Online trade is becoming more and more popular all over the world, and Ukraine is no exception. The wave of marketplace popularity that swept the country during the coronavirus pandemic has turned into a wave caused by full-scale war.<\/p>\n
At the same time, more and more shopping centers are being opened and built in Ukraine, and online retailers are expanding into offline and opening \u201cphysical\u201d stores.<\/p>\n
Can e-commerce become a serious competitor and threat to traditional SECs, or is it rather an assistant and a complement? The Ukrainian Council of Shopping Centers asked about this from the experts of the commercial real estate market, namely: Maksym Havryushin, the operations director of the Budhouse Group company, Andriy Lototskyi, CEO of the Retail&Development Advisor consulting company, Evgenia Loktionova, director of the UTG company, and Ihor Zabolotskyi, the leading expert of Colliers Ukraine in the commercial real estate segment.<\/p>\n
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Addition to the SEC<\/strong><\/p>\n Maksym Havryushin<\/strong>, chief operating officer of the Budhouse Group company, notes that the countries with the largest share of online sales also have the highest concentration of shopping centers per 1,000 inhabitants.<\/p>\n For example, in the USA, there are more than 2,000 square meters per 1,000 inhabitants of space in shopping centers, and the share of online trade has already exceeded 16%. In some European countries, the share of online sales has even exceeded 20% (Norway, Denmark, Great Britain), nevertheless, these countries remain one of the most saturated SECs in Europe \u2013 400-800 sq.m per 1,000 inhabitants. Shopping centers do not close here. According to the expert, this is the best answer to the question of whether the existence of a SC is threatened online.<\/p>\n According to Evgenia Loktionova<\/strong>, the intensive development of online retail professionally began in 2014, and from 2020, the quarantine year, the advantages of such development became clear. Even more advantages of having online retail began to be felt during the war, when people were able to buy food, medicine, military goods, toys and clothes on Ukrainian platforms.<\/p>\n Products from the \u201ceverything for blackout\u201d group were also bought online: generators, power banks, and tourist equipment. Therefore, according to the director of UTG, it can be said that online retail is an addition to shopping centers.<\/p>\n Ihor Zabolotskyi<\/strong> also notes that retailers are increasingly using an omnichannel business model in the current environment, which is aimed at the most effective interaction with customers.<\/p>\n Its essence is to use its online platforms to enable buyers to remotely familiarize themselves with the product range, sizes, characteristics, etc. The site also displays where you can try on or buy a specific product offline.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are examples of quite successful Ukrainian retailers who started powerfully online, but gradually opened retail offline stores, which shows the importance and necessity of developing both formats,\u201d \u2013 says Colliers Ukraine\u2019s leading expert in the commercial real estate segment.<\/p>\n In Ukraine, there are different estimates of the online share in retail sales, according to Maksym Havryushin<\/strong>, in 2021 it was approximately 4-5%. And the density of shopping centers in the same year 2021 was at the level of approximately 130 sq.m per 1,000 inhabitants. Therefore, we are still very far from the moment when online can threaten the existence of SECs, if at all it is possible to ask this question.<\/p>\n The future of multi-channel is the most effective development strategy. Market players have understood this for a long time. Online players are going offline, opening new stores, offline networks are developing online platforms. This creates the so-called Halo effect, as a result of which sales increase on both channels. ICSC and UCSC have done large-scale research on this topic to confirm this, \u2013 summed up Maksym Havryushin.<\/p>\n Types of customers<\/strong><\/p>\n Andrii Lototskyi<\/strong>, CEO of the consulting company Retail&Development Advisor, draws attention to the fact that each of the sales channels has its own customers. The expert conditionally divides buyers into several categories.<\/p>\n Yes, there are customers who do not like to go to SCs or street retail stores in search of purchases due to saving time, reluctance to contact people, laziness, etc., so they order goods online. And there are those for whom shopping in physical stores brings real pleasure, it is an opportunity to get away from the routine, to switch to something nice and pleasant.<\/p>\n Another category is those who don\u2019t trust online shopping, doubt the quality of materials, fit of sizes, etc. Such buyers will buy offline.<\/p>\n \u201cThe next category is buyers who buy certain products without risk on the Internet, but mostly their purchases are offline. There are also those who, regardless of the time and effort spent, try on, for example, clothes or shoes in offline stores, and then look for the best price online and order the article and size they are already sure of,\u201d \u2013 says Andriy Lototskyi.<\/p>\n In other cases, customers find a product online but buy it in offline stores. This is often seen in the showrooms of Instagram stores. That is, in this case, the online store brings customers to physical stores.<\/p>\n \u201cEach channel has its own target audience, and it is more or less stable. Therefore, in my opinion, online retail does not pose a threat to offline trade, and often they help each other by creating synergies, such as stores that are also points of delivery of online purchases, where after purchasing a product online, you can come and pick up your order and more make an impulse purchase of other goods. It works well and that\u2019s how most national networks work,\u201d \u2013 sums up the CEO of RDA.<\/p>\n In 2022-2023, Budhouse Group shopping centers will see a growing interest in online shopping from the side of visitors, adds Maksym Gavryushin<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The frequency of orders and purchases on the Internet increased by 1.5 times among SEC visitors. But this trend has been going on since pre-war times and intensified during quarantine restrictions on retail operations and during the war, when many stores did not work offline. Also, the size of the average check when making a purchase in an online store increased by 17%. But the share of people who use only the offline channel for purchasing goods remains unchanged \u2013 more than 60%. As is the share of people who first look for a product on the Internet, and then buy in a store (17-20%), \u2013 says the company\u2019s operations director.<\/p>\n Which sales will increase?<\/strong><\/p>\n However, Evgenia Loktionova<\/strong> notes, the growth of online sales encourages shopping centers to bet on emotions, a way of spending time, shopping pleasure and society.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is offline that gives the opportunity to see and touch the product before buying, to make a purchase immediately. While online retail provides comfort, simplification of purchase, its impulsivity. Therefore, working together online and offline trade will most effectively popularize retail and give brand recognition. Therefore, in the future we will see a joint growth of both online and offline sales. For example, online sales will increase with the help of artificial intelligence. At the same time, Ukraine will also see a post-war increase in the number of visitors to SECs,\u201d \u2013 the director of UTG predicts.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Online trade is becoming more and more popular all over the world, and Ukraine is no exception. 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