As the UK-wide lockdown begins to ease, the Prime Minister has confirmed that non-essential stores should prepare to reopen from June 15, but under severe restrictions to ensure social distancing is maintained. Ed Cooke looks at the new challenges facing retail locations.

Shopping centres, retail parks and high streets need to be prepared for unprecedented changes in the way they operate, and this change is going to last longer than many had hoped. One thing is for certain, it is becoming clear that first-class communication between owners, their managers and retailers is going to be crucial if the new systems are going to operate effectively.

Advice from leading industry associations underlines this point. Revo, representing retail destinations across the UK, said venues need to “implement a communication strategy ahead of reopening as soon as an exit date is known so that staff, visitors, and local authorities have confidence in the reopening plans.”

And Revo chief executive Vivienne King emphasised that an integrated approach by owners and operators was essential. “At shopping centres and retail parks owners and occupiers can most obviously work together to actively manage movement and create safe places to be,” she said.

The point is not lost on Scott Parsons, MD of Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield UK, who told listeners to the BBC’s Today programme of the benefits of managed retail destinations in safely curating the customer journey in malls. “Compared to a narrow pavement on a high street, the sheer scale of our centres puts us in a great position to safely manage the customer journey through our malls,” he said. “We’ve got digital footfall trackers so we can safely manage crowds as they enter and exit and we can impose one-way systems and markings on the pavements.”

Similarly in a global context ICSC, the International Council of Shopping Centers, advised: “Landlords and tenants should communicate often in order to detect any issues that could arise before and after reopening.”

The Institute of Place Management, the lead organisation behind the Government’s High Streets Task Force, has issued its 10-point checklist to support places to reopen, the prospect of which is now very real after the PM’s announcements on Monday night. Proactive communication with business, establishing a common plan for managing public spaces and managing access and egress are just a few of the areas the Institute focuses on.

Clearly, everyone across the centre and occupier teams are going to have to get used to new ways of working – communicating the required standards and processes is crucial because if one team member falls below the required levels of hygiene and distancing then there is severe risk of reputational damage for the centre. Keyboard warriors on social media will pounce on any lapse as evidence that a centre is failing. And added to the reputational damage there is the possibility of spreading infection with potentially severe health consequences.

Equally, property owners will need to provide an audit trail that messages have not only been sent, but that they have been read and understood. Ahead of opening, it will not be sufficient to send a paper message to the store unit – key staff may still be working from home. And post-reopening there will be a need for real-time communication as the situation evolves during the trading day. Customer counting will be essential so that centre management can alert retailers when mall footfall is approaching critical levels.

Our Mallcomm app has already proved its value during the Covid-19 pandemic, communicating with the right people at the right time to ensure that shutdown has been achieved promptly and safely. As the only occupier engagement solution on the market today that has proven critical comms and crisis management at its core, Mallcomm has assisted over 300 retail and mixed -use destinations worldwide during the Covid-19 crisis.

For example Jason Blum of Oxford Properties Group said it “has been extremely useful during this time. Being able to send memos and communication to all tenants and see in seconds who has viewed the critical information has been an amazing tool. I can’t imagine having to try and manage Covid-19 communications without it, especially being able to reach tenants while off site.”

Now, as the lockdown is being eased, it will be even more valuable. The tried and trusted technology is already used by over 300,000 people in 22 countries by industry leaders including Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Oxford Properties, Savills, British Land, Brookfield Properties Retail, Mall of America, Cushman & Wakefield and many more.

At Mallcomm we’re both excited and apprehensive about the prospect of places reopening to the public. We’re advocates for the role well-managed urban places play in creating sustainable and vibrant communities, and millions of people and tens of thousands of businesses have been disrupted by this pernicious virus. Reopening provides an opportunity for communities across the country to start to rebuild, and the economic activity created is critical to future prosperity for all of us. But we won’t have another opportunity to get this right, and effective and efficient communication will be the key to success.