Retail parks market will grow by 13.8% over the five years to 2022, reaching £52.7bn and outpacing total offline growth. The increase in space, including new retail park openings and the extension of current parks, will drive growth, as will the changing product mix, which will attract new retail park shoppers.

While it is one of the smallest retail park sectors, health & beauty will be the fastest growing sector in the next five years, accounting for 5.8% of the retail parks market in 2022, driven by rising volumes due to product innovation in the sector, and retailers improving their own ranges. Competition will be rife in retail parks with well-established Boots fighting off new entrants to the channel, including Superdrug, and the discounters and grocers.

Despite retailer’s store closures, space in retail parks will grow by 10.2% over the next five years, driven by new retailers moving into the channel. Discounters will continue to take share of space as Aldi, Lidl, B&M and Home Bargains take advantage of the challenging retail climate where shoppers’ budgets are squeezed and are trading down.

The top positions in terms of share of the retail park market are taken by the grocers, along with Marks & Spencer, which has been able to protect its share of the market despite weaker clothing sales due to the opening of Simply Food formats and strong performance of its food division within multi-sector formats.

Best in class retailers, Curry’s PC World and Next Home, use their large format stores within retail parks to both display products in lifestyle room sets and provide interactive experiences for consumers, which enhance the shopping environment and encourage longer dwell time.

60.0% of consumers spent 60 minutes or less in retail parks due to trips being mission driven, so retailers must work harder to boost dwell time by improving leisure facilities and encouraging customers to shop across multiple retailers in order to increase spend per head. 35.3% of consumers said they would visit retail parks more frequently if there were more leisure facilities.

Retail parks need to develop destination appeal to combat the growth of online shopping. GlobalData found that 40.6% of consumers visit retail parks every three months or less, showing there is plenty of opportunity to increase visit frequency. If the shopping environment was more attractive, 50.2% of consumers said they would visit more often. Attractive store fronts, outdoor seating and innovative street food stalls would improve the appeal and aesthetic of a retail park – rather than relying on functionality.

The report “UK Retail Parks 2017” offers comprehensive insight and analysis of the UK channel, the major players, the main trends, and consumer attitudes. It also provides forecasts to 2022. Furthermore, this report helps to identify the key players in the retail parks market using our in-depth analysis of how and why certain sectors are performing in the market to gain strategic insight into this retail format and helps to recognise which consumers are shopping at retail parks, those which are shopping there most frequently as well as the shopper profile of consumers visiting individual sectors in retail parks.

Companies mentioned in this report: Aldi, B&M, Poundland, Currys PC World, Next, Marks & Spencer, Lidl, Superdrug, Primark, Boots, Sainsbury’s, Argos, John Lewis, Matalan, B&Q, Home Bargains, Asda, Tesco, Topps Tiles, IKEA, Dixons Carphone, Amazon, Made.com, Loaf.com, Wilko, Pizza Express Crowne Estate, Sports Direct, Greggs, Costa, River Island, Schuh, TK Maxx, Pavers, Brantano, Homesense, WHSmith, Debenhams, H&M.

Scope

• Product availability and a broad range of options will drive sales growth. 60.8% of consumers would visit retail parks more frequently if there was a wider choice of product, so one-store or one-sector mission shoppers must be encouraged to browse across stores leisurely.
• 74% of consumers that collected an online order from a retailer at a retail park made an additional purchase when instore. These shoppers must be encouraged to stay instore and browse via exciting and engaging store experiences, while tactically locating collection points will provide opportunities for upselling and allow the retailer to control the customer journey.

Reasons to buy

• Utilise our five year forecasts to 2022 for the retail parks market and sector penetration to understand the main areas of growth in the sector.
• Identify the key players in the retail parks market using our in-depth analysis of how and why certain sectors are performing in the market to gain strategic insight into this retail format.
• Recognise which consumers are shopping at retail parks, those which are shopping there most frequently as well as the shopper profile of consumers visiting individual sectors in retail parks.
• Utilise analysis of shoppers’ motivations and browsing/purchasing behaviour to enable a better understanding of the market moving forward.