The biggest mall owner in the U.S., Simon Property Group, is teaming with online shopping site Rue La La’s parent company to launch a new kind of website for people looking for deals.

The real estate company announced Wednesday it’s partnering with Rue Gilt Groupe, which is backed by Michael Rubin, CEO of Fanatics’ parent company Kynetic, to create a new e-commerce business for discount shopping.

Simon has been testing the website “ShopPremiumOutlets.com” since March, building on its premium outlet centers business. The mall owner operates dozens of premium outlet centers nationwide and a handful overseas. It’s been working with certain retailers at those centers — which include Woodbury Common Premium Outlets in New York — to test selling merchandise together on this site. It says it has signed on more than 2,000 designers, and has about 300,000 products.

A recent report valued the rental subscription market at around 1 billion dollars in 2018 and forecast it grows more than 20 percent a year, reaching 2.5 billion dollars by 2023. This trend isn’t lost on traditional retailers: over the last year everyone in the industry seems to be launching their own clothing rental service.

Recent research from GlobalData confirms the explosive growth of clothing rental and / or subscription services: it’s expected to reach 2.5 billion dollars value by 2023, prompting brands such as Banana Republic, Macy’s, Urban Outfitters, Trunk Club or J.C. Penney to announce their own apparel rental services.

I read a recent article in Forbes that talked about upheaval in the shopping mall industry. There's a link to it at the end of my commentary and I would really appreciate hearing your thoughts on it as well. Here are mine:

“HURRY AND DIE MALLS."

Your days are over. People want a social experience, not products. Mark-downs and sales clerks. As we all know, the hype, “Retail is Dead” is just that, hype. Consider the following. 87% of consumer retail is transacted in brick & mortar, physical stores. Yes, you heard me…87%. In fact, a recent NRF report stated retail sales, in stores, are up 4.9%. NOT e/comm, by true shopping and social interaction.

The net is, if you fear Amazon will put you out of business, shame on you! You “owned” your customers for decades, but did you do anything to earn their loyalty except showcase your products? 30% of my personal shopping is on-line. Mostly under $50 commodities. 70% is spent with retailers who invest in their employees training & wages, innovative products, and exceptional customer service, both pre and post sale. Malls are (I hate this word), “transforming” into social town centers with entertainment (movies, concerts, festivals), attractions (claiming walls, work-out centers, VR and the like), hard goods (driver training hosted by auto manufacturers, cooking classes hosted by appliance manufacturers and the like) and most of all, a place to stop texting and start socializing”. Mall dead? Yes, while town centers are thriving!”

Stop and think about a day you could go without your smartphone. You are checking your calendar to see when or if that is even possible. And yet you may not realize that checking email, texting your doctor or tracking your children’s usage is only part of the life your smart device breathes into you. Last year, Americans made almost 30% of purchases through a mobile device. Next-day and same-day delivery created a market for mobile shoppers and retailers are responding.

The one where the market creator remains the market leader

Amazon, the retail Goliath, created the market for instant gratification with its online presence and product availability.

Today's customers are bombarded by offers from a wide range of companies that want their business. But when offers are targeted and truly exclusive - delivered with pinpoint accuracy to ideal buyers - they can stand out from competing offers and generate a much greater sense of brand loyalty. In this episode, we're joined by Sai Koppala and Bill Schneider from SheerID - a marketing solution that helps retailers acquire new customers through gated exclusive offers. 

Derek du Preez with Diginomica sits down with Infor Retail SVP Corey Tollefson to discuss why some of the world’s largest retailers are opting for Infor.

Infor branched into retail as one of its core industry focuses just a short few years ago. In that time, it has signed the likes of Whole Foods, Arcadia Group, Nordstrom, DSW and Nike to its next-generation, cloud-based solutions. There are other big names on the way.

Why are retailers flocking to a vendor that has been in the game for a relatively short amount of time? We got the chance to sit down with Infor Retail SVP Corey Tollefson, who told us that within 90 days of launching the retail division, without having written a single line of code, the company had signed 6 new customers worth $150 million in bookings.

By Doug Tiffan, Chief Merchant at Infor Retail

Infor is on a mission to deliver on the rising expectations of everyone who touches retail, with modern software solutions that give retailers the power to perpetually reinvent themselves, and the customer experience. We’ve worked with more than 1,700 customers in 67 countries to change the way retail runs in grocery, chain drugstores, fashion, luxury goods, restaurants, and hardlines—empowering our partners to monitor the entirety of their retail processes from concept to consumer.

Read Infor's top 5 takeaways from Retail's big show. Have questions? Reach out to ICCG for answers.