ULI Senior Resident Fellow for Retail (recently retired) Maureen McAvey moderated a lively and in-depth discussion on four big trends shaping retail shopping, and by extension retail real estate: technology, consolidation, mixing uses and community building/food/experience. Joining Maureen in the discussion were perspectives from a retailer of high-end men’s clothing, retail real estate developer/manager and broker. Panelists included Jon Mark Baucom (Peter Millar), Chip Lanier (Plaza Associates) and John Pharr (Regency Centers).

Jon Mark Baucom shared the increasing importance of delivering the brand equally strongly on all platforms—Peter Millar must excel in both the online and in-store experience. With consumers spending an average of 74 hours per month on smartphone apps and mobile sales increasing 43% year over year, online shopping is a growing force. However, in-store sales still account for 90% of all retail sales and retailers find their online sales increase in markets with a physical store.

The panel also discussed the growing number of store closings of old anchors and big box stores, like Linens and Things and Circuit City in favor of new anchors like restaurants, civic uses, medical services and entertainment. In addition, large anchors such as Walmart and Target are moving downtown – placing new, smaller-format stores in city centers to meet the needs of the new wave of city residents. John Pharr remarked that Uber is helping shoppers overcome their previous objection to shopping downtown, that of finding convenient parking, and is contributing to the uptick in downtown retail.

Our panel remained upbeat about the forces disrupting retail and remained bullish that well-located and well-designed shopping districts will continue to fare well in the future.