While mall traffic has generally returned to pre-pandemic levels, that’s not really saying much, is it? Malls have been suffering for years, and major shopping center owners and operators are fixated on ways to revive these massive real estate investments.

One interesting concept currently being tested in Norway is called Placewise. It’s a marketing platform that curates all the inventory of the retailers within a particular mall. Another shopping center in Wisconsin will join the pilot in September or October of 2021.

How does it work? The retailers who opt-in share their inventory data with a central mall product database. This allows consumers to shop the entire mall from one website location. Shoppers can arrange for either home delivery or pickup, and returns are handled through a central point in the mall.

It’s an interesting concept, turning a mall from a collection of separate shopping experiences into an integrated marketplace. John Dee, President of Placewise Americas, was quoted in Retail Newsletter “Retail Brew” as saying, “It's really important, more than ever, for the shopping center to have a relationship with the shoppers. That really becomes an asset that they can deploy to the benefit of themselves and other retailers.”

Roughly a quarter of US malls could shutter in the next three to five years, according to Coresight Research data. It remains to be seen if the Placewise marketplace is the answer to waning mall interest (though we at VDB do love the marketplace concept!), but one thing is for sure. If malls are going to survive, they need to try innovative things. And Placewise is an innovative idea that is worth watching.