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By: Mike Jordan and Julee Zack
The holiday season is a time for connection, celebration, and creating important memories. From mid-November through December, we transform our retail properties into idyllic community hubs that capture the holiday spirit. We strive to be the town center in our communities, and this is especially true during the holidays, when we want our properties to serve as a gathering place and backdrop for memorable holiday moments.
With holiday foot traffic increasing 3% versus last season, the stakes are high for our tenants. As a family-oriented company, we invest deeply in the holiday vibe, transforming the spaces into winter wonderlands, including the landscaping, lighting, seating, and pristine maintenance of our properties amid increased foot traffic. These elements signal our care and attention, ensuring our spaces always feel safe and inviting, welcoming and warm.
Shoppers notice. For example, our meet-and-greet events with beloved holiday characters are carefully designed to be “Instagrammable,” turning fleeting moments into shareable memories. These touches are delightful and strategic—they inspire shoppers to linger and return. With open-air shopping centers seeing dwell times 6-minutes shorter than their enclosed mall counterparts, that means every opportunity we have to inspire shoppers to stay at our centers longer is an opportunity for our tenants to increase their sales. A study by the UK-firm Brandtrack found that for every 1% increase in average dwell time, sales rose 1.3%.
While some may view holiday activations as formulaic or question their ROI, we also see them as vital investments. Our fresh, interactive approaches ensure enduring tenant success and customer delight. We innovate year after year, introducing new interactive elements and expanding our events calendar to keep the experience fresh and engaging. This dynamism ensures customers feel the magic anew each season. “We know that there’s a shift happening towards experiential spending and consumers are prioritizing social experiences as part of their holiday. To obtain experiences that are truly relatable and valuable, our marketers are always following the latest retail activation trends and are in constant planning mode. We’ve learned that by planning at least 6-8 months out from an event, knowing your demographic and identifying the proper channels that are best suited for event promotion are three key tips for our events to be successful,” said Julee Zack, Vice President of Marketing.
According to Fohr, 71% of consumers are actively shopping on Instagram for holiday gifts, and 31% are searching on TikTok. “Partnering with a local influencers to promote our events and engage with our retail tenants to host social media giveaways also help amplify our retail center’s social reach and engage potential shoppers for that center,” Zack concluded.
Many landlords overlook these details, but for us, they’re paramount; it’s our family company mindset on display. By weaving together purposeful design and thoughtful investments, we foster long-term success for our retail partners and meaningful connections for our visitors.
Collaboration is at the heart of our holiday strategy. We work closely with our tenants to amplify their promotions and holiday sales, creating win-win scenarios. By co-hosting giveaways, sharing promotional campaigns, and even coordinating themed activations, we align our efforts to maximize both traffic and sales.
We know the power of data in driving proactive decisions. Early data from November and December suggest positive year-over-year sales growth, with projections already showing promising returns. Big V’s high-quality portfolio continues to outperform, with foot traffic increases 30 basis points higher than the national average. In all, over 40,000 more people visited Big V Property Group shopping centers during Thanksgiving weekend versus last year. Moreover, insights from Black Friday performance help us refine strategies, ensuring our efforts consistently exceed tenant and shopper expectations. Our top performing assets over the Holiday weekend (Merchant’s Square in Carmel, Indiana, Spradlin Farms in Christiansburg, Virginia and Spalding Village in Griffin, Georgia) reflect the dedication and hard work of our leasing team in merchandising our shopping centers in a way that feels relevant to consumers across a wide variety of markets.
We have a clear holiday vision: get our tenants involved to ideate each year, adding new layers of creativity and engagement. Whether through expanding community-focused events, introducing cutting-edge activations, or putting visual wonder on display, we remain committed to creating spaces that bring friends and families together.
At its core, our holiday magic is about more than decorations or discounts—it’s about fostering connection and holiday magic. By investing in our spaces, partnering with tenants, and crafting unforgettable and novel experiences, we ensure our centers are not just places to shop but destinations to connect during the holidays. As we look to the future, we’re excited to keep raising the bar, one festive season at a time.
