What:  A mall launches a marketplace designed for its tenants, as a way to provide support and develop hyperlocal retail.

Why it is important:  IADS members are looking for solutions to prevent their concessions tenants to use click & collect as a way to reduce the variable rent to be paid. Bal Harbour does the contrary and provides the infrastructure to increase overall sales, online and offline, while making sure it controls, or has an eye on, e-commerce operations from brands.

Bal Harbour, the high end mall in Miami, Florida, is launching its own marketplace, Bal Harbour Shops Marketplace, designed to be a store-level solution and not an e-commerce platform. The marketplace will be fully integrated into the mall’s website and newsletter (shoppable) and will be providing solutions to brands with a store in Bal Harbour.

Since the launch, 6 brands joined the initiative, including Ferragamo. Interestingly, in terms of operations, most of the brands fulfil sales on this marketplace (which is very much Bal Harbour-centric, thus hyper local, and not competing with e-commerce giants), with products from their stores, and not their warehouse.

In parallel, Bal Harbour is conducting a renovation project, including a new extension (where it proposed brands to relocate in exchange for continuous rent support during the pandemic) and new services area, such as a relocated car park. The new extension, expected to open by 2024 and currently leased at 65%, will increase the mall total surface, from 45,000 sqm today to 70,000.

Bal Harbour Shops Launches a Marketplace