Which retailers attract the most foot traffic?
• What level of sales do specific retailers ring up at individual locations?  
• What is public sentiment for specific retailers?
• What brokers represent the retailers you want to attract? 

Luckily, you don’t have to collect this data on your own. By subscribing to a commercial real estate database, you can gain access to decision-maker contact details and other retailer data.

As you evaluate retail database options to support your property management efforts, consider how the data is collected. A robust data collection effort will include a variety of methods, such as web scraping, indexing of government and open-source records, and telephone research.

The leading, modern property management systems also use artificial intelligence to predict future trends. 

For example, Retailsphere’s closures prediction algorithm will help you predict which tenants may close and vacate your spaces soon — giving you a head start on your property marketing efforts.

2. Automate Marketing Tasks with Real Estate Technology Tools

Connecting with prospective tenants for your retail properties can be a laborious process. You can save time by automating more of your marketing processes with a customer relationship management (CRM) system built for the commercial real estate industry. 

A CRM system helps shopping center owners and brokers to communicate efficiently with prospects through all stages of the sales journey. You can log your outreach to prospective tenants and take notes on your conversations, helping you remember details and keep your whole team on the same page. 

Then, you can set up tasks to track action items with each contact. That might include scheduling your next email or setting up an onsite meeting at your retail space. 

Look for a system that includes customizable templates that make it easy to engage with prospects via email and text. You will also want the ability to personalize communications even when sending to a large group of prospects. 

Other useful features include the ability to create and send calendar invites from within the platform, as well as to create custom reports. These reports will show all the effort your team is taking to get the right retailer into your space.

3. Build Relationships with Retailers

Commercial real estate owners and brokers are increasingly turning to texting and social media messaging to nurture leads. Scrolling through target retailers’ Instagram and Facebook profiles will help you learn about their brands and customer bases. 

Engaging with prospective tenants through social media and text is also a great way to meet them where they are. Nearly three-quarters of Americans are active on at least one social network, according to Pew Research. 

By tracking social networks and mobile numbers within your CRM system, you’ll know what channels drive the best response from retailers. From there, you can send custom texts, Facebook messages, LinkedIn InMail and Instagram DMs to the right people at the brands you want to attract. 

4. Reimagine Your Shopping Center’s Identity

Once you’ve evaluated the data to identify the retailers you’d like to see in your shopping center, you’ll want to look at your space with a critical eye. Is it designed to attract the target customers of those retailers? 

The identity of your shopping center matters. That includes everything from the branding and physical design to the amenities you provide.

For example, if you want to fill your center with hip restaurants and trendy shops, you’ll have more success if you cultivate an insta-worthy experience for the social media generation. Consider working with a local artist to create a unique mural, as well as landscaping improvements.

Additionally, consider how the retail environment has changed in just the past two years. As they evaluate space options, more retailers are looking for convenient parking spaces that can be reserved for curbside pickup. Ensuring your center is equipped to meet the needs of today’s consumers will put you ahead in the race for new tenants.

5. Consider Untraditional Tenants

Even as retailers rebound from the economic downturn, it’s clear that the pandemic has accelerated the growth of e-commerce. McKinsey’s research finds more than half of consumers expect to maintain their online shopping habits after the pandemic ends.

While not a death knell for brick-and-mortar retail, the explosive growth of e-commerce is spurring retail landlords to rethink the ideal tenant mix for a modern property. 

You may want to explore targeting the following types of untraditional tenants:

• Medical: Healthcare companies make reliable tenants and bring a steady flow of traffic to a shopping center. Many medical and dental offices began expanding into retail spaces pre-pandemic as they sought to get closer to their patients — a trend that many experts expect to continue.

• Coworking: Many coworking providers find that retail properties meet their needs just as well as traditional offices. A storefront can offer a fun, creative space for flexible work, along with easy access to local services and amenities. 

• E-commerce: You may also consider businesses that benefit from online shopping trends, such as e-commerce fulfillment centers where consumers can pick up goods they ordered online. 

• Ghost kitchens: Many restauranteurs are capitalizing on growing consumer demand for online food order and delivery. They’re opening ghost kitchens — facilities that only prepare food for delivery and/or takeout. Ghost kitchens are expected to grow from a $43.1 billion industry in 2019 to $71.4 billion by 2027, according to Hospitality Technology.

Get Ahead in Your Search with Retailsphere

Embracing modern property management will position you to attract the tenants that will keep your shopping center thriving for years to come. Sign up for a demo to discover how Retailsphere can help you get ahead in your search.

The post 5 Ways to Modernize Your Retail Tenant Search appeared first on Retailsphere.

What is big data, and how can you use it to gain a competitive advantage? Read on to discover answers to top questions about the uses of big data in retail real estate.

What Is Big Data?

Real estate brokers, landlords, tenants, buyers, and sellers have always relied on data to make decisions. However, analyzing a handful of data points—such as square footage, vacancy rates, sales per square foot, and traffic scores—is not the same as leveraging big data. 

More than a buzzword, big data is a term that describes a large volume of data from a variety of sources. The interpretation of a wide range of data variables is a valuable tool for real estate professionals and can lead to not only more deals but also better deals done faster.

The information age has made it possible for you to access infinite data about almost any topic. And now, innovators are finding new ways to collect and analyze that infinite data to create business intelligence. Retail real estate is no exception. 

In addition to traditional data used in real estate transactions, such as demographics and comps, a variety of other variables can help you predict the future and make stronger decisions. Non-traditional data might include customer reviews, social media updates, and even shopper movements within buildings. 

Whether you’re a property owner or a broker, big data can create impactful insights. The trick is learning how to harness it. That’s where analytics tools come into play.

What Tools Can Help Real Estate Brokers Make Sense of Big Data?

Conventional methods of analyzing data—like complex Excel spreadsheets—don’t work with big data. Analysts simply can’t bring together and sift through tens of millions of data points quickly enough to deliver real-time, actionable insights. 

That’s where technology solutions come in. Machine learning algorithms make it significantly easier to aggregate and interpret disparate sources of data.

However, collecting the data and building accurate algorithms takes time and skilled talent. That’s why many CRE brokers and landlords subscribe to database solutions to aggregate the data they need.

If you are considering such a solution, it’s important to ensure the company has a robust process for ensuring data accuracy and timeliness. Quality databases pull information from multiple sources, provide transparency on the origination of each data point and go the extra mile to ensure accuracy and timeliness. 

How Can Big Data Empower Retail Real Estate Dealmakers?

When seeking new tenants, retail property landlords and investors want more than a retailer that can pay the rent check next month. They want to attract brands with strong long-term growth prospects. New tenants should complement their existing tenant mix and boost the overall image of the shopping center or mall.

How do you identify the retailers that meet that definition of good tenants? Enter, big data and predictive analytics. 

By analyzing comprehensive data sets, you can narrow down your prospect list to a few retailers that would be a perfect match for your space. You’ll want access to a database of retailers’ site selection criteria so you know what they look for in their space. This involves frontage and size requirements, parking ratios, traffic counts, demographics, and co-tenancy with other businesses. Then, you can compare that with your space to determine if there’s a match. 

Meanwhile, mobility and point of sale data can tell powerful stories about the foot traffic and sales a retailer sees at their other locations. That information, combined with social media conversations and customer reviews, will give you a better understanding of the brand’s strength and the impact it can have on the overall sales per square foot of the property 

Big data can also help you predict when you might have tenants vacating soon. For example, Retailsphere’s closures prediction algorithm scores tenants on their likelihood to close, based on a combination of variables. Equipped with this knowledge, you’ll be better prepared to fill their space if they do need to close the location.

How Are Retail Tenants Using Big Data to Find Space?

Just as you can use big data to find tenants, retailers are using big data to identify the places where they need to have a presence. In fact, retailers allocate millions of dollars to location intelligence to better understand who visits their stores, for how long, and where else they shop – before and after the store visit. 

Mobile devices allow retailers to access a treasure trove of information on consumers’ habits and traffic patterns by “geo-fencing” a property or even an individual store. That data—combined with other information such as demographics, drive times, and proximity to competitors—helps inform site selection decisions with a high degree of precision due to the granular level of trade area information. 

Additionally, location analytics gives retailers insights into how their competitors are doing and helps them establish benchmarks for individual stores. Location-based insights can also be used to improve merchandising. That might include offering a better selection of products based on local demographics or changing a store layout. 

What Are Other Uses for Big Data in Retail Real Estate?

Big data has many other uses beyond tenant prospecting and site selection. The use cases continue to expand as more information is collected every day through sensors and other devices connected with Internet of Things (IoT) technology.

For example, complex data sets and predictive analytics can play a powerful role in forecasting property valuations and lease rates. 

Research by McKinsey found that analyzing non-traditional data, such as proximity to a 4-store hotel or the number of cafes within a mile, can more accurately predict areas with strong potential for price appreciation than traditional data alone.

Big data can also help property managers improve efficiencies and make capital expenditure decisions. Smart building systems generate a constant stream of data about equipment performance, energy consumption, and more. 

Harnessing this data can help you reduce your carbon footprint and avoid capital expenditures by fixing equipment before it breaks down.

Leverage the Power of Big Data

Real estate agents, brokers, and owners have traditionally relied on a combination of intuition and historical data to make decisions. Thanks to big data, you now have the ability to layer on predictive analytics to fuel even greater business intelligence. 

Schedule a demo to discover how Retailsphere can help you tap into the power of big data.

The post How Is Big Data Impacting Retail Real Estate appeared first on Retailsphere.

Common bottlenecks include inefficient communication, complex processes, and information gaps. Luckily, there are solutions that allow you to address these pain points head-on and speed up your deal process.

Ditch Spreadsheets for a Shared Database

If you’re a broker or landlord striving to lease a retail property, you likely have several active prospects at any given moment—and many more if you are working to fill several spaces across a portfolio of properties at the same time. How do you keep track of all the interactions you and the rest of your team have with each valuable individual prospect? 

Many commercial real estate teams rely on spreadsheets to track information about the leasing pipeline. However, this approach frequently leaves teams viewing outdated information, since spreadsheets must be updated manually and often have version control issues. And, you may find yourself constantly searching your inbox or shared drive to find the latest version, or worse, you might spend time updating the wrong sheet and have to start over.

You’ll gain efficiencies and improve communication by using a pipeline management system—a tool used by leading commercial real estate teams to manage deals. It can serve as your single source of the truth, showing you where every deal is in the pipeline, at any moment of the day. That way you don’t have to wait until a cumbersome spreadsheet is circulated to get an update, since it is all updated in real-time. 

When integrated with your contact database, a pipeline management tool allows you to capture more details about each prospect. You can see the retailer’s space requirements, contact information, and your communications log, including any shared drawings or docs—all in one place. 

Additionally, shared systems keep everyone on the same page, in real-time. For asset managers or leasing department leaders, this can be especially useful if you have a multi-site portfolio with several individuals leasing space at multiple shopping centers. 

For example, your asset manager in one city can see that a counterpart in another location recently showed space to an expanding home furnishings retailer. They can then share information about the prospect and help boost each other’s leasing goals, as well as create the desirable attraction of a multiple location deal for the retailer.

Conduct Pipeline Reviews to Identify Obstacles and Opportunities

Conducting regular pipeline reviews can help you identify possible obstacles to leasing your space, and also reveal your most promising prospects. This is another area where the right technology tools can be helpful. 

With a pipeline management system, you can run data-driven reports that will uncover trends and potential issues in your pipeline, early in the process. Running those reports requires minimal input—you can automate the process of creating custom reports. That frees up your time to focus on analyzing the findings to create actionable insights, making your leasing meeting less focused on fact-finding and more focused on breaking down obstacles.

Your pipeline review may uncover some obstacles that are standing in the way of a signed lease. After all, no matter how modern and well-located your retail center is, it simply won’t meet the requirements of every retailer. 

While some prospects will inevitably pass on the space, it is best to vet those tenants out early since those interactions provide a learning opportunity and can free your focus toward deals more likely to close. By getting to the root of the problem early in your pipeline review process, you’ll make the first step toward resolving any issues, as well as increase your ability to close more makeable deals.

With a curated, highly focussed list of tenant prospects, you can also zero in on the most qualified leads by reviewing your pipeline reports at the earliest point of contact. Then, you can focus your energy and time on the prospects that are most likely to be a good match for your space and the tenant’s expansion plans. 

Eliminate Information Gaps 

You undoubtedly have retailers in mind who would be the perfect tenants for your shopping center. However, tracking down the contact details for their real estate team may be tricky.

Don’t let information gaps stand in the way between you and your ideal tenant. You can overcome this hurdle by subscribing to a research service that provides contact information for national retailers, franchisees, and mom-and-pop shops. 

A research platform specialized in retail real estate will allow you to see what retailers are expanding, view their site requirements, and find contact details, eliminating the time-wasting associated with searching for a tenant contact, only to find that your property is in a market where the tenant has no desire to expand.

For example, Retailsphere’s service includes a concierge research team that will track down contacts for you if they’re not already in our database. You’ll receive a report that provides information on specific retailers’ expansion plans, co-tenant needs, site requirements, and verified contact information. The information will be added to your deal pipeline, making it easy for you to start outreach and begin leveraging your dealmaking skills.

Leverage Automation to Ensure Activities Don’t Fall Through the Cracks 

The path to a signed lease involves many steps, and one missed email can stall the whole process. An integrated pipeline management solution can serve as your virtual personal assistant to ensure your follow-up activities stay on track.

For example, an automated system can help you stay on top of all action items with your prospects, such as the following:

• Notify you when you are due to make a call to a potential tenant 
• Tell you when a prospect has not replied to your latest communications
• Remind you of important site meetings 
• Check whether other members of your team are following through on their assigned tasks

These seemingly simple tasks are crucial to staying on top of evolving deals. The right technology platform can streamline your activity so you can focus on your relationships.

Simplify Your Pipeline Management

Don’t let common bottlenecks clog up your leasing pipeline. 

Schedule a demo to discover how Retailsphere can help you streamline your pipeline management to find the perfect tenant for your retail space.

The post Top Tips: How to Overcome Leasing Pipeline Bottlenecks appeared first on Retailsphere.

This year, retailers will open more stores than they close for the first time since 2017, according to JLL research. If you have vacancies to fill, now is the time to step up your efforts to find the right retailers to fill those spaces. 

Here are five strategies to consider when searching for retail tenants. 

1. Use Data to Identify New Tenants

Access to robust data will help you identify retailers that will prosper in your space. So, what type of data is useful when searching for prospective tenants? 

You’ll want a database that helps you answer questions such as:

• What retailers are expanding and where?
• What demographic requirements do retailers consider in their search for space? 
• Which retailers attract the most foot traffic?
• What level of sales do specific retailers ring up at individual locations?  
• What is public sentiment for specific retailers?
• What brokers represent the retailers you want to attract? 

Luckily, you don’t have to collect this data on your own. By subscribing to a commercial real estate database, you can gain access to decision-maker contact details and other retailer data.

As you evaluate retail database options to support your property management efforts, consider how the data is collected. A robust data collection effort will include a variety of methods, such as web scraping, indexing of government and open-source records, and telephone research.

The leading, modern property management systems also use artificial intelligence to predict future trends. 

For example, Retailsphere’s closures prediction algorithm will help you predict which tenants may close and vacate your spaces soon — giving you a head start on your property marketing efforts.

2. Automate Marketing Tasks with Real Estate Technology Tools

Connecting with prospective tenants for your retail properties can be a laborious process. You can save time by automating more of your marketing processes with a customer relationship management (CRM) system built for the commercial real estate industry. 

A CRM system helps shopping center owners and brokers to communicate efficiently with prospects through all stages of the sales journey. You can log your outreach to prospective tenants and take notes on your conversations, helping you remember details and keep your whole team on the same page. 

Then, you can set up tasks to track action items with each contact. That might include scheduling your next email or setting up an onsite meeting at your retail space. 

Look for a system that includes customizable templates that make it easy to engage with prospects via email and text. You will also want the ability to personalize communications even when sending to a large group of prospects. 

Other useful features include the ability to create and send calendar invites from within the platform, as well as to create custom reports. These reports will show all the effort your team is taking to get the right retailer into your space.

3. Build Relationships with Retailers

Commercial real estate owners and brokers are increasingly turning to texting and social media messaging to nurture leads. Scrolling through target retailers’ Instagram and Facebook profiles will help you learn about their brands and customer bases. 

Engaging with prospective tenants through social media and text is also a great way to meet them where they are. Nearly three-quarters of Americans are active on at least one social network, according to Pew Research. 

By tracking social networks and mobile numbers within your CRM system, you’ll know what channels drive the best response from retailers. From there, you can send custom texts, Facebook messages, LinkedIn InMail and Instagram DMs to the right people at the brands you want to attract. 

4. Reimagine Your Shopping Center’s Identity

Once you’ve evaluated the data to identify the retailers you’d like to see in your shopping center, you’ll want to look at your space with a critical eye. Is it designed to attract the target customers of those retailers? 

The identity of your shopping center matters. That includes everything from the branding and physical design to the amenities you provide.

For example, if you want to fill your center with hip restaurants and trendy shops, you’ll have more success if you cultivate an insta-worthy experience for the social media generation. Consider working with a local artist to create a unique mural, as well as landscaping improvements.

Additionally, consider how the retail environment has changed in just the past two years. As they evaluate space options, more retailers are looking for convenient parking spaces that can be reserved for curbside pickup. Ensuring your center is equipped to meet the needs of today’s consumers will put you ahead in the race for new tenants.

5. Consider Untraditional Tenants

Even as retailers rebound from the economic downturn, it’s clear that the pandemic has accelerated the growth of e-commerce. McKinsey’s research finds more than half of consumers expect to maintain their online shopping habits after the pandemic ends.

While not a death knell for brick-and-mortar retail, the explosive growth of e-commerce is spurring retail landlords to rethink the ideal tenant mix for a modern property. 

You may want to explore targeting the following types of untraditional tenants:

• Medical: Healthcare companies make reliable tenants and bring a steady flow of traffic to a shopping center. Many medical and dental offices began expanding into retail spaces pre-pandemic as they sought to get closer to their patients — a trend that many experts expect to continue.

• Coworking: Many coworking providers find that retail properties meet their needs just as well as traditional offices. A storefront can offer a fun, creative space for flexible work, along with easy access to local services and amenities. 

• E-commerce: You may also consider businesses that benefit from online shopping trends, such as e-commerce fulfillment centers where consumers can pick up goods they ordered online. 

• Ghost kitchens: Many restauranteurs are capitalizing on growing consumer demand for online food order and delivery. They’re opening ghost kitchens — facilities that only prepare food for delivery and/or takeout. Ghost kitchens are expected to grow from a $43.1 billion industry in 2019 to $71.4 billion by 2027, according to Hospitality Technology.

Get Ahead in Your Search with Retailsphere

Embracing modern property management will position you to attract the tenants that will keep your shopping center thriving for years to come. Sign up for a demo to discover how Retailsphere can help you get ahead in your search.

The post 5 Ways to Modernize Your Retail Tenant Search appeared first on Retailsphere.

In the past, one of those go-to tools may have been a broker who connects you with new tenants. But for someone used to a DIY approach, the cost of working with a broker can sting. However, heaping their duties on your own plate leaves you with tons of research and due diligence to do, on top of everything else already in your day. 

Luckily, there’s a middle ground! Here are 5 ways Retailsphere does the heavy lifting for you when filling vacancies with or without broker.

1. TAP IN TO RETAIL TRENDS
   2020 brought huge shifts in the way people shop, and the demands continue to change. What are the latest regulations? Are certain types of businesses unexpectedly thriving? Keeping tabs on these things is important, but weeding out the important news from the fluff can be tough. 

   Retailsphere helps you monitor the latest industry news with an aggregate timeline of the latest reporting on market trends and data from the major sources. Beyond major media, you’ll also find the latest from individual retailers—all updated and ready to explore—under the Research function. 

2. TARGET EXPANDING BRANDS

Narrowing down your list of potential tenants is easy with Retailsphere’s search capabilities. Your search can begin with a specific category or the square footage specifications of your vacancy.

However you choose to search, easy access to all the options helps you find what you need—quick. Tap into a wealth of local and regional brands, which often offer a unique draw over larger chains that may have already saturated the area. Within the Retailsphere platform, brands are also earmarked with an “Expanding” tag to make it easy for you to zero in on a potential fit.  

3. ACCESS KEY STATS AND SPECIFICATIONS 

Doing homework on a brand's financial health, expansion plans, and building requirements can mean wading through annual reports, news articles, and press releases, which can easily leave you confused and overwhelmed. The information you need is often buried within long documents or excluded. 

In Retailsphere, each retail profile provides all the insider information you need to research a brand thoroughly all in one place. You’ll find details about planned expansion, including requirements around location, area demographics, and specifics around building size and specifications. You can also easily scan the list of current units and compare locations and other unique data for individual stores.

4. ACCESS COMPANY CONTACTS

Finding specific contact information and connecting with real decision makers can be arduous on your own. Email bounce-backs, phone number changes, and messages sent to the wrong employee can be frustrating for you and the retailer. But skipping the broker doesn’t have to mean skimping on relationship building. 

Retailsphere’s database contains direct contacts at brands you’re interested in—including notations on their role with the company and who makes site selection decisions. Armed with the brand requirements, you’ll have all you need to successfully pitch your vacancy to the right people. 

5. RESEARCH THE COMPETITION

No matter where you are located, knowing the types of tenants in competing spaces near you is crucial to your own location's success. Seeing what’s thriving, what’s oversaturated, and which key segments are being neglected can help you find the exact right fit for your own vacancies. But while competitors down the street matter, so do ones across town—and frequently even farther. 

Searching with the Retailsphere platform allows you to hone in on exact locations, down to the zip code. You can also do broader market research based on size and categorical factors. In our platform, each unit has its own profile with a full list of tenants and vacancies so you can confidently find quality tenants without the expense of a broker. 

Using the Retailsphere platform saves you time and makes searching for new tenants easy and accessible. If you’d like to see exactly how the platform functions for your specific needs, schedule your free demo today. 

The post 5 Ways CRE Owners Can Use Retailsphere to Find the Perfect Tenant appeared first on Retailsphere.

Our goal at Retailsphere has always been to do everything we possibly can to help our clients succeed. The ultimate goal of the RetailSphere™ platform is to empower our clients to close more deals quickly. In general, we strive to see our clients close more than ten times what they pay in subscription fees on the platform.  It’s quite simple. If our clients succeed, they will be excited and word will spread. And, of course, word of mouth is the best way to grow a business.

So how do we do that? Well, to Mark’s point, it has required building functionality that most of our clients weren’t using. We’ve been working on it for a while and will continue to improve on the product, but it’s much closer to being completed today than in 2020.

And what is the final goal of Retailsphere™ platform? Right now it can be described in three main parts:

1. A tool that makes reaching out to prospective clients/partners as easy as possible.

2. A tool that quickly allows you to find thousands of potential clients and partners.

3. A tool that allows you to easily track your activities, automate the scheduling of tasks and appointments, and quickly report on your activities.

These are 1. Our marketing automation suite, 2. The world’s largest contact database of retail CRE decision-makers and 3. A super painless, included (read FREE) Pipeline CRM™ tool.

So let’s quickly review each of these three parts. It starts with having the best marketing platform in the industry. Not only can you simply send bulk emails, and view when recipients are opening, clicking, and replying to your emails, but you can set up (w/ only a few mouse clicks) ongoing email cadences. These multi-step “fire & forget” marketing campaigns are incredibly powerful in building new relationships. But it’s a lot more than just providing the platform that allows for this. There is a great deal of training that goes into creating powerful multi-step cadences. There is an art and a science to it. And our team is there to help our clients quickly scale the learning curve of this powerful technology.

The second part is the database. You need to quickly be able to find dozens, hundreds, or even thousands, of potential clients or partners. RetailSphere™ is the largest contact database in the industry. By a huge margin. Not just contacts for massive national brands (which we have) but tens of thousands of others as well. Landlords, franchisees, locally famous concepts, architects, lawyers, and other service providers. These contacts can be quickly assembled into shareable collections that can be dropped into pre-build campaigns.

Finally, we have our Pipeline CRM™.  Easy and intuitive software that makes taking notes, remembering follow-ups, tracking deals, and reporting to your clients and senior team members effortless.

This Three-legged stool approach to retail commercial real estate deal-making is incredibly powerful. That’s why clients are so excited about the RetailSphere™ platform. Users really do expand their networks, close more deals and empower their careers!

Contact us today for a free online product demonstration so we can show you all of these powerful features!

The post Peterson Company's Mark Kufka is amazed at the RetailSphere platform's evolution in such a short amount of time appeared first on Retailsphere.

1). Fentons CreameryWhat's known for being the retro ice cream parlor that's open 24/7, Fentons Creamery has been a fan favorite since 1894 for their handcrafted ice creams and homemade sauces.

Besides being featured on the Travel Channel, Food Network, and the History Channel, Fentons Creamery can be found in the Disney movie, Up.

Whether you want to try some seasonal flavors like Apple Pie, Gold Rush, Rum Raisin, Egg Nog, or stick with the traditional flavors like Butter Pecan, Chocolate Mint, Swiss Milk, Cookies 'N' Cream, Coffee, or Mocha Royale, you can find them all here.

With locations in Oakland, and Vacaville, California, they are an up and comer garnering notice nationwide. 

2). Bi-Rite Creamery

This homemade organic creamery has been around since 1998 and strives to make a difference for this Earth. Through their farm, solar-powered ice cream truck, and Bi-Rite Cafe in Civic Center Plaza, they want to create an atmosphere that families can come together to enjoy delicious ice cream surrounded by nature's beauty.

Every flavor that Kris makes, focuses on remembering and recapturing a happy memory by using flavorful and locally sourced ingredients. Everything is homemade, even the ingredients that go into their ice cream, so you know what you're putting into your body.

They have five San Francisco locations and are looking to expand their footprint in the bay area.

3). Afters Ice Cream

Afters Ice-Cream is on a mission to create an "Anti-Diet Diet Club" where they embrace eating desserts because it's more than just ice cream, it's known as a lifestyle.

Their message and unique flavors like Milk and Cereal, Cookie Monster, and Jasmine Milk Tea sets them apart from their competitors. Whether you want a cup, a cone, or a glazed bun, with their one of a kind ice creams in between, come on by one of their twenty-seven California locations.

Take your ice-cream experience to the next level by trying out these top three California ice-cream concepts today; you don't want to miss out on the fun! Reach out to schedule your Retilsphere demo today.

The post Top Ice Cream Concepts to bring to your California Shopping Center appeared first on Retailsphere.

The "Rule of Seven" by Dr. Jeffrey Lant emphasizes the importance of reaching out to your buyers at least seven times within an 18-month period for effective brand recall.

In commercial real estate, and sales and marketing specifically, the "Rule of Seven" still hold true, and RetailSphere™ platform can curate and cultivate those 7 touches with ease. The rule suggests that a minimum of seven meaningful touches are crucial to securing a sale or deal. This concept underscores the importance of persistent and strategic engagement with potential clients, and RetailSphere's Marketing Automation platform proves to be a game-changer in achieving this goal.

“Being able to group brands into specific collections and being able to reach out to them about our current listings, and expansions is huge,” said Colton Oliver, 3CRE marketing coordinator.

The Power of 7 Touches

Each touchpoint with a potential customer serves as a building block, gradually creating brand awareness and trust. These touches can manifest in various forms.

In essence, prospects need to be exposed to your company or its marketing messages at least seven times before they are inclined to make a purchase.

“Our platform is built to help you reach out, with your curated message at least 7 times,” said Ken Brown, vice president of sales. “It really it like magic. The Rule of Seven isn’t new, but the way RetailSphere™ takes it to the next level is simply a gamechanger.”

Understanding the Rule of Seven

The "Rule of Seven" says that to get your brand into the memory of your target audience or prospect, you must make contact with them at least seven times within an 18-month period. RetailSphere dials up that time frame but the concept remains the same.

Initiating contact with prospects is a strategic approach to increase exposure and effectively leverage the rule of seven for driving sales. This can involve cold calling new prospects or reaching out to those with whom you've previously engaged. During these interactions, you can delve into discussions about the current state of their business operations, aiming to nurture them into becoming loyal buyers.

RetailSphere's Marketing Automation in Action

RetailSphere's Marketing Automation platform serves as a comprehensive solution to implement the Rule of Seven effectively. From managing customer relationships to automating marketing campaigns, RetailSphere empowers businesses to:

• Track Interactions: Monitor and analyze customer interactions across various touchpoints to gain valuable insights.
• Personalize Communication: Utilize data-driven insights to personalize communication, ensuring that each touchpoint resonates with the prospect.
• Automate Campaigns: Streamline marketing campaigns through automation, saving time and resources while maintaining consistency.
• Measure Effectiveness: Use analytics provided by RetailSphere™ to measure the effectiveness of each touchpoint and refine strategies accordingly.
• Organize it all in the FREE Pipeline CRM™

Pipeline CRM™

Implementing the rule of seven in your company's strategy requires careful consideration and adherence to some fundamental guidelines. To begin with, utilizing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is paramount. This enables you to monitor interactions with potential clients, providing insights into how many times each prospect has encountered your  company's messages.

A core marketing principle underscores that it takes seven "touches" before individuals internalize or act upon your call to action. These touches can manifest in various forms, including physical interactions like networking events or exposure to ads, whether physical or digital.

In the competitive landscape of commercial real estate, the Rule of Seven stands as a guiding principle for successful customer acquisition. RetailSphere's™ Marketing Automation emerges as a powerful ally, offering the tools and capabilities needed to execute and optimize the seven touches effectively. Embrace RetailSphere™ to not only meet but exceed the expectations of your prospects, making each touch count towards a successful sale. Discover more about RetailSphere's Marketing Automation here.

The post Why 7 Touches is so Magical appeared first on Retailsphere.