Shopping centres: what if parking were part of a great customer experience?

As the festive season approaches, one place is sure to be busy soon: your nearest shopping centre. While the shops and surroundings are key to its appeal, parking also plays a major role for customers. As the saying goes, « you only get one chance to make a good first impression ». And the shopping centre car park is precisely where customers begin and end their shopping journey. Smart parking solutions have emerged to help. So how do they benefit shoppers and, in turn, shopping centres? Hesion Park takes a closer look.

Shopping for pleasure

As 2020 approaches, the customer (« king ») is spoilt for choice when it comes to shopping. Independent shops, e-commerce sites and shopping centres offer plenty of options. To stand out in this fiercely competitive market, « malls » must keep finding inventive ways to attract customers and build loyalty. They continually develop events, additional services and even leisure activities. The aim is to turn a practical destination into somewhere people enjoy spending time. Restaurants, relaxation areas and carefully designed outdoor spaces turn shopping into a genuine outing… whether alone, with family or with friends.

A well-designed car park: essential for shopping centres

The number of car journeys has fallen by 10% over the last 10 years in Ile-de-France (study published in November 2019 by Ile-de-France Mobilités (IDFM)). Nevertheless, 87 % of French people say they still use their car every day. Shopping centres are often located outside town centres, and visits are frequently family outings. Customers therefore still tend to drive there. An accessible, pleasant and safe car park is essential. A well-designed facility takes its specific uses into account and incorporates key considerations such as:

• mobility – making access easier for people with reduced mobility: disabled people, pregnant women and older people;
• space – providing bays wide enough for doors to open fully, particularly when travelling with children or carrying bulky items;
• a sense of safety – with carefully designed lighting, clear signage and surroundings that do not feel oppressive;
• a considered pricing structure – developed in partnership with shopping centres to encourage purchases, or even free parking for a limited time;
• easy navigation within the car park, using colours, names or numbers to help drivers remember where they parked.

Smart parking solutions for smarter car parks

Advances in electronics and IT have also brought major technological progress to car parks in recent years. Accessibility, dynamic guidance and parking space identification are the three key innovations behind smart parking solutions. They offer shopping centre customers genuine convenience. Number plate recognition solutions make available-space management more reliable. Waiting times at entrance barriers are also reduced, and in some cases removing barriers altogether is being considered. Similarly, dynamic parking space signage removes a source of stress for customers.

Drivers no longer have to « hunt for a parking opportunity ». These smart parking solutions can also locate their vehicle at the end of a shopping trip, removing another source of anxiety (and sometimes frustration). In short, all these new smart parking solutions bring together the ingredients for a great customer experience!

Safety: always a priority in public spaces

Shopping centre car parks are classified as ERP: buildings open to the public under French regulations. They must therefore comply with a number of rules to keep users safe. This is particularly important given that a car park can discourage shopping if it makes people feel unsafe. Figures from the latest Opinionway survey, published in December 2018, show that « 1 in 4 French people have reportedly abandoned a purchase in a shop because they felt unsafe ». Once again, technological advances have led to intelligent safety-focused smart parking solutions. Alongside conventional surveillance systems, tools for ventilation control, air quality monitoring and smoke extraction have evolved considerably.

Shopping centres must therefore consider the quality of their parking service if they want to remain competitive in their highly competitive market. Fortunately, smart parking solutions now help them meet customer expectations and new regulatory requirements. At Hesion, our R&D team works tirelessly to offer our customers the best solutions for their retail sites.