REBEC 2021: Postpandemic Retail Boom – Consumers Looking to Get Back to Shopping Malls, What Does the Autumn Bring?

After a year of domination of online shopping, the summer period that the entire Europe is meeting with more or less favorable numbers when it comes to the pandemic, has brought consumers back to shopping malls and retail parks, and the business is slowly going back to where it was before the pandemic, as concluded by the participants at the “Challenges and Experiences of the Retail Industry” panel, held within the REBEC 2021 summit.

– With the combination of the people who have been vaccinated and those who have been cured from the virus, we hope that the autumn will also be good for the retail market. Finally, people want to go back to retail, to stores, and outdoor spaces certainly have an advantage – said Marcis Budlevskis, Director of Operations at MULTI.

According to him, some time will need to pass before the market goes back to the level before the pandemic, primarily the entertainment segment, which is highly affected.

Jovana Cvetkovic, Development, TO and Innovations Director at MPC Properties, pointed out that the situation in Serbia as well “is going back to normal very fast”.

– Last year, we opened the big retail destination Beo Shopping Center. Consumers were our inspiration, it was not easy, but we managed to finish everything on time – Cvetkovic said and added that the company’s strategy was to find the best possible solution together with the tenants during the lockdown.

Ricardo Rodrigues, Business Development & Client Care Manager at Reify, believes that the situation in Germany is going back to normal as well.

– We have a very active period behind us. On one hand, we have been researching how to adapt, and on the other, we have continued working and opened certain outlets, even during the pandemic – Rodrigues says.

He points out that, with the social distancing measure in effect, everything is more and less open in German.

– When the restrictions were lifted, the business went back to a level close to the one from before the pandemic. People are impatient to go back to the places they used to go to – he said.

The pandemic affected Germany and Austria in March 2020, and all the openings planned for the spring were postponed for the summer, said Peter Leithner, Head of Marketing and E Commerce at MK ILLUMINATION.

– This will be a challenging year, but we are trying to work together and find the ways and support our clients for the opening in the future. We don’t know what the situation will be like then, but we are doing everything we can to prepare – said Leithner.

He confirmed that he was optimistic and that there could be a brighter view of the future.

– We hope that, if the new strains of the virus do not spread too much, we can expect a better autumn than the past one, without lockdowns – he pointed out.

Leithner also pointed to the phenomenon of the postpandemic boom.

– Shopping centers are full of people, people want to go outside, to bring back the shopping experience. Although there’s the possibility of online shopping, I believe that the experience of shopping in a physical space cannot be replaced – he said.

Ivana Milovanovic

MPC PROPERTIES DOO BEOGRAD

MULTI

Reify

MK ILLUMINATION

REBEC 2021

Marcis Budlevskis

Jovana Cvetković

Ricardo Rodrigues

Peter Leithner

retail

Challenges and Experiences of the Retail Industry