StreetDots, an app that allows landholders and street food vendors to do business, is one to watch. It was co-founded in 2014 by Atholl Milton, a street food vendor struggling to find good locations, and food sector brand design consultant Darren Callcott.
Lyndsay Anderson, StreetDots’ head of marketing, says: “It took us maybe 15 to 16 months to nail down operationally, so it gave landholders what they wanted, but worked for consumers. Effectively, we manage the leasing and licensing for vendors, and bring activity and revenue to landholders – I think the benefit for them is 50/50 between commercialising the space and enlivening it.”
British Land is an early adopter, seeing the benefit of the app’s flexibility – some pitches, or “dots”, at One New Change, EC3, are as small as one square metre. At Broadgate Circus, three van-sized dots are rotated between regular operators, a halfway house between consistency and freshness for punters.
The technology is smart, instantly advising operators where they can and can’t trade due to size restrictions or competitive restraints.
And as Anderson says: “It will get smarter as we progress. The data we collect will make it more powerful as feedback builds. For us, it’s lovely to help young food entrepreneurs get access to places normally out of their reach.”
In May, Land Securities signed up StreetDots to operate a seven-dot, 4,000 sq ft food court at Buchanan Galleries in Glasgow, which is to open imminently. Portfolio manager Emma Lawson says: “We will be rotating operators every two to three months. There’s been an overwhelmingly positive response from operators who have previously had to travel far and wide for opportunities. StreetDots brings a lot of innovation to retail – the web-based technology suits these occupiers. We hope it will drive footfall and give customers more opportunity to try different food types.”
Where does the future lie? Beyond a London-focused 2016, Anderson says: “We will target cities with high density, where people are excited about the next new thing – Edinburgh, Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham. And this can go beyond food – it would work in fashion, because there are loads of young brands looking for opportunities.”
Also helping landlords fill space is Vuframe, a Bavaria-based augmented reality provider that has created walk-throughs and fly-throughs of the Lexicon in Bracknell.
Richard Poyser, retail leasing manager at Legal & General Property, says: “The Lexicon Bracknell is 68% prelet a year ahead of opening. Usually buying off plan means site drawings, architects’ perspectives and imagination. Here, a potential tenant can see a finished shop unit before construction is finished. The ability to see a proposed shop in detail and the context in which it sits is incredibly powerful.”
Intu is one shopping centre owner that provides customers with wayfinding apps, and increasingly retailers too are coming to expect a tech-savvy environment. The 600 members of the New West End Company business improvement district in London, for example, have access to an app that gives information including footfall and sales data. But retail still lags the more SME-conscious office world, although Joe Cohen reckons demand is there from retailers. Cohen has run Ticketmaster, Match.com and Seatwave in the UK, and in December launched Property.Works, pitched as a commercial Rightmove with added intelligence.
He says: “From an occupier’s point of view, it was very difficult to get a view of the whole marketplace. The idea is to give SME occupiers transparency and discovery tools. For landlords, it can give more exposure to those smaller, difficult properties that may get overlooked by agents.”
Although only accounting for 15% of listings, 30% of enquiries are in retail. “There has been no real aggregation in this part of the market,” Cohen says.
The sweet spot is high street units for retailers large enough to be multi-site, but not so large as to employ property teams.
Cohen also has an eye on the future: “Soon, there will be millennials setting up businesses who’ll want to use mobile tech to find property, because that’s how they’ve grown up doing everything else. The way occupiers access information is already changing.”
The futureheads
How else might things change in retail? Hannah McNamara, partner at Cushman & Wakefield, suggests technology might be used for retailers to make use of “idle” space: “With pressure in logistics to meet delivery times – sometimes one-hour orders – the extra storage space many retailers have in central areas could be valuable,” she says.
Transport hubs offer a hint of the future, says Fiona Hamilton, global head of retail at BNP Paribas Real Estate: “OTG and United Airlines have started to enhance customer experience with thousands of iPads around terminals, and apps that can take you through the terminal with all necessary information.
“One element is forward-ordering food from different restaurants – so if one of the kids wants pizza, one wants Wagamama, and you want a glass of wine, that can all be delivered, sealed, to a table handy for your flight. That’s the sort of thing foodcourts might look to adopt looking forward.”
