Figuring out how to succeed with a shopping center app can be confusing.

Because, no two shopping centers are the same, and neither are their paths to digital success. That being said, it can be worth looking to others’ achievements for inspiration when laying down one’s own path to success.

This individuality is the reason why Emplate’s consumer app is customizable, as it can be adapted to the individual goals and needs that each shopping centre has. In this article, we’ll take you through 3 different ways shopping centers are succeeding with their consumer app.

Nivy Centrum

Nivy Centrum’s consumer app has gotten people to explore the brand new shopping centre and the tiered loyalty program adds excitement to their shopping experiences.

Nivy Centrum is a brand new shopping centre, community hub and transport station, located in Bratislava, Slovakia. It is home to 300+ different shops. Nivy launched their app “Ahoj Nivy!” as it opened.

Nivy’s has an omni-channel approach, where the loyalty app plays an essential part in a larger database across all their channels, which is used to target all their communication.

Their app is heavily centered around loyalty. Their focus is to bring something extra to their loyal members and make use of gamification.

The loyalty program in Nivy’s app is tiered - this means that, in order to level up, customers need to earn points, either by visiting Nivy or other activities. This creates continuous momentum through gamification.

Nivy also utilized this gamification during launch. Here, customers could earn points from visiting different locations in Nivy. By awarding points for visiting certain areas, newly opened Nivy, was explored and familiarized by the customers, making them aware of all the great spaces, such as the green rooftop or the farmers’ market.

If you’re interested in learning more about Nivy’s launch and results, read their case study here.

Centro Commerciale Battente

Centro Commerciale Battente’s impressive retention rate comes down to a continuously revitalized loyalty program and active tenant contribution.

Centro Commerciale Battente is a family owned, destination shopping centre located in central Italy. It is home to approx. 80 different stores.

Battente has invested a great amount of time and effort into achieving their goals.

One of Battente’s main goals was to establish a strong relationship between the three stakeholders: the customers, the tenants and management.

To achieve this, their goal was to get their tenants onboard with the digitalization. This meant a lot of focus was placed on a great tenant onboarding. This has resulted in motivated tenants that feel confident uploading a lot of content for the app - and the customers are enjoying the content.

One of the things Battente does really well is retention rate. The reason for this is mainly that it is filled with a lot of relevant content, and because of the way Battente runs their loyalty program:

Battente runs its loyalty program in a clearly defined cycle; Every month, Battente removes all the old rewards and rolls out new rewards. While there is some effort in creating all new loyalty rewards every single month, this defined loop keeps things fresh for both new and return app users. And, it provides Battente with an excellent opportunity for creating new content for their social media platforms.

If you’re interested in learning more about Battente’s launch and results, read their case study here.

Rosengaardcentret

Rosengaardcentret can boast of a great launch and continuous success, both of which are a result of their extensive commitment and planning as well as their strong collaboration with their marketing agency.

Rosengaardcentret is a large Danish shopping center, operated by ECE Denmark. Located on Funen, it is home to 160+ stores.

Rosengaardcentret focuses on having a loyalty program that always offers many exciting rewards. A varied loyalty program means there’s always something to catch the attention of different customer segments. Beyond this, a great focus area for the shopping center is having large campaigns in the app, such as their recent focus on Christmas and Autumn - tying together the content and visuals in the app, thematically.

Rosengaardcentret collaborates closely with their data-driven communications agency, STEP. The agency has played a large role from planning launch to the continuous day-to-day basis. Their focus on data and creating strong visuals means Rosengaardcentret is utilizing the data and insights about the customers that are available through the app to always optimize what they’re doing as to best target their customers.

While bringing STEP to the table as such an active player is not as common, it‘s greatly beneficial for Rosengaardcentret. And, it means center management can focus on what they do the very best.

Rosengaaardcentret achieved a record-breaking launch by having a clear and ambitious strategy; First of all, they added 3 different types of welcome rewards in the app. Secondly, they had STEP work out a great marketing campaign which was rolled out digitally and physically. And lastly, they provided each shop in the shopping center with an amount that they could spend on rewards for their store in the app. All this meant the app was buzzing with activity from day one.

If you’re interested in learning more about Rosengaardcentret’s launch and results, read their case study here.

Budgets and expectations

Now, you might be thinking, what about budgets and expectations? I‘d like to know what type of results I can expect depending on how much I invest.

The answer to that is that it can depend on everything from what type of shopping center you have to how much time and effort you’re planning on allocating on your app and where your shopping center is located. So, an end-all be-all answer is not so straight forward.

If you’re interested in learning more about what you can expect when it comes to budget size and results, book a meeting here (or with your customer success manager) and we’ll have a talk about what you might expect for your shopping center.

To summarize

Now, we’ve had a look through some different approaches and goals when implementing a loyalty app. Every shopping center we’ve looked at had a different goal and starting point from which they based their initiatives.

And while different from each other, they’ve all been successful. So, what’s the common denominator?

While there are some similarities, like how all of them focused on loyalty initiatives, their success first and foremost comes down to how they’ve all been very dedicated to figuring out what the type of digital experience they would like to present to their customers and deliver on it.

• For Nivy, this has meant focusing on the exclusive loyalty benefits, getting people to explore the new shopping center and having a tiered loyalty program, furthering gamification.
  

• For Battente, this has meant active focus on tenant contribution and a filled loyalty program as well as running continuously revitalizing their loyalty program through monthly cycles.
  

• And, for Rosengaardcentret, this has meant extensive commitment to a varied loyalty program, large campaigns tying content and visuals in the app thematically and a very active collaboration with their communications agency.
  

And, they’ve all gone with a white-label consumer app, which means that they’ve had the flexibility they needed so that they, with the guidance of Emplate’s customer success team, are able to shape their app to them and their customers’ needs.

If you’re interested in learning more about the possibilities of shopping center loyalty apps, book your meeting today.