Our most recent guest at RealExpert Interviews, Ronny Max of Behavior Analytics Academy, is well known for her work with retailers, brands, technology providers, high-tech startups, marketing agencies, venture capital, and research organizations on people tracking technologies, customer's journey projects, and in-store optimization (ISO).
Ronny uniquely can speak seamlessly about diverse techniques like online Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), Behavior Science (such as Nir Eyal HOOKED), and Growth Hacking (Customer Retention, Engagement & IRL Channel) in one sentence and make sense of how these help in ISO for a C suite executive in the retail business.
We had a really interesting video conversation about malls, their purpose and transformation and the necessity of technology and data in the transformation of malls. Ronny reiterated that how people tracking solutions, mapping the customer's journey, and using techniques of in-store optimization improve conversations and profits for retailers, brands, and malls.
Here’s the video below, and l have jotted down a few notes as well, below the fold.
Notes from the chat:
On the purpose of malls:
Ronny focuses on 3 S - social, safety, and shopping.
Destination malls are growing and becoming consumer engagement centers where shopping means more than just buying a product from a retailer. The focus is definitely more on experience than anything else.
Most malls reflect the community where they are situated.
On user behavior at malls:
Tier 1 malls are doing more business than ever and growing
More people are coming to malls with a specific reason (shopping) - engaged visitor base
Gen Z loves engagement - Despite all that the digital world has to offer, they still crave for real connections, interactive experiences, and human interactions
On the transformation of malls:
Change of relationships between retailers (tenants) and mall owners (landlord) - flexible lease, - shared revenue, - proximity traffic
New revenue from advertising
Product mix of the malls is changing
Improvement in operations
On technology in malls
Data is driving this transformation in a big way
In-mall (space) optimization and valuation and tenant mix will be affected by accurate data on traffic, demographics, gaze time, dwell-time, engagement.
Proximity traffic and store traffic will help mall owners and retailers make informed decisions.
Run A/B experiments with analytics to understand what is working and what is not - understand consumer behavior better than before (for example to do better advertising).
RealValue is building solutions to better understand humans & their behavior in physical spaces using existing cameras and malls, stores, shopping centers are our target customers. So this conversation with Ronny was in many ways helpful. Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.