Retail centre giant in loyalty app

The group behind many of the UK’s biggest shopping centres – including Birmingham’s Bullring, London’s Brent Cross and Southampton’s West Quay – is to launch a loyalty app to reward visitors as part of a multichannel strategy linking digital commerce with its stores.
Hammerson will introduce the mobile-enabled app in September, with features including product updates, customer services and shopper rewards.
The retail and property investment company said the move was “the next stage of digital engagement with our consumers”.
It builds on a multichannel offer that already includes free wifi throughout the group’s UK shopping centres, as well as mobile-enabled websites. In a statement, the company said: “By creating destination venues and constantly refreshing the tenant mix to reflect consumer demand, we create winning locations for retailers and consumers. Despite the challenging backdrop, we have maintained occupancy above our target, and grown like-for-like income from the portfolio by 2.5%.”
The update came as Hammerson reported its half-year results. In the six months to June 30, net rental income had risen by 2.5%, on a like-for-like basis, to £140.4m. Pre-tax profits rose to £80.8m.
Chief executive David Atkins said: “While household budgets in the UK and France remain under pressure, there are encouraging signs of improvement in macro-economic conditions in the UK.
“Our winning venues remain in demand from consumers and retailers. This combined with our management actions allows us to maintain high occupancy, secure new tenants on attractive terms and consistently grow rental income. We therefore have confidence in our continued ability to secure strong growth in earnings and dividends over the medium term.”