This new digest of the Ustor team has gathered the most interesting news about what happened and changed on the retail front!

Cars Parking on the roofs of shopping malls

In early July 2019, Ukraine allowed the construction of parking places for cars on the roofs of shopping and entertainment centers. The Ministry of Regional Development has made appropriate changes to the construction norms of the state, and from July 1 they came into force. According to the press service of the deputy minister for regional development, now parking lots can be designed and placed on the roofs of public buildings.

The exceptions are kindergartens, schools, and hospitals. Shopping malls and administrative buildings may have such parking facilities by the end of this summer. According to the norms, parking on the roof of buildings should have exits for evacuation, meet the requirements of the State Fire Service to the fire protection distances to the adjacent buildings, the device of electrical installations, etc. Interestingly, it is prohibited to equip such objects with temporary shelters for cars.

Ukrainians celebrate Investor Day in Kyiv at RAU Investment Forum

On June 18, 2019, the first international forum dedicated to investments in retail trade and real estate was held in Kyiv's Mystetskyi Arsenal. The event was organized by Dragon Capital and the Retailers Association of Ukraine, and the opening was entrusted to Andriy Sadovy — the mayor of Lviv and the leader of the "Samopomich" party.

The forum was attended by over 250 participants, including government officials, investors, owners and top managers of retail companies, consultants, brokers, and developers. There were noticed representatives of such companies as Foxtrot, Grinville, Intertop, Golden Age, TSUM, Ocean Plaza Shopping Mall, Dream Town Shopping Mall, Victoria Gardens Shopping Mall, Zlata Plaza, BC, and Retroville Shopping Mall, Multiplex, Watsons, RDA, UTG, CBRE, DYB, Intergal-Bud, UFuture, Colliers International...

RAU Investment Forum 2019 was conditionally divided into 4 sessions:

• The first session was devoted to the state of the Ukrainian commercial real estate market and was held in the format of a panel discussion. The market analyst was presented and the sectors promising for investment were outlined.
• During the second session, the discussion focused on new real estate projects in the Ukrainian retail sector, expectations from modern shopping malls and prospects for mega-malls.
• Over the third session, the owners of Ukraine's largest retailers discussed investments in retail, competition with international retailers, anti-crisis strategies for business development and the factors that hinder its growth in Ukraine most of all. 
• The last, fourth session of the RAU Investment Forum 2019 was held with the support of Novoye Vremya magazine and also touched upon the topic of investments in retail business: innovative approaches, relations between the city and business, promising sectors of the Ukrainian economy and its post-election future.

The traditional conclusion for such events was a lounge party, where guests had the chance to have a heart-to-heart conversation in a more informal and comfortable atmosphere.

8 tips for brands from Kantar Millward Brown marketing experts

Marketing experts from Kantar Millward Brown who are responsible for making BrandZ (the annual global ranking of the most expensive brands), have recently developed a number of valuable tips. In their opinion, in order for the brand to survive and prosper in 2019, it is necessary to learn to "Think differently":

• about their offers to the consumer: help with choices and find new ways to be competitive and to remain unique;
• about distribution: look for profitable sales channels and change the sales model;
• about expansion: get rid of unprofitable objects, get out of non-core areas, move from the number of square meters to e-commerce;
• about retail space: look for new ways to attract customers, practise multi-formattedness, and store goods closer to the location where customers are looking for them;
• about the customer's experience: to sink into the customer's mind with unforgettable impressions of his interaction with the brand, as well as test technologies that will make his purchases easier, more accessible, more comfortable, more pleasant and brighter;
• about competition: collaborate with other retailers to make shopping a better alternative than watching a movie or having dinner at a restaurant;
• about innovations: try fast delivery and cash registers without cashiers, mobile augmented reality technologies, artificial intelligence;
• about success: long-term and short-term results, customer value for the company, as well as partnerships and subscription models for years to come...

Top 50 largest retailers in the world in 2019, according to Kantar Consulting

Kantar Consulting has published its annual ranking of the world's largest retailers. U.S. companies are still the leaders in this list, while the pressure from China is felt more and more strongly. 

Despite their problems with a lot of debts, China makes massive long-term investments into economic development. Trends indicate that China has a good chance of becoming a global leader in advanced technology by the middle of this century.

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