DATA Tracking Shopping Behavior Analysis from the Directory of Major Malls shows how shoppers and consumers are on the move, despite the pandemic. Tama Shor G iven the tremendous amount un-certainty and change thrust upon the economy this last year during the pandemic, The Directory of Major Malls, Inc. is proving that continuity and agility is still best way to make what’s old, new again. Having been a player across the retail landscapes of the U.S. and Canada for over 30 years, Directory of Major Malls (DMM) has continued to be a leading source of shopping center and mall infor-mation and has therefore expanded the uses and relevance of the collection and maintenance for data over many years of major shopping center and mall data. It makes no difference if your primary focus in investments, development, leasing, re-tail expansion or even support services for a shopping center, DMM data provides an inroad to the contacts, retail stores and people activity of centers that have gross leasable areas (GLA) of approximate 200,000 square feet and up. The declines in retail traffic brought on by COVID-19 is unlike anything seen in recent memory, but it has generated a new enthusiasm for clean, accurate data that can help reshape how retail is bouncing back and plans to be a key driver in the future growth of the economy. So the question is, did the retail shop-ping at the physical location really disap-pear from large shopping centers, never to return? The answer is emphatically ‘No.’ The pandemic created a shift, a new awakening and a forced re-naissance about how major shop-ping centers and malls are config-ured and engage with customers. Tama Shor, The DMM data-Directory of Major Malls set proves out this transforma-tional resurgence that is shifting brick and mortar configurations and uses once again. Even though the pandemic brought about a significant increase in online shopping, that still did not come close to erasing the damage done when physical stores were closings and economic wor-ries increased. Much like the butterfly emerging from its cocoon after an extended slumber, shopping centers and malls are reemerging in equally brilliant fashion. Analysis of recent data managed and sold exclusively by DMM through direct licensing and on a subscription based on ShoppingCenters. com, we can see that more than 20 percent of larger conventional enclosed malls have plans to convert to hybrid configurations which combines retail, office, residential and other alternative uses in the next few years. The DMM data when analyzed in the current year or over The pandemic created a shift, a new awakening and a forced renaissance about how major shopping centers and malls are configured and engage with customers. 60 • SHOPPING CENTER BUSINES S • July 2021 time, pinpoints many types of shifts that create opportunities across the board. Knowing answers to question like: • What is happening with the over 5,000 anchor space vacancies asso-ciated with more than 1,500 of the major shopping centers and malls tracked in DMM? • What is the current tenant mix for each center and how has it changed over time? • Which owner/developers are the largest and smallest contributors to the major shopping center dataset? • Gross leasable area? • Stores and store categories? • What is the overall traffic in a center? • What are the demographic compo-nents with a specified radius? All of these questions and many more are being answered by accessing the breadth and depth of data owned by DMM and can be used to garner the growth that is planned as we emerge from the pandem-ic. In a recent study, The National Re-tail Federation, the world’s largest retail trade association, who passionately advo-cates for the people, brands, policies and ideas that help retail thrive, forecasted that 2021 retail sales are estimated to total between $4.33 trillion and $4.4 trillion. That’s a significant uptick that will most definitely include sales from existing and new shopping centers and malls. DMM is continuing is prominence as a premier source of shopping center and mall data and its desire to keep pace with this economic revitalization, by initiating strategic partnerships, both business and data, to enhance the experience and use-fulness of the DMM dataset. One such partnership is with B I Spatial of Greens-boro, North Carolina. B I Spatial oper-
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