Many urban shopping areas are struggling with declining visitor numbers and decreasing retail sales because consumers are increasingly shopping online. However, this digital era also offers local shopping area stakeholders such as retailers, service providers, property owners, shopping centre managers and local government opportunities to jointly increase the attractiveness of the shopping area by making use of collective digital marketing activities. However, only a limited number of collective digital marketing activities have been successful in practice. By conducting four separate but related studies, this project aims to create insight into the factors that determine the use and effectiveness of collective digital marketing activities by local shopping area stakeholders.
This PhD research is conducted by Daphne Hagen, working at HvA Centre for Market Insights and doing her PhD at Utrecht University.