Storetrax.com Wants Your Shopping Center -- Online

Gorillas Versus Niche Players... I'm frequently asked, "Do you think that some day there will be a giant, comprehensive, nationwide listing service?" And while I believe that the big will get bigger, I also argue that there is a strong role for product-specific and geographic-specific listing services -- particularly if (and when) listing services extend their offerings into marketing, transaction processing and ongoing management services. So I thought that it would be interesting to hear directly from a focused listings player like Storetrax.com.

Interview... Beth Stewart is the Co-Chair of Storetrax.com, a listing service exclusively devoted to retail real estate, which currently tracks over 430 million square feet of retail space in 45 states. Stewart responded to three e-mailed questions on September 20, 2000.

Pike: Frequently you hear the comment: "Listings will become a commodity." Do you believe this? Why or why not?

Stewart: It's hard to predict the future so let's talk about now. We feel strongly that our listings are not a commodity. The information provided on our site cannot be found on any other web site -- neither the format nor the quality nor the depth of the information. Our information is designed just for retail properties. Multi-property web sites don't have special features for retail (e.g., interactive site plans, full listings of all co-tenants). There are a few other things that don't seem to make sense about the notion of commodity listings or a universal listing. Retail industry people come to our site because it is just retail. Why would they want to go to a mixed-use site? Mixed-use sites will just spend extra dollars marketing to a group that doesn't need them. I would like to see the financial projections for that scenario. Thinking as broadly as possible, maybe this is a concept that works for someone in the office/industrial arena if we continue to have five plus-or-minus providers for that segment.

Pike: Do you plan to integrate Storetrax.com into the entire retail life cycle from searching to due diligence to property management?

Stewart: We absolutely plan to add features to the Storetrax.com web site that will bring efficiencies to the entire leasing to move-in process. We call this Project Streamline. Fortunately, a number of other companies have made significant headway on the development of software for many of the steps that follow the initial steps of leasing a retail space. We hope to partner, form alliances, and buy software, whatever makes sense. For us, though, it all starts with the listings (comprehensive in geographic markets and high quality information). In the leasing sector, we must first show that the Internet facilitated a transaction on the most basic level, and then we can add features.

Pike: What's the biggest barrier to adoption of your service by shopping center owners?

Stewart: Probably the biggest barrier for us is some owners' lack of understanding of how the web in general, and Storetrax.com specifically, can truly help them. We realize that our sales process doesn't stop once we have the listings on our site. We must educate the leasing departments of the landlords and brokers who put their properties on the site. By design, Storetrax is easy to use, so this doesn't require a lot of time on their part or ours, but it is a critical step. It is remarkable to see and hear from clients who have been trained. It doesn't take long for them to realize that the way business has been done for decades is not going to work in the future.

--Peter Pike