Near Intelligence Reveals Visitation to Shopping Centers Up 19% Despite Looming Recession in its Commercial Real Estate Report

• Report identifies five trends to revitalize shopping centers and adapt to changing consumer preferences
• Entertainment, Food & Mixed-Use Developments draw more visitors and keep them lingering longer

Near Intelligence, Inc. (Nasdaq: NIR) (“Near” or the “Company”), a global leader in privacy-led data intelligence on people, places, and products, today released a report, “Commercial Real Estate Trends to Revitalize Shopping Centers” which identifies five top trends to help shopping centers draw in more visitors and adapt to changing consumer preferences in the face of a looming recession.

Despite economic concerns, when looking at the performance of shopping centers overall, in Q4 of 2022, visitation increased 19% from Q4 in 2021. This growth shows the increasing eagerness of US consumers to return to normalcy when it comes to shopping, dining, and entertainment.

The study emphasizes that to thrive in the new world of consumer behavior, malls must offer unique dining, retail, entertainment, and other experiences that shoppers cannot find just anywhere.

"If there’s any one constant when it comes to consumer behavior, it’s change. The trends that are resonating now are likely to be different in a few years, or even a few months. In order to future-proof, malls and shopping centers must leverage data analytics to personalize the shopping experience and create engaging and convenient experiences that keep customers coming back for more," said Cate Zovod, VP of Product and Industry Marketing at Near.

Unique experiences expand reach

Shopping centers offering interactive experiences and entertainment help to increase visitation from a wider geographical area.

• Seismique, an interactive art exhibit that features 40,000 square feet of Instagram-friendly art installations, replaced a former big box retailer in a struggling center.
• Upon opening it, a boost of visitors traveled a median distance of 28 miles to get to the attraction - far beyond the trade area for the rest of the mall.

Eatertainment keeps customers on-site longer

While casual dining chains have struggled in recent years, Eatertainment has thrived thanks to more upscale menus and a focus on the experience.

• Consumers spent longer in Eatertainment anchors than any other type - spending a median of 60 minutes in an Eatertainment venue.
• Meanwhile, Big Box and Grocery Anchors had roughly half that dwell time, as consumers hurry to finish their errands.

Consumers also prefer dwelling at mixed-use developments

The study found that mixed-use developments had visitors spending a longer time there than other types of malls.

• The median dwell time at mixed-use malls in Near’s study was 60 minutes, higher than any other.
• This could be partially explained by how many multi-use developments are planned to create a community feel, with open park-like spaces creating an experience for residents and visitors alike to linger and enjoy.

Consumers travel for healthcare

Having medical offices and medtail in malls offers several opportunities for both the medical industry and mall owners.

• Medical offices can bring additional foot traffic to malls, potentially leading to increased revenue for mall owners and other retailers.
• Among the malls in the study, healthcare anchors drew visitors from the farthest median distance - 13.6 miles - even surpassing experiential anchors.

Centers engage directly with customers

While shopping centers have traditionally left retailers to handle direct interactions with customers, malls are increasingly connecting with customers across social media, loyalty programs, livestreaming, and more.

• Westfield Group allows their mall loyalty program customers to link their credit card to their account, automatically adding loyalty points with each purchase - and offering appealing rewards from discounts to free meals.
• Their Westfield Garden State Plaza location attracts 2-3x more visitors than other shopping centers in the area, who spend an average of 58 minutes at Westfield versus 36 minutes for the average shopping center in New Jersey.

Read the full Future of Malls report here: CRE Trends to Revitalize Shopping Centers

About Near

Near, a global, full-stack data intelligence software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) platform, curates one of the world’s largest sources of intelligence on people, places, and products. The Near platform’s patented technology processes data from an estimated 1.6 billion unique user IDs and 70 million points of interests, in more than 44 countries. Near’s data and insights empower marketing and operations teams to understand consumers’ online and offline behaviors, affinities, and attributes in order to engage them and grow their businesses. With a presence in Los Angeles, Paris, Bangalore, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo, Near serves scaled enterprises in retail, real estate, restaurant/QSR, travel/tourism, telecom, and financial services. For more information, please visit https://near.com.

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