Expert series

The Solal Marketing Conference and Awards in Budapest served as a timely reminder of where retail destinations must focus today. Beyond the awards, what distinguished the gathering was an uncompromising commitment to practicality: prioritising approaches that genuinely deliver results on the ground right now. The event’s greatest strength was its holistic scope. Rather than treating marketing as an …

Is Customer Data Becoming More Valuable Than Rent? Read More »

In this feature, business development advisor and commercial strategist Michel Žalac examines the critical tension between shopping centre landlords and retail tenants when measuring marketing performance: when a campaign is declared a success, whose definition are we actually using? Addressing the disconnect between aggregate footfall figures and individual store profitability, he outlines why aligned expectations, …

Who gets to call a campaign a success? Read More »

In this feature, retail strategist, commercial advisor, and brand architect Alex Andarakis examines why the global crisis facing physical retail is not a structural inevitability, but a systemic failure of differentiation. Drawing on acute market contractions and escalating commercial insolvencies, he introduces the strategic imperative of Desire vs. Distribution to dismantle the sector’s most damaging …

Retail Has Not Died. It Just Got Boring. Read More »

Shopping centers don’t struggle because people stopped spending money. They struggle because owners keep running them the same way they did thirty years ago. When footfall drops, the usual reaction is to offer rent discounts or launch another marketing campaign. But cosmetic fixes can’t save an outdated business model. Real turnarounds only happen when you …

What The Galleria Teaches Retail About Strategic Asset Repositioning Read More »

In this issue, Dr. Ghalia Boustani, retail strategist, researcher, and author, examines how luxury houses can transform temporary retail from an ephemeral novelty into an accountable management instrument. Drawing from her research published in Marketing Review St. Gallen (University of St. Gallen, 2026), she introduces the Ephemeral Brand Environment (EBE) Framework to dismantle the sector’s most persistent …

Pop-Ups Aren’t a Gimmick. They’re a Management Decision. Read More »

In this issue, Linda Johansen-James, publisher of International Retail Magazine and CEO of International Retail Group, explores the convergence of physical retail, global real estate, and intelligent technology. Drawing on her background scaling brands and co-authoring AI for Retail Success, she reveals why modern expansion is no longer about securing square footage, but engineering environments rooted …

Why Global Retail and Real Estate Must Unite to Build Emotionally Intelligent Spaces Read More »

In the modern workplace, ensuring employee safety and facilitating rapid responses to threats has become a critical priority for every organization, a subject explored in this professional overview by Peter Endress, Managing Partner at EVALARM and an expert in crisis management. Below, the author analyzes why physical IoT buttons represent one of the most reliable …

When Chaos Hits, Nobody Remembers a Keyboard Shortcut Read More »

In this issue, our guest author Peter Thommen—a global strategist with 30 years of retail experience and a specialist in strategic foresight—challenges conventional retail wisdom by looking beyond data-driven responsiveness. Using the viral sensation of the Swatch × Audemars Piguet “Royal Pop” collaboration as a case study, he explores how anticipatory leadership, human imagination, and strategic foresight …

Beyond AI: The human imagination rewriting retail’s future Read More »

In this issue, Melissa Moore takes a step back from the daily grind to reflect on the halfway point of 2026. As a retail educator and host of The Retail Tea Break podcast, Melissa speaks daily with the founders and pioneers reshaping the global landscape. Looking past the temporary industry noise, she isolates five defining lessons from …

What Retail Has Taught Me So Far in 2026 Read More »

In this issue, international retail property consultant and executive Lance Stanbury explores the dramatic evolution of modern shopping centers into complex, multi-functional lifestyle community hubs. He explains why specialized, continuous professional development is absolutely essential for today’s mall managers, who must navigate a rapidly changing “phygital” landscape to protect multi-billion-dollar assets, maximize tenant profitability, and deliver the …

Why specialized training for the modern mall manager is essential Read More »