Landlords are wooing tenants with mass smartphone data analysis and courting shoppers with consumer-facing technologies like livestream shopping and digital payments. Technology, experts said at ICSC’s virtual Tech Connect conference, can differentiate properties for consumers and tenants alike.

Tenants will come to expect physical stores that come with their own sets of high-tech tools, said Laura Manes, vice president of innovation for Cadillac Fairview’s digital lab, Ravel by CF. Much of the cost of the investment in new technology will fall on the landlord, but the return on investment could be big as expanding chains make a flight to quality. “You can’t just lease them a box,” Manes said. “The value proposition has to be plug-and-play.”

7 more takeaways from ICSC’s Tech Connect conference

• Shopping centers can increase their value to retailers and shoppers by adding more centralized services, said David Blumenfeld, co-founder of consulting firm NextRivet. “That’s the onus on the shopping center owner right now.” That includes centralized logistics, microfulfillment for last-mile delivery, expedited merchandise returns and better sharing of shopper data, he said.

RELATED: Data sharing between tenants and landlords

• Buy-online-pick-up in store isn’t going away after the pandemic, and landlords need to plan for it. Rite Aid vice president of real estate Tracy Verastegui asked for four BOPIS parking spaces in each of 10 new leases in the past two months. “I’m adding it to all new leases,” she said.

• Landlords are fostering local tech startups to boost retail sales at their properties. Cadillac Fairview is working with Canadian startups like artificial intelligence e-commerce search firm Adeptmind (learn more about the company at the Tech Connect Tech Runway) and digital wayfinding tool Ivado Labs. “We’re a proud Canadian company, so we try to support our own,” said Manes. And in Chile, Peru and Colombia, landlord Parque Arauco works with entrepreneurs like GoPass for curbside delivery and Sharf for personal shopping, according to Eduardo Perez Marchant, CEO of the firm’s international division. In Peru, the landlord works with ViaDirect for wayfinding technology.

• Mall of America has created a livestream shopping channel on the Popshop Live digital platform to promote the property and its tenants. “It has worked really well because we’re in control of it,” said vice president of business development and marketing Jill Renslow. The mall has a custom livestream shopping show and hosts who interact with shoppers and answer questions about merchandise for sale. For any sales made, Mall of America buys the products in store and ships them to the shoppers, she said. The mall doesn’t charge its tenants for the service right now. “Popshop Live allows us to showcase our retailers to their followers,” Renslow said. “They can still have a Mall of America experience but through the convenience of this digital platform.”

RELATED: More on Mall of America’s Livestream Shopping

• Landlords say digital marketplace apps that let shoppers search on their smartphones for specific products at specific properties are worth the investment, even if retailers can’t or won’t pay for the service. Centennial’s new marketplace app, created with Adeptmind, serves as an amenity that gives the company an upper hand in leasing efforts even if retailers never pay for it, said Centennial senior vice president of marketing Colleen Heydon. People also use the app to pre-shop before visiting Centennial’s property, and it has a high conversion rate, she added.

For its part, Oxford Properties Group rolled out a marketplace app to all its properties last year. “It’s a valuable tool because we can promote shop-from-home and it reinforces the value proposition for tenants because consumers can shop the mall from anywhere,” said senior director of strategic marketing Lucia Connor. “The platform also checked a lot of boxes for us as a developer. By focusing on individual products, we can actually draw customers back to our centers that may not necessarily have a destination brand in the mix.” For example, she said, one of Oxford’s shopping centers might not have an Apple store but might have a Best Buy or another tenant that sells Apple products. “If someone’s searching ‘iPhone at XYZ mall,’ our center appears,” she said. “That’s great because now we’ve protected market share.”

• Landlord-tenant relationships are deepening as physical stores become more integrated into omnichannel operations. “Historically, for most mall operators, our relationships [with tenants] were with whoever the head of retail leasing was,” said Manes. “Now we have to forge those relationships with the heads of marketing, the heads of omnichannel, the supply chain, etc., to create collaboration and partnership to say, ‘We’re here to support your success.’ Whether that sale happens at our mall or at a different store or it happens online, it’s all good.”

• Developers are investing more in data-driven research to stay on top of fast-moving, post-pandemic market trends. For its part, Madison Marquette is investing more in research, said executive vice president of retail services Heather Almond. “We have a new head of research putting out weekly insights for our teams. We’re putting out quarterly reports and sharing those with our clients in a one-on-one environment,” she said. The firm has also invested in a mass mobile data subscription from Placer.ai, she added (learn more about the company at the Tech Connect Tech Runway).

Registered attendees of the Tech Connect can watch recordings of conference sessions here.