Despite an increase of online retail sales, shopping center developers in Romania say they have no plans to slow down. Instead, Tal Roma, development manager at AFI Europe, and Affan Yildirim, general manager at Anchor Group, said at this year’s CEDER conference that they will adapt to the changing market conditions. Online sales in Romania hit €2.8bn in 2017, up 40 percent from the previous year, according to a GPeC study. Figures only accounted for payments made on tangible goods. “I do not think we should worry. There are much larger online markets, like China or the US, whose shopping malls have huge revenues. We have recently visited a mall of 100,000 sqm in a secondary city in China, but usually the malls have a surface area of about 200,000 sqm. Of course, it’s possible for profits to change, but we have to adjust. Everyone has to analyze their product and think about how they might be different,” said Yildirim. Roma added that there are already retailers who have collection points at their stores where customers can pick up products bought online. “We need to adapt our strategies and find new ways to attract customers through more entertainment or pop-ups,” Roma said.
Retailers and retail space owners will have to adapt to the needs of consumers, which will change with digitization and technological evolution. “Will online stores replace physical stores? The answer is a marriage of the two: click and mortar. Online traders will open physical stores, and traditional ones will adapt to new technologies,” said Carmen Ravon, head of retail leasing at CBRE.
