Hammerson's Westquay drives footfall with experiential attractions

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Jun 25, 2019

In their bid to attract more shoppers and increase footfall, many retailers are hosting experiential events and teaming up with innovative brands, and shopping centres are leading the movement with large-scale activations.

Hammerson’s Westquay shopping centre is a case in point. The Southampton mall opened a 10-day Maze in May which was visited by over 18,0000 people. Held in the centre’s events space, the 400m Maze with eight ft hedges boosted footfall by 2.7% year-on-year, and footfall rose by 12% over the Easter Bank Holiday Weekend.

Hammerson said the attraction also led to new consumers visiting the shopping destination, as 14% of visitors to the Maze were new. This provided a new audience for the centre’s brands, particularly those who had organised their own activities as part of the event. For example John Lewis & Partners offered teddy bear picnics and Laings hosted a diamond treasure hunt.

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“More and more of our customers are looking for a real experience when they visit our destinations, whether that’s great food or an engaging event, and the Maze is just one example of how we are delivering that,” Kathryn Malloch, head of customer experience at Hammerson, said.

“Not only do events like the Maze drive footfall, they also boost sales and generate excitement for our brands. We’ve got a lot more events and surprises planned for 2019, including a Summer Sensory Garden at Westquay in July”.

Hammerson is planning to spend £2 million in experiential events across its UK portfolio this year. These have included the Festival of Light which toured Dundrum in Dublin, Bullring & Grand Central in Birmingham, and Westquay earlier this year, attracting over 125,000 people in total.