The rapid growth of e-commerce does not spell the end for physical retail, with a combination of both pointing the way forward for retailers, the CEO of Europe’s largest listed landlord, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, told a conference in Cannes, France.

Speaking to a packed conference room at the MAPIC international retail property trade show, Christophe Cuvillier set out a case for both channels driving successful retail businesses in the years ahead.

"Is anyone in the room a click-only customer? I don't believe so," Cuvillier said. "Is anyone in the room a mortar-only customer? Obviously not. So every one of us is click-and-mortar, so retail is click-and-mortar — there’s no other choice.

"The future of retail is connected retail. It's 'where I want, with whom I want, and with whichever site or whichever store I want,'" he said. "It's totally interconnected."

Cuvillier cited recent research published by U.K.-based retail property industry body Revo, which found that retailers see an average 12% increase in online sales in a catchment area after opening a new store, while 29% of online sales are reliant on physical stores.

The Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, or URW, CEO also noted research by the International Council of Shopping Centers that found that when a retailer opens a new store, on average, that brand's website traffic increases by 37%, its relative share of web traffic goes up by 27%, and the retailer's overall brand image is enhanced.

"It shows that physical and digital can go together," said Cuvillier, adding that brands must be very selective about where they choose to open stores to maximize this effect. "And [it shows] that you cannot consider online as separate from physical."

The retail sectors in the U.S. and Europe, the two markets where URW's retail assets are based, have experienced significant turbulence in recent years. Major retailers in both markets have been forced to close stores or wrap up their operations completely as they have struggled with the rise of e-commerce, weak consumer spending growth and intense competition.

Closer collaboration between retail landlords and their tenants is required if more retailers are to avoid difficulties in the years ahead, said Cuvillier.

"Life is tough for retailers, life is tough for us," he said. "Business is changing so quickly. [The future of physical retail is] about sharing information, sharing business models and attracting more customers to more retailers."

"We need to collaborate much more with retailers and to have not just a negotiation about square meters, which is done every five or once every 10 years. But in between negotiations, we need to see how we can work together."

Cuvillier said that retail is evolving in three different directions: online, convenience, and destination retail.

"We are definitely in the destination or experience retail segments," he said. "This is where we concentrate, this is where we're good, and this is where we want to be No. 1 worldwide. So we're concentrating more and more on larger assets that correspond to our strategy."

Since Unibail-Rodamco bought the U.S. and European operations of Australia-based mall operator Westfield Corp. for $15.8 billion less than a year ago, the company has disposed of seven assets. The disposed assets were considered too small for the type of portfolio URW is aiming to build, said Cuvillier.

"The goal is not to dispose," he said. "But the goal is to concentrate and dispose of what we consider noncore assets as part of this strategy."