Page 39 - December 2022/January 2023 #177

“Gone are the days of outlets being a secondary route to market
and of it being a channel that brands don’t prioritise or even like

to talk about. Customers are fluid and move between all the
channels, so making that journey a seamless one needs to be at
the heart of what a brand can deliver.”

Eleanor James, Head of Brand Development at McArthurGlen “It’s time to take data even further, it’s time for augmented BI”
discusses an established era for outlets and how Retail Advantage makes says Jordan.
a difference. “It is integral that we are able to provide our brand partners “Our experience in innovation puts us in a prime position to understand
with the knowledge, background and trade patterns of our centres as and improve processes to close the gap between the amount of data
well as the locations, regions and countries in which they trade. We available and the crucial decisions that are being made at every level of
gather, analyse and dissect this data from a wide selection of sources on a retail and leisure destination,” Jordan remarks. “Augmented Business
a daily basis. We then provide a service to our brand partners, advising Intelligence combines data science and AI tools like Machine Learning to
them what this information shows and how best to use it to maximise enhance data-driven decision-making. By utilising a conversational user
trade and performance across our portfolio.” experience to further data democratisation, each user in every business
Eleanor goes onto say that unlike full price; the outlet model is driven by area can create adaptable insights and make intelligence-driven decisions.
the partnership between brand and landlord. Data is a key factor in how This empowers organisations to be more flexible and agile. With this
that partnership can maximise performance across the off-price channel. technology, we can all be ready to act with an enlightened understanding
New technologies offer the opportunity to understand more about their of the next steps ahead and make a genuine difference. ” concludes Jordan.
customers’ behaviours, their shopping patterns, their likes and dislikes
and enabling this data to feed the already robust performance picture www.mcarthurglen.com
remains the utmost priority. To continue to maximise performance
in outlets, both landlords and brand partners need to understand as
much as possible about their customer and technology is best placed to
support the partnership in doing this.
Throughout 2022, McArthurGlen has seen a strong recovery post-
pandemic and as a result the company is in a good position to start to really
progress on more of their strategic priorities. James explains that the outlet
model is evolving and that technology is playing a bigger part in what they do,
making sure every customer’s journey to their centres is maximised involves
broadening assortment and availability to be best placed to meet demand.
As our time with Gareth and Eleanor draws to a close, we ask what’s
on the agenda for 2023?
“We expect to see this continue to evolve over the coming years, but
2023 feels like the first proper year of trade since 2019! It will also be this
year that we welcome our newest centre to the portfolio, Paris-Giverny,
which will become our fourth designer outlet in France,” explains James.