We just got back from ICSC 2023 in Las Vegas! It was a great experience and we really enjoyed seeing everyone there. Here are a few observations and reflections from our SiteSeer team members about the general atmosphere and “vibe” among retailers and real estate professionals:
- The climate is cautious. Many are careful to mitigate risk and in wait-and-see mode, observing to determine whether building costs and inflation will stay the same or decrease. Just like in 2021, it is clear that everyone—from retailers to developers to service businesses—are wondering what might happen this year and beyond with the U.S. economy. There is optimism but also caution, both of which are understandable.
- Data and analytics remain top of mind. Retailers, brokers and developers alike recognize that now is not the time to make careless mistakes, so added scrutiny in the form of better analysis and using data to perform that analysis is critical. Cell phone data continues to be a key data component for retailers and real estate professionals alike, yet users are rightfully discussing and learning to work around the data's limitations. As we’ve shared before with clients, no one data source can provide the answer to all of an organization’s questions.
- New data sources are also top of mind. Many companies are interested in the various types of data sources available to them as they analyze sites, markets and more. We enjoyed talking with our longstanding data partners at ICSC and look forward to evaluating and potentially offering even more new data products that we learned about at ICSC.
- Companies still sent people to ICSC in search of solutions, even if fewer people. Attendees at ICSC were serious about finding solutions like SiteSeer to help their businesses. So, while there have been busier years at ICSC in terms of number of attendees, the visitors to the SiteSeer booth had done their homework and were interested in getting a deeper understanding of their options as far as tools and data.
- Real estate professionals are looking for solutions to do their jobs smarter/better/faster. Void Analysis is a tool that helps professionals prioritize the types of tenants they recruit (to conserve their time and effort). This type of solution seems to be in high demand as real estate professionals want to fill vacant space quickly and brokers want to create recruitment packages with deeper analysis and data, which retail chains need to make decisions about where to locate.
- Those who aren’t using research tools today are realizing the need. We spoke to many prospects at ICSC who don’t currently have a solution to analyze sites and markets, but during our demos of SiteSeer, it was clear that they realize now more than ever why this is important. The understanding amongst both real estate brokers and developers and retailers is that doing research is critical, and not doing it can lead to poor (and costly) decisions.
If you were at ICSC and didn’t have a chance to stop by our booth, or you didn’t make it this year, not a problem! Let's connect for an online demo. Reach out and we’ll fill you in on what SiteSeer can offer your business and more about our newest features and free mobile activity dataset available now!
