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MALL LANDLORDS TEST CENTERWIDE GIFT REGISTRATION

BY LEE KESSLER

Why should about-to-be-weds have all the fun?

The Galleria, an enclosed, upscale center in Edina, Minn., has introduced an electronic gift registry that can be used by any who think they deserve a gift, and at any — or all — the stores in the center.

Proponents say it is innovative both in its fresh conceptualization of the traditional registry and its application of database capabilities to shopping center marketing.

Based on the traditional gift registry, where an individual merchant allows customers to specify desired items, registrants with the Galleria may specify items from multiple merchants at the center.

“The technology has made it very streamlined,” said Jill M. Noack, vice president and general manager of Edina-based Gabbert & Beck, owner of the Galleria, which lies about 10 miles southwest of Minneapolis. The mall uses a service developed by Minneapolis-based Automated Member Services called Mall Gift Registry. Here’s how it works: Jane Smith visits the Galleria and sees a small, freestanding Mall Gift Registry kiosk equipped with a computer monitor and keyboard. She types in her name, address and birthday. (She can also register at home through the Galleria’s Web site or by calling AMS and providing the information over the phone.)

“We have designed it for people to celebrate all of life’s events,” said William J. Veeneman, president and CEO of AMS and the system’s primary architect. “The Wall Street Journal in November reported that one of the hottest trends in gift lists was housewarmings — people registering the purchase of their new house. But the hottest trend is wish lists.” By that he meant lists not connected to any particular event. Wish lists have been popularized through e-commerce and such retailers as Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble, which feature them prominently on their Web sites.

After Jane has finished registering at the kiosk, a printed page is generated that contains her personal bar code and instructions for using one of the hand-held scanners that hang from the side of the kiosk. The scanners are about the size and shape of a hairbrush, curved to fit the hand.

Jane carries the scanner with her as she shops in the Galleria. When she sees an item she wants, she simply scans its bar code and it gets entered into the system. If an item lacks a bar code, it can be entered using the scanner’s keyboard function.

Merchants pay AMS about $200 a month to become part of Mall Gift Registry, which was launched at the Galleria, its first ever location, during the 2003 holiday season. The mall does not share in these proceeds, though, of course, it benefits from the increased sales the program generates.

“Out of 67 stores, we’ve got more than 40 stores that are on board with us,” said Noack. “So we have a way to go to get these other stores online with it, but we’ve got a nice selection of stores that are participants, and they are latching on and really enjoying it.” Those Galleria tenants that are using the system include Danish stereo manufacturer Bang & Olufsen, Barnes & Noble, Chico’s, Fifth Avenue Optical, Papyrus and Scandia Down.

The local and national stores at the Galleria include Coach, J. Jill, Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware and Williams-Sonoma. The stores serve an affluent customer; there are 300,000 people living within a 5-mile radius of the center. The average household income is $98,000 a year.

Even as our Jane shops, AMS is preparing a welcome letter addressed to her that contains a permanent, credit-card-size ID card with her bar code on it, allowing her to identify herself to a scanner without having to type in her name. It also contains a dozen preprinted cards she can give out to her gift givers, informing them that she has registered with this new program at the Galleria. Then the second half of the registry equation begins.

Shoppers come to the mall wanting to get a gift for Jane. Some of them will already be armed with her item list, which they accessed on the Galleria Web site, then printed out at home. Others will approach the Mall Gift Registry kiosk, enter Jane’s name and receive a printout there. It will be updated from the moment it is printed, even if Jane is still at the Galleria feverishly scanning in items.

Then they purchase an item.

“Now, this is where registries are historically imperfect,” conceded Veeneman. The only way to remove that item from the database is to somehow capture the information, at the point of sale or otherwise. The AMS system offers an optional data communications component for retailers that automatically links the cash register scanner to the AMS database. But not all the retailers have this component; some are reluctant to give a third party access to their system. (The Galleria declined to specify how many do.) And even where the system is in place, the onus is on the purchaser to tell the cashier to scan the AMS bar code from their list.

The risk is that if an item is not removed from the list, another gift giver may buy a duplicate.

“We’ve done a lot of research on this, and what we found is [that] one of the biggest disappointments of people who register is that they still get duplicate items,” said Veeneman. “So we’ve added a number of different methods so that the customer can report their purchases.” Shoppers can record their purchase through the Mall Gift Registry kiosk before they leave the mall, or through the Galleria Web site from home. They can also fax or call AMS to have the item removed.

AMS declined to provide the number of registrants or number of items tracked through the system so far.

The Galleria, AMS’s first mall, signed up for the system on October 1. “We’re in the process of signing up with three more landlords,” said Veeneman. “We’re in discussions with them right now. We plan on rolling out six to 10 malls this year, and a couple of those landlords are quite large. I can’t share those names, because we’re in the middle of negotiations.”

Representatives at Simon Property Group, Taubman Centers and Westfield America declined to say whether they are looking at such programs. But General Growth Properties, at least, has them on its radar screen.

“We have looked at gift registries,” said James W. (Wally) Brewster, CMD, senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications at Chicago-based General Growth. “I think any time that you add to the experience of the shopper and make the shopping experience easier, then, obviously, that’s going to benefit the consumer as well as the retailer. Especially if it’s going to differentiate the shopping center from other regional entities.” General Growth is the second-largest regional mall REIT in the United States, responsible for more than 149 million square feet of retail space in 41 states.

Meanwhile, back at the Galleria, Noack continues her efforts to sign up more merchants. Tiffany & Co. will be opening its first store in Minnesota there July 31. Will Tiffany be enrolling with Mall Gift Registry? “We hope so,” said Noack. After all, if Tiffany isn’t a gift store, what is?

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