The International Council of Shopping Centers' annual retail real estate convention in Las Vegas, RECon, is typically a festival of excess, but this year there is a noticeable level of restraint.
Several prominent retail firms called off or scaled down their private parties at the event, which began over the weekend and runs through May 23, likely in response to ongoing retailer downsizing and bankruptcies, and the uncertainty that has set in around the future of brick-and-mortar business models. The more earnest mood is also reflected in the details: the marketing materials, typically bright and carnival-esque in their color range, are an austere black and red, and the convention center signage promotes a sort of grim determination.
ICSC's signage for RECon 2018 promotes a sort of grim determination. |
"Less Doubt. More Deals," one read. "Less Hesitation. More Handshakes," read another.
Attendance figures are still strong. Roughly the same number of industry players committed this year as last year, and about the same number of landlords, retailers and vendors are exhibiting on the trade room floor — about 37,000 and 1,100, respectively, an ICSC spokesperson said in an email.
Presenters on the conference's first day, which is dedicated to professional development, sought to distance the conversation from "retail apocalypse" forecasts. They were, on the whole, optimistic about new and improved brick-and-mortar models focused on experience and customization, glimpsed in the storefronts that "digitally native" brands are opening in high-quality centers.
In a conference opening session on "The Next 25 Years," Matthew Winn, founder of Win Winn Consulting, gave a frank assessment of traditional retail business models. Simply putting a well-known product on a shelf and putting ads out into the ether "doesn't work anymore," he said. Retailers must engage consumers.
Winn held up the British luxury fashion brand Burberry as a gold standard. Burberry now channels the funds it used to spend on print advertising into social media, and then uses the "likes" its posts receive around specific colors and styles to help curate its runway shows.
"The way we do things is [going] beyond mass market, and going to mass customization," Winn said.
There will be more growing pains before the majority of retailers come around to the new normal, however. Winn forecast "pretty serious" store closures in the coming quarters as the business models shift from a focus on overall store count to maximizing the profitability of individual stores.
"There's going to be some pain. Let's not kid ourselves," Winn said. "But again, in that is ... opportunity."

