Simon Property Group Inc., operator of shopping centers nationwide, has collected 150,000 e-mail addresses of shopping mall customers since the holidays on its way to a goal of 1.5 million this year, Amy Noll, director of affinity marketing, tells Internet Retailer.
Simon announced today that Simon Brand Ventures, the marketing division of Simon Property Group, has entered into a long-term marketing and technical services agreement with RealTime Media Inc. to develop a program that will identify individual mall shoppers and segment them so retailers in malls can market to them, both via e-mail and direct mail.
Simon will craft promotions that feature mall merchants either in stand-alone promotions or in packages with other mall merchants, for instance, combining an offer from a music store with a deal from an apparel shop that caters to teens.
Simon has collected the e-mail addresses from consumers who entered sweepstakes or who registered at ShopSimon.com. Signs in the malls have promoted Simon’s web site. Simon malls host 100 million shoppers making 2 billion shopping visits a year.
Noll says that response rates to e-mail tests so far have been better than response rates to direct mail. She says the Internet will be an important factor in the future of mall marketing, not just because it makes e-mail possible, but also because customers will turn to it for information on mall hours, activities and sales. “It will be another medium that our shoppers will use, just like they use newspapers or radio to find out what’s going on at the mall,” she says. “It allows shoppers to be educated about the mall before they come to it.”
Back...
