As the saying goes, only when the sea is full of vicissitudes, can we show our heroism. For outlets, the environment has become more severe, but the industry as a whole has become more creative. Filling the planned retail space and attracting more customers has always been the constant goal of olai developers and operators, who have even surpassed their previous experience.

Outlets is adding more and more elements of local culture to the shopping malls, adding more catering formats, and more designer brands are expanding to the international market across the Atlantic Ocean. Outlets now has a community center function, and marketers are increasingly using personalized social media to reach more potential consumers. 

After value retail news released the North American outlets Industry Report in 2015, many things happened in the industry. Since 2016, eight outlets have opened in North America, six in the United States and two in Canada. The eight outlets have a total commercial area of 3685000 square feet, bringing the total commercial area of outlets in North America to 88016238 square feet.

In the United States, there are six newly opened aureli, two of which belong to Tangeroutlet, namely, Tangeroutlets Columbus (Ohio) and Tangeroutlets Daytona Beach (Florida). Tanger Fort Worth (Texas) will open in October, and the Des Moines (Iowa) project of New England development will open in October.

Between 2016 and 2017, Simon Property opened two new projects: Clarksburg premium outlets (Maryland) and Norfolk premium outlets (Virginia). Horizon group properties and Cbl jointly developed outlet shops at Laredo, Texas; EB development and two partners developed outlet shops at Corpus Christi Bay, corpus Bay.

Trend 1: higher proportion of international brands

Prada, Givenchy, a| x Armani Exchange and other international brands are increasingly settling in OLE, improving the brand level of OLE. For consumers, outlets are usually the place to buy luxury goods.

For example, six years ago, international brands accounted for only 5% of Macerich's brand portfolio. Today, 10% to 15% of its fashion outlets of Chiciago and fashion outlets of Niagara Falls are international brands, including all saints, Brunello Cucinelli and Etro.

This year, Simon real estate spent millions of dollars to renovate the world-renowned Woodbury Commonpremium outlet, introducing more European brands, such as maje, Sandro, CATIMINI, Lalique, Clarins and Perrin Paris.

Trend 2: more local characteristic industries

On the other hand, outlets' shopping malls are more and more close to the local characteristic business ecology, and more and more developers are cooperating with local retailers, manufacturers and catering practitioners. Whether it's opening a flash store or signing a long-term agreement, local brands have been staying in outlets for longer than ever before.

In the spring of 2017, prestige outlets in Chesterfield opened a fashion store featuring the presence of local brands. This concept store includes 20 retail brands of fashion, catering and home furnishing. Every week, four brands in the 2000 square foot store are illuminated and marketed centrally.

Located in legends outlets, Kansas, recently settled in the boutique made in KC, which is a 2600 square foot flash shop selling products designed by local artists in Kansas, including clothing, accessories, home products and crafts. There is another boutique named KC soda Co., sports Nutz, a sportswear brand, and chiusano's, a pizza brand.

Outlets of Mississippi settled in Hunter's Pointe, a local clothing and home decoration brand this year; the girl boutique also settled in OLE, selling clothing, accessories, shoes, etc.

The head of New England development, which has always been famous for adding local specialty catering formats to its Orly, said that local style clothing not only attracts local residents, but also tourists. The company's Palm Beach outlets is located in the birthplace of the specialty restaurant brand toojay's original Gourmet Deli.

Acropolis pizza, a restaurant brand, is called "the place for local people to eat" by people in North Carolina. This year, it also joined the Asheville outlets of Ned. There is another restaurant brand Tonicmrkt in this project. Tanger outlets Memphis, a subsidiary of Tanger, opened at the end of 2015 to pay tribute to Memphis's massive local music heritage through the project building, and has several monuments in the nearby Blues trail in Mississippi. In recognition of this contribution, Mississippi governor Phil Bryant presented a picture of the guitar of B.B. King, the "king of blues", to Tanger CEO Steve Tang.

Trend 3: catering industry began to be valued

Catering industry, which used to be the most neglected area in outlets, is now more concerned than ever. In outlets in Europe, the catering industry has always been a very important part, but in the United States, this area is no longer as neglected as before.

In the renovated Woodbury Commonpremium outlets, Simon real estate has built a new food plaza with an area of 50000 square feet, a circular dome at the top and seats for 900 people. The food brands in the park include the fast food brand Shakeshack, the British sushi brand yo! Sushi, and the pret a manger, the Paris bread brand Le pain Quotidien, and the New York food brand Magnolia bakery.

Of course, not all of outlets have enough customers to shop and fill the seats in the food Square, especially during the weekend. The outlets of Corpus Christi Bay, which EB development recently opened, does not have a food plaza, but there is a more innovative solution: it is equipped with a large dining car, which has different locations built by different catering brands, as well as dining areas with tables and chairs.

Tsawwassen mills, a new project of billionaire Cambridge, also has four full-service restaurants with outdoor terraces, as well as a wide dining hall with 16 catering retailers.

Trend 4: pay more and more attention to digital marketing

Nowadays, outlets pays more attention to pain point marketing than ever before. Ole can send customers the latest product discount information, and use the map to show the location of each store. Taubman developed an app in March 2016, which can be used in 14 shopping malls. By the end of June, the app had been downloaded 100000 times. Nebraska crossing outlets (referred to as nex) is leading the new mode of digital marketing. Through the use of mobile app, email, Facebook to target customers for precision marketing, more than 235000 customers have downloaded their apps.

NEX collects a set of target customers' information through the mailbox database, including business district demographic data, user consumption psychology data, geographic location information, etc.

Trend 5: organize more community activities to drain

In order to compete with other retailers, outlets shopping center is increasingly combining its own marketing with community activities. For example, fund-raising events such as "car cruise night" or to improve traffic jams caused by dog walking are often held in outlets. Outlet cooperates more frequently with different organizations to plan and host some large-scale events, and in some cases even create its own exclusive festivals.

Some of outlets, located in the suburbs, are miles from the nearest city center, but are committed to becoming a community suitable for family outings and gatherings. For example, Louisiana boardwalk outlets in posier, Louisiana, often hosts various large-scale events to attract visitors, such as festivals, parades, fireworks shows, etc.

Miromar outlets, located in Florida's triangle Bay, holds auto shows, dances, yoga programs, fashion shows, music parties, etc. in a specific week. Every year, there is a dance class for the fifth grade students, which has attracted the attention of the local media. Many seasonal charity activities are also held here.

In addition, Tanger company donated more than 17 million yuan to the red ribbon organization as funds for breast cancer research, and also donated money to anti-cancer related organizations through various orlay projects throughout the United States.

Trend 6: Marketing with celebrity effect

Tanger perfectly draws on the participation of famous people to make its Aolai business activities get more attention. For example, when tiger outlets Memphis opened in 2015, chip and Joanna Gaines, the most popular star hosts of HGTV, the personalized home life channel in the United States, attended the ribbon cutting ceremony.

Chip and Joanna Gaines are a star couple. They are the hosts of fixer upper, a popular American TV show for housing renovation. They often appear on the show as the people of stupid husbands and tortured wives. They now have a family and lifestyle brand called Magnolia.

Last year, when Tanger outlets Daytona opened, drew and Jonathan Scott, the hosts of HGTV's property brothers, two twin brothers, also attended the ribbon cutting ceremony. They also hosted a lecture on how to create beautiful home decoration at a low cost.

Last year, Simon's famous outlets got a lot of exposure last year because it sponsored a tour featuring American singers Demi Lovato and Nick Jonas. In Simon's Woodbury common Ole, Orlando International Ole, desert mountain Ole, Las Vegas North Ole, Chicago OLE and other projects, the two singers met several times.

Several future trends

Looking forward to the future, a new trend of outlets industry is that the location is closer to the city center, which changes the relationship between shopping malls and customers. For example, the Philadelphia outlet, which Macerich will open next year, is in the heart of the city.

At the same time, outlets direct sales centers are increasingly designed for multiple purposes, such as assembly row outlets in Somerville, Massachusetts, and celebration position in Gainesville, Florida, which recently announced plans for two comprehensive buildings.

Another trend that the industry is paying close attention to is that more and more traditional shopping centers or department stores are transforming into outlets. Under the guidance of the outlet resource group, the market mall in New York is transformed into outlets. At the same time, Dartmouth crossing shopping village is also undergoing transformation. This project is located in the most prosperous retail business circle in Canada, and will accommodate 60 designer brand discount stores after transformation.