ICSC Participants Gear Up for Reconnecting, Intel Gathering

The retail industry has gathered before at a post-pandemic event organized by the ICSC, but memories of quarantine and curtailed business travel are still fresh. So participants can be excused for getting excited to see colleagues at the upcoming Las Vegas event, being held May 22-24. Mike McKean, founder of Retailsphere, for example, is looking forward to meeting people who may not have attended last year and to build on those relationships already created.

 “Even though we believe in the power of technology to connect people in the retail industry, it’s always great to meet someone in person and show them the capabilities of Retailsphere,” he tells GlobeSt.com. “Additionally, we’re excited to see what new technology and retail concepts may be emerging as we get further into 2022 and the industry is in a state of rebound.”

Besides meeting up with colleagues again, participants will also be intel gathering on the latest trends. 

John Sechser, managing director of East Bay Retail Services at TRI Commercial/CORFAC International, for instance, is watching the restaurant business very carefully. 

“As for the restaurant business, the categories that are coming out of this pandemic and moving forward are fast food, fast casual, drive-thru, experiential food uses and specialty ethnic concepts with a great vibe,” he tells GlobeSt.com. When he gets to the ICSC event, Sechser is looking forward to not only meeting with clients face to face, but also meeting potentially new restaurants and retailers along with a few investors.

In many respects, current retail trends are a carry-over from the depths of the pandemic. “I think some of the trends we’ve seen in 2021 are continuing into 2022 and will for some time,” McKean says, “The largest being supply chain issues and staffing issues.”

He explains that brands who can figure out ways to combat inventory issues will be able to attract customers purely because they have items for purchase. Additionally, he says, with more locations reopening, the number of people to work hasn’t increased to meet that demand. “Those stores who can find workers will be able to keep their doors open, but unfortunately this may also lead to unexpected closures—on both fronts.”

At the same time, though, there are new developments emerging that are poised to have an outsized impact on retail. Openings outpaced closings for the first time this year after three consecutive years of net closures, with just 47 closures announced over the next two years versus 720 openings, according to JLL.  “Total space demanded by the store openings is almost double the space that will be vacated,” added Senior Managing Director Barry Brown, JLL’s retail co-leader in capital markets. 

And e-commerce is receding as a threat to physical stores: The online share of US retail sales declined to 12.9% in the fourth quarter of last year after reaching a peak of 15.7% in the second quarter of 2020, according to US Census Bureau figures recently cited by the Wall Street Journal.