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THE SHOPS AT LA CANTERA San Antonio, TX Saah: What are people are looking for in their retail experience? Tell
FASHION SHOW, Las Vegas, NV us about some of the things GGP is doing to support the retailer and
enhance the customer experience.
32 Realcomm
Morey: Understanding the consumers’ path to purchase and how we can
maximize the path is critical. All the developers are focused on this.

Saah: Can you give us an example of your efforts?
Morey: A year-and-a-half ago I was charged with trying to figure out

how to provide same-day delivery. We partnered with Deliv to provide
that service. Several retailers focused on omni-channeling signed up
quickly. At first we thought this would give us a short-term competitive
advantage, but quickly realized if every mall owner started doing
their own thing, we would lock up the retailers and no one would do
anything. So we made it an industry-wide effort. In the third quarter of
2013, we launched in four markets. We now have close to one hundred
retailers, and are expanding into another 10 markets via this mall
aggregated delivery service.
This delivery service can range from same day delivery for online
orders to centralized areas within a mall for pickup. There are many
ways to build on this service. For example, Macerich now offers services
where you can shop and never pick up a bag, and if you have valeted
your car the bag shows up in your car. Other examples include providing
intelligent directories, personal shoppers, and free WiFi. Simon now offers
a loyalty program to help track consumer habits. All the mall owners in
some way are testing these concepts and others to ultimately further
drive retailer productivity.

Saah: And what is the specific benefit that you as the mall owner are
adding to this service?

Morey: The value we offer is that, while you the retailer could do this
without us, we bring scale and therefore a decreased cost. So we’re
adding value to the price point, but we are also adding infrastructure. We
have runners to pick up bags and common areas to store merchandise
to be picked up for delivery, and a range of other things.

Saah: I noticed in the Wall Street Journal that a growing number of
people are telecommuting from malls. Instead of hanging out at the
coffee shop, they’re hanging out at malls.

Morey: I can see that. More malls are expanding their common areas
and I believe everyone, if they are not already, will offer free WiFi soon.
Providing bandwidth is not just for the consumer. Increasingly, the
retailers are demanding it and virtually everyone is in some phase of
deploying high speed internet infrastructure in their malls.

Saah: Agreed. We assisted with the opening of Avalon in Alpharetta, GA
and that is basically a GigaCity with fiber and Gigabit WiFi throughout
for both retailers, customer, and residence.

Morey: At the end of the day, the retailers are going to navigate to the best
locations. Our mission is to help the retailers be more productive and
draw the right kind of customers—both repeat and first-time customers.
When we look at the entire mix of technology, marketing, and customer
experience, there are really just three things we can do: bring people in
for the first time; bring them back more often (experience); and try to get
a bigger share of their purchasing power.