Insights

Making customers happy means quickly identifying and efficiently addressing impediments to their online journey.

There’s a friend of the firm named Keith. We like Keith and Keith likes efficiency. In fact, he’s emphasized that value so much that the acronym KER, for Keith’s Efficiency Rating, has entered the office vernacular. KER was first commonly applied to road trips — for example, if your pitstop included miscommunications, botched orders or other delays it would score a low KER — but now it can cover practically anything, including a customer’s online journey.

Digital transformation, including the ability to provide a frictionless online customer experience, was already a high priority for businesses before 2020. However,  the pandemic really magnified the need as consumers across various industries, including Keith, concentrated and relied on digital service and delivery more. To grow revenue, companies had to keep customers happy during very unusual times. The logistical linchpin in that equation is, as Gary Drenik writes in Forbes, “a seamless digital customer experience, which has become the key to driving conversions and boosting brand loyalty.”

It follows then that companies need to know how customers are experiencing their websites and apps, what flows well and what are the sticking points. Increasingly, businesses are relying on analytics for the keen digital insights to ensure the online experience of customers is the best it can be. Worse than a technical glitch or “customer behavior anomaly” on your digital platform, as Yaron Morgenstern, CEO of Glassbox, puts it, is not knowing about it.

"Leveraging digital experience analytics (DEA) insights, brands can better understand their customers, tailoring the digital experience to suit consumer needs, which in turn drives success and business growth," Morgenstern said.

Using DEA, businesses can find and fix the glitches that negatively impact the customer journey. The top “pain points” in the customer’s digital experience include excessive pop-ups, slow page load times, difficult to navigate website/app, technical errors/website performance and forced account creation, according to Morgenstern. How important is that? Glassbox’s research found that three out of every 10 users will abandon in-app purchases when performance is sluggish. No two ways about it: there is a direct correlation between customer experience, revenue and brand loyalty, he asserts.

“We’ve talked a lot about retail’s more responsive future and that future is now,” said Marcia Homer, infinitee’s Director of Brand Management. “Customers will always want convenience and choice, which means retailers better be balanced and their digital CX must be a personal, constantly refined thing based on the latest analytics and evolving demand.”

Efficiency isn’t a new thing – just ask Keith – but the tools and approaches to achieve it certainly are in this post-pandemic stage of the digital age. The names may change but the needs stay the same: Happy customers are ones that get what they want without delays, confusion or outright frustration. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of a digital platform means knowing a better, more efficient way forward to optimize the customer journey. We join all companies smartly leveraging DEA to say enjoy your online stay!

Hybrid office teams should focus on several key habits to ensure office equality and reap the proper rewards of the workplace flexibility model.

It’s said that absence makes the heart grow fonder. Yet, in the world of business, as it makes another monumental transition from working fully remote to a hybrid office approach, out of sight could mean out of mind for those professionals not in the office when big decisions are being made and greater trust forged. How will fairness and equality be achieved within teams spread out across multiple sites? And will resulting hybrid habits help or hinder the workplace flexibility model

There’s a reason why firms spend 14 percent of total operating costs on change management. The only constant is change, which, everybody knows, got turned up several notches since the start of the pandemic. Laurel Farrer, the president of the Remote Work Association, wrote in Forbes that without intentional change management and equality support, hybrid work models can be “riddled with complications and potential blind spots.” Based on the research of veteran hybrid organizations, including Microsoft, Dell, and GitHub, she shared several key habits that all hybrid teams should be developing to assure and secure equality and unity from headquarters to the home office.

First off, proximity and presence do not equal productivity, Farrer asserts. It’s time for organizations to transition from that outdated office-based line of thinking to measuring performance based on actual output and results, regardless of work location. We at infinitee liken it to a community grand opening where you need to staff the welcoming/sign-in table, the property tours, the food and beverage areas, and more. Though spread out in different places, each is essential to the whole mission and making the operation a success.

Also, managers and team leaders should focus on how to ensure daily rituals are inclusive and help to enable the connection of a distributed team. Thinking that culture building only happens on annual retreats is wrong as is the leader mindset that returning to the office equals developing company culture. What about the off-site team members?

By offering a combination of physical and virtual culture development activities, nobody will be excluded from team development.

The “there’s some cake in the break room" mindset doesn’t work anymore in the hybrid work model, Farrer reminds us. To avoid that obvious location bias, it’s important to offer equal rewards. Issuing frequent announcements, gifts and rewards using mail, email and shared communications platforms establishes a sense of equal opportunity and equal reward, which keeps teams working efficiently and together.

Finally, managers should seek frequent feedback. What works for Karl in this hybrid work setup doesn’t necessarily work for Katelyn. And thoughts, feelings and opinions from early 2020 when the pandemic was new and especially unnerving definitely shouldn’t inform managerial decisions now. As Farrer maintains, employee satisfaction is dependent on so many x-factors, such as the percentage of team members in the office, a child’s learning-from-home status, internet speeds, or how company leadership embraces workplace flexibility. Stay in tune with the changing needs of your workforce.

“ Our firm is about people and our special personal touch,” said Tim Patton, infinitee’s CEO. “At the same time, it’s about having a ‘limitless possibilities’ customer service mentality. While the last couple of years – and resulting flexible work models – have altered the personal touch approach some, it’s strengthened our range through the new range of possibilities. At the end of the day though, it’s still all about serving people.”

Despite supply chain and other problems, retailers must maintain an elevated customer-centric approach, including digital experience.

Maybe the Greek philosopher Heraclitus doubled as a retailer. His famous quote “the only constant in life is change” definitely seems to describe the retail sector. As if retailers hadn’t faced enough adversity from the Great Recession through the advent of e-commerce, they’ve gone head on with a global pandemic the past couple of years and now are dealing with its aftermath.

Brand loyalty is falling victim to resulting supply chain adversity and high inflation, directly impacting consumer habits and preferences. As a result, 79% of people say they would purchase the next best option if their favorite brands are sold out or in low supply, according to a survey by shopping rewards app Shopkick, which surveyed more than 20,000 consumers across the country to determine how consumer behaviors have evolved since 2021.

59% said they are very willing to try a new brand and do so regularly, while 44% said their habits have changed with the retailers they shop at and brands they buy from. For the majority of consumers who say they have changed where they shop, 59% are now shopping at big box retailers such as Target and Walmart more frequently, as well as doing more research online before making purchases in-store (43%) and shopping more at local, independently-owned retailers (27%).

“In order for brands and retailers to retain customers' share of wallet, heart and mind, it is more important than ever to deliver a frictionless - and connected - online and in-store experience to ensure a positive interaction each and every time," said Brittany Billings, executive VP of strategic markets and marketing at Shopkick.

We at infinitee agree. It’s been discussed before in this space how customers were always bound to return to stores after the pandemic, but they were not going to return to pre-COVID expectations of the level of digital customer experience (CX) a retailer should provide. A five-country survey cited by Chain Store Age last year showed that 56% of respondents worried that brands may not maintain the level of effort in improving digital customer experience once the pandemic has ended, and 59% said their expectations for how brands interact and communicate with them will continue to rise post-pandemic. Nearly four out of every five respondents (78%) said those expectations rose during COVID-19.

The Shopkick survey found that a majority of consumers said online shopping habits have changed, and, of those, three-quarters said they are making more online purchases, 26% have signed up for more online memberships to take advantage of shopping rewards and promotions and 20% have tried new brands due to their go-to brands rising in price or being out of stock.

“It’s like the ol’ saying that one man’s problem is another man’s opportunity,” said Marcia Homer, infinitee’s Director of Brand Management. “Yes, there are macro issues out there, but retailers must control what they can control. Never losing the lessons from the pandemic about digital CX, let’s get to work making sure your brand connects with consumers in a unique and authentic way that makes an impact.”

Female professionals were disproportionately affected by COVID-19 but have pushed through to a present that they hope holds more promise.

The saying goes that Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but the actress, singer and dancer during the Golden Age of Hollywood did it backwards and in high heels. It hits at the fact that a woman has to work harder to keep up, especially in male-dominated industries such as commercial real estate. That’s in normal times; then along came a pandemic.

“I feel like this shutdown is disproportionately affecting women with jobs and kids, who are expected to be teachers, moms and workers all at once now that schools have shut down,” Laura Bassett, Jezebel magazine’s editor-in-chief, posted on March 17, 2020. “That is a lot of work.”

Mothers or not, women were far more vulnerable to the pandemic’s professional impacts, including mass layoffs, furloughs and slashed schedules, reported Bisnow. Calling COVID-19’s impact on the commercial real estate industry like that of a “precision bomb,” the news outlet noted that exacerbating this pandemic job adversity was the fact that women hold lesser seniority than men in general and specific industries that were hit hardest are female-heavy ones, including leisure and hospitality.

Calling it a “she-cession,” Forbes reported 12.2 million job losses for women in the first two months of the crisis alone, more than 1 million more than what men suffered during that time span. Since then, men regained employment at triple the rate of women, according to January 2022  U.S. Department of Labor Data.

Forbes added that “men vastly outstripped the number of women getting new jobs by orders of magnitude” during the peak of omicron: 875,000 new jobs to just 62,000 for women.

Remember this isn’t just loss of income, it’s also losing the possibility of wage increases and promotions. In the commercial real estate industry, women experienced stalled career growth, including limited training and mentorship opportunities. Many women were asked to do more with less.

”There's a mentality of ‘Yes, yes, yes. We understand that you are carrying a heavy burden, but this still has to get done,'" Jenna Kirkpatrick Howard, a senior vice president at Lockton Cos., told Bisnow. “There was a lot of this pace that is unsustainable… because there is no end to my workday, and the family demands are greater than they've ever been before. How do you manage that and communicate that to a boss or manager or your company?” As discussed in this space, some positives did come from the pandemic, especially increased flexibility from working from home to a hybrid office approach. Although 83 percent of CRE women respondents to a July 2021 CREW Network Research Survey  managed the majority or at least half of the family care, once in-person school resumed for many households the home office became more peaceful and productive for stay-at-home and stay-working mothers.

Despite women making up  just 23.5% of the 91 CRE firms’ highest-ranking executives, according to Bisnow’s analysis, the flexibility focus of the past two years in the industry perhaps has shown a greater light on the real juggle that working women have to negotiate daily. The working world has Zoomed in on these essential professionals, “ seeing us in our element and knew that it was OK to be both people”— a mom and businesswoman.

“At infinitee, we know our strategic approach, personal touch and limitless possibilities mentality are at their best with a diversity of talents, perspectives and experiences, with women being a huge part of that,” said Tim Patton, infinitee’s President. “The past two years have brought massive change to CRE and we hope a big good to come from that is more women in decision-making positions.”

This innovative social media feature expands the power of brand visuals where consumers and businesses are increasingly intersecting.

An old rule of writing is to show, don’t tell. In other words, a story connects more with the audience when related through sensory appeal rather than explanation. That’s a big reason why Instagram, the social network where people go to share photos and videos, is such a powerful platform. The fact that 200 million companies are on Instagram shows that the business world gets the picture.

The fact that 90 percent of the people on Instagram follow a business drives home the tremendous opportunity for engagement on the platform. Instagram Stories, one of the ways that brands on the app share content with audiences, enables potential consumers to learn more about a brand and what it offers. Rather than being displayed in the feed, the slide-show format of vertical photos or short videos (up to 15 seconds) are shown at the top of an active user's app for 24 hours after posting and can be tapped through to view.

Forty-six percent of marketers already use Instagram Stories, and 55 percent are planning on increasing their investment in the feature for 2022, according to Hubspot research. It shared some Instagram Story tips and tricks from businesses that not surprisingly made an impression on the team of brand makers, storytellers and creative advocates here at infinitee:

Wayfair

Online furniture and home-décor can be a pretty broad consumer market so why not divide and conquer by publishing Stories that fall into five specific home-related categories? This is exactly what the American e-commerce purveyor of furniture and home goods does with Wall Art Wednesday, #WayfairAtHome, Home Renos, Multifunctional and Design Services on Instagram Stories.

Wayfair not only creatively weaves product shots into each Story in either a humorous or creative way, it also develops and feeds smaller hyper-focused audiences that know when and where to get their fill of fun and, of course, the next idea for home. By presenting them as featured Stories like Wayfair does on its profile, interested parties per category will know where to click to see relevant content.

LEGO

The Danish toy production company not only uses interactive polls and quizzes in Instagram Stories to maximize engagement, but it also smartly targets older audiences that will be the ones buying the products for children. Mix in tributes to other brands — LEGO recently had a post celebrating Harley Davidson with a photo of a replica of a motorcycle — and the company has deftly developed multiple layers of appeal-broadening engagement via Stories.

Caffé Nero

Customers have product needs, of course, but they also are people-centric. From the love-hate reaction to reality shows to A&E biographies of their favorite leaders, people want to know about people.

Caffe Nero, the New England-based Italian coffee chain, not only uses its Instagram Stories to highlight new products and menu items, but also its baristas. The company posted a Story about its "Barista of the Year" competition, highlighting the winner and eight finalists. Consumers identify with the humanity of the staff and take a rooting interest. Telling the personal side of your business is a very engaging and helpful way to expand the brand.

Tanger Outlets

Our client, Tanger Outlets, uses Instagram Stories very often to enhance the message they want to tell. A recent story was created to promote their Bee Amazing Virtual Workshop which was just a part of their plan to celebrate Earth Day 2022. On Earth Day, and every day, Tanger commits to implementing practices that preserve and protect the earth.

One of their initiatives is their urban Beehives which are located at soon-to-be 10 of their properties and which include a dedicated beekeeper and website for each location. These beehives play a huge role in the environment; they aid in the pollination of approximately 120 million to 200 million flowers, shrubs and trees in the local community, sustain one in every three bites of food, and support 5,000 new flower seeds being planted with Alvéole, the Urban Beekeeping Company.

As a part of Earth Day 2022, Tanger Outlets hosted a virtual Kid-friendly Educational Workshop where their beekeepers shared what goes on inside a hive and the importance of bees to our environment. The below story was used as one of the several ways to promote and stimulate excitement for the event.

“In the world of brand creation and management, it’s not enough for your business to merely show up. It better show out,” said Marcia Homer, infinitee’s Director of Brand Management. “Visual stimulation and connection are obviously huge in building unique and compelling brands that excel. We salute those brands using innovative tactics like this to explore new possibilities.”

Instagram Stories is a top tactic by which to advance a business’ innovative, creative, highly engaging and high-impact marketing strategies. By showing (not telling) them the way to your products and services, your company will be ahead of the game in expediting the customer journey, greasing the sales funnel and, of course, growing the bottom line.

Having navigated the digital divide and social distancing, retail emerges more committed to customers and their experiences through increased connection, personalization and customization.

When a retailer in the age of e-commerce has more stores than any other company – 18,000-plus across 46 states – it’s doing something right. Given that the company has grown to become one of the most profitable stores in rural America, posting revenue of around $27 billion in 2019, we’ll say quite right. From manmade market disruption to the market and social disruption of the pandemic, the health and evolution of the retail industry have been a major real estate focus, with strong leadership in turbulent times worth its weight in gold. We salute (and study) Dollar General.

“I believe there are three essential indicators to the success and continued evolution of Dollar General and nearly every retailer for that matter: keeping your customers at the center of your strategy; continually evolving and strengthening your connection with your customers; and being laser-focused on providing the most relevant experiences to meet your customers where they are,” Jeff Owen, the chief operating officer of Dollar General, wrote in Forbes.

Keeping customers at the center of retail strategy seems like a no-brainer, but let’s remember that customer needs change. That puts a big emphasis on customer connection and responsiveness. After the City of Baton Rouge requested more access to nutritious, cost-effective foods, Dollar General responded by remodeling two stores in Louisiana’s capital city to deliver more fresh fruits and vegetables to the community. The retailer didn’t stop there: it added fresh produce to approximately 2,000 additional communities across the country during the past year with plans to do the same in up to 10,000 more stores.

After more than 20 years of working together, infinitee was proud to help Tanger Outlets adapt to the changing times and consumer preferences. The retailer’s objective of reimagining shopper engagement and striving to attract new and younger consumers as a “customer experience destination” took the form of micro-breweries, gourmet groceries, golf simulators, electric car recharging stations, selfie concepts and even robotic dinosaurs being introduced at Tanger’s 36 locations across North America. The company also became the first outlet developer to hire a fashion director.

Owen cites an Accenture study showing that more than 75 percent of business leaders are significantly reconsidering how they engage with their customers. Another 75 percent figure: the portion of Dollar General stores operating in communities of 20,000 or fewer people, not dissimilar to Tanger.

“It’s important to have a broader appeal to customers across rural, suburban and metropolitan communities alike,” Owen added.

Broader appeal and connection can be achieved through personalization and customization. As consumer specialist Katie Hardcastle writes, the former allows the retail customer to benefit from a more relevant service and experience delivery, for example, the tailoring of a product offering and leveraging data to provide a more personalized and thus unique shopping experience. Customization is when a shopper can act as designer and his or her choices factor into product enhancement.

She cites another Accenture study that found that 91 percent of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that more relevantly engage them, using personalized offers and recommendations to elevate customer experience.

“If anything, there’s an even greater thirst for unique retail experiences coming out of the pandemic,” said Amy Norton, infinitee’s Director of Strategy & Accounts. “That applies from clicks to bricks and metropolitan to rural locations. Our team’s belief in great ideas, personal touch and endless possibilities is also a great roadmap for the future of retail.”

Virtual value cuts both ways in the highly competitive apartment sector with developers having to navigate its labor, amenity and service effects.

Multifamily is definitely a hot sector right now, but the pandemic has triggered workforce, design and service issues that could slow momentum if not properly addressed. For the many apartment advantages — including the continued housing shortage, rising home prices and pro-renting demographic factors, such as a consumer preference for mobility and against DIY maintenance — the industry still must adjust to COVID-19 effects and the resulting new virtual reality.

A Hire Calling

‘Show me the money’ isn’t just about high-profile sports contracts. Companies nationwide and across almost every industry are struggling to find workers, who thanks to virtual networking and the ‘work from home’ setup, can now easily plug into the global, not just local, employment market. The labor shortage means employers can’t be short on compensation.

The apartment industry is not immune to these employment dynamics, of course. The elephant in the room is pay, said Kevin Owens, division president of RPM Living, at France Media’s InterFace Multifamily Southeast conference in December just down the road from infinitee’s headquarters in Atlanta. While multifamily investment and development garner the hot headlines, companies are working overtime to hire the right people for their operations, management and leasing teams — and then retain them.

And it’s not all about the dollar bills. Employees need to feel comfortable, appreciated, stimulated and primed for success. You never get a second chance to make a first impression, which is why RPM Living has an ambassador program where each new employee is paired with a mentor. Owens told an InterFace panel that the first 90 days for a new employee are the most crucial.

“That associate is really making a decision about us as an organization during that time,” he added. “We’ve got to make sure they like us because we’re in a market where if they don’t, they can go tomorrow down the street and be somewhere else.”

Amenity Turned Necessity

Amenities have always been a big differentiator when renters are shopping for apartments, but the game is different now since the start of the pandemic. Of the challenges facing multifamily developers in the last two years, perhaps none tops “the supercharged need for connectivity in their properties,” Bisnow reports, given the substantial work-from-home need for renters.

“Our members rightly acknowledge that connectivity is no longer an amenity,” said Kevin Donnelly, vice president of government affairs at National Multifamily Housing Council.

According to one research firm, apartment builder interest in managed high-speed Internet grew from 5 percent of new luxury developments in 2018 to 80 percent in early 2021.

Leasing’s New Normal

Everybody knows that the shift to virtual leasing during COVID-19 helped keep things safe and convenient for prospective apartment renters. Now that business has returned closer to normal versatility and value can be achieved on both sides of leasing. It does, however, require more from an apartment development’s customer service team and offerings.

“These days I think it’s more important that our teams are even more adept at customer service because not only are we meeting, greeting and working with customers at the door or in our communities, we’re also doing it much more online via chat,” said Owens.

The apartment sector certainly can boast of more gains than growing pains. Yet, the challenges that are the tight labor market, service demands and the new age of virtual leasing can prevent multifamily companies from maximizing growth. Whether a new project or partnership or an industry challenge, take it on with a marketing partner that combines a ‘limitless possibilities’ mentality and a commitment to high-impact strategies and innovative tactics.

Baby Boomers and their active-adult ways are forcing seniors housing developers to up the energy level at their communities.

With the Baby Boomer wave fast approaching the seniors housing sector, developers must focus not only on quantity, but also qualities. The characteristics that such a huge demographic will bring to the marketplace and how those translate into style preferences and other demands from their housing and communities are hugely important.

There’s no mistaking the importance of this market “moment.” Or perhaps better to call it a movement. Any way you slice it the opportunity is huge. RE Business Online reported

that every day in the U.S. 10,000 people turn 65, and the number of older adults will more than double over the next several decades to exceed 88 million people and 20 percent of the population by 2050.

Developers must capitalize, they must find success in making a house a home — multiplied by thousands — and turn good living into an elevated lifestyle. Active adult properties are the first housing type to benefit from aging Baby Boomers, according to many panelists at France Media’s InterFace Seniors Housing Northeast conference in Philadelphia. Although the product type offers fewer services, it provides an active lifestyle for retirees. Compared to their parents’ generation, Baby Boomers seek to live independently for longer periods.

“The oldest Baby Boomer is still 10 years away from needing [assisted living and memory care] services,” said a principal of seniors housing development on InterFace’s “The Development Outlook: Experts Analyze the Smartest Plays for Developers in 2022” panel.

Another panelist shared key details on the active adult Baby Boomer profile: averaging early 70s in age, the residents either already live in the community or are “baby chasers” moving to be closer to their grandchildren. How should real estate serve the more active lifestyle? Baby Boomers really embrace possibilities, both within and outside a seniors housing community. Inside should not only include quality accommodations, but the ability to connect with people and enjoy a variety of activities. That puts a big emphasis on amenities.

“As our demand pool changes to Baby Boomers, our programs need to change,” said the developer president and CEO. “We are expanding our fitness facilities and our yoga rooms, and we’re putting yoga areas outside. You might have running clubs or golf clubs.”

We’ve discussed before how the expansion of the health club and outdoor amenities at senior living communities, along with engaging educational programs, fuels the mind, body and spirit. Those things are integral for both place-making and community-building. Peachtree Hills Place, the first and only luxury 55+, equity-model continuing care retirement community in Atlanta’s prime Buckhead district, is an example of going the extra mile on amenities. Those critically important community components, promoted by infinitee’s award-winning integrating technology, strategic perspectives and branding best practices, find a prime audience today in the Baby Boomer generation.

The saying that “70 is the new 50” gets at the fact that retiree demographics and psychographics are changing. The new generation of seniors housing consumers is changing the game with them embracing active lifestyles and more dynamic communities, and developers and designers must put their best foot forward to serve those different desires and tastes.

In challenging times, business leaders must focus on structure, trust and empowerment.

What keeps a work team strong and together when employees can’t physically be together? During times of adversity, effective leaders keep the spirits of their charges up and everyone focused on the goal and determined day in and day out. “Energy and persistence conquer all things,” Benjamin Franklin asserted.

Leadership has faced quite a unique test in this pandemic era and altered business world. Professional teams, indeed entire companies, confront a very unusual challenge in both the daily hurdles and duration of the pandemic, while employees have more choices and freedoms than ever before, meaning they can not only tune out leadership, but altogether bail on it for another opportunity with greater ease.

Whether you call it the new normal or not, leaders must learn quickly and apply that new knowledge in innovative ways so that it amounts to peace of mind and an operational edge for their teams. Writing in Forbes, Melanie Fine asserts that employers and employees must focus on what they can control to put them in a better place for business unknowns. She shared more leadership takeaways from 2021 that should be incorporated into this year’s approach.

Trust, transparency and collaboration have never been more important in the workplace. Employees feel valued when they have a voice and more motivated when they view themselves as stakeholders. That includes leadership being on the level with the team about management’s moves and motivation.

“By utilizing community thought processes rather than dictator-like leadership, business owners and CEOs can [retain and] attract top talent in 2022,” Victor Cuevas, CEO of Griffin Crowd Capital, told Forbes. “People want to work somewhere that they can be proud of because they feel like they make a real contribution and aren’t just a dollar sign in their boss’ eyes.”

Trust keeps employees believing in management and the mission, as well as the authenticity of the company’s message. Adding empowerment to the mix not only helps maximize performance, it also embraces the independent ethos of this workforce era. Trust, paired with the permission to be creative and experiment, is the key,” said Michelle Granara, founder of Imanauthor.com. “The world of work is all about autonomy in 2022.

Although not exactly a pandemic-produced revelation, organization and structure will help a team be ready for the next opportunity. If your head’s down in the mess of day-to-day disorganization, you’re not looking ahead. And investing in employees, especially in this new workforce era of work from home and increased focus on mental health and deriving meaning from their jobs, means they’ll be more motivated to check off menial tasks and push through the slow periods.

Personalities and team chemistry will vary, of course, but it’s always a good idea to treat employees with caring, respect and dignity. That not only boosts motivation and productivity, but it also increases loyalty. And it certainly doesn’t hurt workforce retention. Companies don’t often get a chance to hit the ‘reset button,’ said recruiting executive Paul McDonald, but this could be the time to restart, reassess or refine your leadership approach.

“ To do our best in building unique and compelling brands, we know we must assemble the best teams and put them in a position to succeed,” said Vince Vitti, infinitee’s VP, Business Development. “Times change, as we’ve seen in the past couple of years, but companies should always strive to provide people with the most flexible and collaborative structure while lifting them up with trust and empowerment.”

Retail’s performance in the ‘moment of truth’ signals growth opportunity. Are companies ready to capitalize?

Holiday cheer comes in many forms, including economically. Mastercard reported that 2021 holiday retail sales rose 8.5% year over year, the fastest pace in 17 years.

That should put some pep in the step of U.S. industry, especially when you consider that consumer spending makes up about 70% of gross domestic product with a considerable chunk of that taking place in November and December. The National Retail Federation has reported that a fifth of all retail sales occurs in the year’s last two months.

The Scrooges out there might want to point out that growth coming out of a pandemic is skewed, that it’s kinda like appreciating the step forward after two steps back. To those saying nay versus making hay, we’d like to point to more promising stats from Chain Store Age’s reporting of the Mastercard “SpendingPulse” report, which tracks in-store and online retail sales (excluding automotive) across all forms of payment. Not only did in-store holiday sales increase 8.1% compared to 2020, they were up 2.4% over the pre-pandemic 2019 holiday period.

E-commerce holiday sales were up 11.0 % year-over-year and a whopping 61.4% compared to 2019. All told, e-commerce has expanded from 14.6% of total retail sales in 2019 to 20.9 percent last year.

Clothing and jewelry were the leading categories fueling the 2021 holiday retail sales performance. Mastercard found that apparel sales rose 47.3% year-over-year and 29% compared to 2019, and jewelry purchases increased 32% year-over-year and 26.2% compared to the holiday season immediately prior to the pandemic. Electronics also fared well with 16.2% year-over-year sales growth and 19.8% compared to 2019.

Additional findings from the Mastercard report include department stores staging a “comeback of sorts,” as CSA called it, with sales increasing 21.2% year-over-year and 11% over 2019. Consumers shopped early and Thanksgiving weekend remained a key sales emphasis for retailers. Sales for the long weekend were up 14% over 2020.

In comparison to the pre-pandemic year of 2019, it’s no surprise that shopper store traffic was down for the full six-week holiday period (measured from the Sunday before Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 21, 2021, through Jan. 1, 2022). Sensormatic Solutions reported a drop of 19.5% in that two-year span, but on-site visitor volume rose 18.9% over 2020.

That not only means that consumers were more willing to return to stores this past year, it also underscores the importance of retailers’ ongoing marketing efforts to attract those visitors. As discussed recently in this space, 87%of consumer sales happened on-site within brick-and-mortar stores in the third quarter of 2021. Whether it’s a community-focused mall overhaul or a major retail pivot like Tanger Outlets, companies need to make sure they’re ready for the continued ‘return to retail’ with the right team of brand makers, storytellers and creative advocates that know all about innovation to achieve retail reinvigoration.

“The increase in holiday sales figures and traffic numbers are great to see, of course, but consumers aren’t merely running to the first retail oasis they see,” said Marcia Homer, infinitee’s Director of Brand Management. “Shoppers have more options and awareness than ever before. Connecting beyond the commercial with consumers calls for marketing that is purpose-driven, well-researched and user-based.”

How will commercial real estate players react to pandemic challenges in the new year?

There are always unknowns at the start of any new business year, but with the ongoing pandemic and its major effects on the office sector, supply chain and more, a crystal ball would come in quite handy right about now. Here are five predictions Bisnow reported on that we want to share with infinitee’s client base:

#1 RTO to Get More PTO

The expert view is that Omicron and other variants that may follow will continue to delay return to office (RTO) plans. CBRE went as far as to say that the successive pandemic waves mean “COVID will remain a fact of daily life for the foreseeable future… [and that] the slow rebound of the office sector will continue to characterize the real estate recovery for some time.” While the effect on overall office space demand is of concern and Oxford Economics has revised down its 2022 real GDP growth projection from 4.4 to 4.1 percent, the good news is that companies and whole industries have adjusted with work from home and hybrid approaches to largely stay on course and even post some impressive production since COVID’s onset.

#2 Inflation to Add to Construction Sector Adversity

CRE developers and builders know all about increasing costs, but rising inflation equates to a double whammy of sorts. Costs are going up, which will result in a slowdown or cancellation of some projects. But also the Fed’s chief tactic for curbing inflation is to raise interest rates, which further adds to development costs. “These higher interest rates will effectively mean higher borrowing costs,” said Colin Behring, Behring Co. founder and CEO. “Materials and labor costs are already on the rise, and these various factors will make it harder to plan financially viable projects… That said, only certain areas and asset types will be affected materially.”

#3 Office Landlords to Take a Page Out of the Hospitality Industry’s Playbook

Nearly two years into the pandemic, remote workers have definitely gotten used to the comforts of home, but many still long for social interaction with colleagues. With so much flexibility, employee choice carries greater weight now. Landlords know this and that they must do more with their spaces to lure companies and their employees back. Julie Whelan, CBRE global head of occupier thought leadership, said, “An outsized share of new leasing will be in higher-quality space. The reason for that is a lot of occupiers are focused on creating an environment to draw their employees back to the office and give them a great experience.”

#4 No Place Like the Home Office

Home is where the heart is, but since the onset of the pandemic it’s increasingly where the office is located, too. As a result, residents are demanding more and property managers are reacting by investing more heavily in technology, specifically in amenity spaces. That includes an increase in package and food delivery management systems and upgraded work spaces, according to Stephen Baker, chief product officer for Zego. “We’ll see a wave of technology and artificial intelligence brought into work-oriented spaces,” he added, for both hardware retrofitting and digital reservation platforms to better manage accessibility.

#5 More Pain for the Supply Chain

The expert view is that the U.S. won’t see tangible changes to the supply chain this year, but companies will continue to get smarter and more innovative about fighting slow deliveries and rising costs, including streamlining their inventory approach. A big industry problem is also a big opportunity for service providers, especially Big Tech with its automation and AI-based tools.

“Companies will turn to technology solutions to move more product with less human labor,” Pete Quinn, Colliers’ national director of industrial services, told Bisnow’s Katie Murar. “I think robotics will take a giant leap this year.”

Traditional warehousing with its old-fashioned inefficiencies is on the way out, to be replaced by advanced facilities such as micro-fulfillment centers, which by form (smaller) and function (largely automated) are more favorable for the “last mile” of the supply chain near densely populated urban environments. “These types of advancements will become inseparable from the industrial market in 2022 and subsequent years,” said Wharton Equity Partners Founder Peter Lewis.

“Yes, there is major uncertainty as 2022 begins, but we’ve said before that adversity also can mean opportunity, especially working together,” said Michael Rivera, infinitee’s Creative Director. “One thing we do know from our extensive experience and quality clients and partners is the performance arc of commercial real estate will always bend toward greater intelligence and efficiency. In 2022, infinitee will continue to strategically drill down to the best, most effective, efficient and (most importantly) innovative tactics to help our clients succeed.”

Big challenges for many enclosed malls can mean big redevelopment opportunities given the right plan and team.

‘You had to be there’ has been the common refrain when a message doesn’t quite get through to its intended audience. Despite the e-commerce revolution and a paralyzing pandemic, retailers are still getting the message that most shoppers still go to stores. They want to be there. In fact, 87% of consumer sales happened on site within brick-and-mortar stores in the third quarter of 2021, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s retail sales report.

It’s certainly not business as usual though, especially for enclosed malls, which have been hit the hardest by not only the social restrictions of the past 21 months, but also evolving omni-channel sales and digital marketing strategies. The asset class has experienced four consecutive years of increasing vacancy, according to CoStar Group, and Coresight Research estimated in August that 25% of America’s roughly 1,000 malls will close over the next three to five years, as reported in REBusiness Online. More than 20% of larger conventional malls plan to convert to “hybrid configurations” combining retail, office, residential and other alternative uses in the next few years, according to the Directory of Major Malls.

That tough real estate reality will produce an “enormous challenge of redeveloping what were once core community assets into viable investment opportunities'' for mall owners and community stakeholders, asserted Glenn Brill, managing director of FTI Consulting Inc. He said that there is good news on that front though: Those dark, dead malls often possess location attributes (access, visibility) and infrastructure (ring road, stormwater management, etc.) that inherently give them redevelopment potential.

Brill says successful redevelopment starts with a vision, and the most popular alternative, adaptive reuse, is not always the best route to take. Tactics such as phased infrastructure improvements, the subdivision of parcels and recapitalization are important, of course, but teamwork is essential. Understanding communal needs, including the substantial loss of fiscal revenue to the municipality, will light the right path to the best redevelopment master plan and enable the leveraging of critical investor, community and government partnerships, according to Brill.

“Ultimately, a dead mall must be approached as an opportunity to participate in local community and economic development,” Brill added. “Changes in land use can accommodate generational shifts in demographics, development trends and community needs.”

From crafting a new brand to refreshing one that may need a facelift — or a development that just received a facelift — our belief in teamwork, creativity, innovation and endless possibilities sets up well for the next retail challenge, including complex, transformative mall redevelopments,” said Tim Patton, infinitee’s CEO.

The experienced team of brand makers, storytellers and creative advocates know all about innovation to achieve retail reinvigoration. With the right marketing, mall redevelopments can spread benefits around to not only consumers, but also job seekers, community stakeholders and the local municipalities. Such successful place-making or remaking will have people saying, “You gotta go there.”