Compared to shopping malls, the e-commerce sector has it incredibly easy. But Helsinki-based Hyper[in] is attempting to make managing commercial real estate much more plug-and-play. Hyper[in] has produced a nearly all-encompasing platform for managers of commercial real estate. It combines all the things you need to run your shopping mall efficiently, while also creating significant non-rental advertisement revenue for their customers. On top of that they also offer services, like the website behind the shopping mall, making Hyper[in] an easy one-stop shop for their customers.
Their solution is somewhat targeted to commercial real estate owners with around ten good-sized malls in their portfolio. With multiple malls they can offer a management dashboard where whole-mall portfolios are shown, with metrics like sales, service provider management, advertisement sales figures, consumer analytics, and so forth.
Building it for the customers
Hyper[in] is just getting on the radar for most consumers, making them look like they’re offering services all over the place without any real focus. But CEO Markus Porvari tells us that they’re just responding to their customers’ needs. When they began their service focused on the “Monetize” and “Connect” sides of the platform, but then tacked on tenant services and analyticics as they were requested by mall owners.
“We develop our service along with our customers,” says CEO Markus Porlvari. “Once a quarter we get in touch with all of our shopping mall management. Every shopping mall is different but we combine everything into a common roadmap. So the best ideas coming out of Asia can be utilized here in Europe and vice versa.”
This “Manage” side of the platform allows commercial real estate owners to somewhat automate their properties by putting security, maintenance, cleaning, and tenants all on the same platform so tenants can easily request services without going through a middleman. This side of their service also provides managers a quick look on the key metrics of the shopping mall. It integrates information from legacy systems (e.g. POS, financial management, consumer statistics) into a visual dashboard providing a real-time access to shopping mall management.
The “Monetize” set of features include tools used to easily sell all the advertising and promotional spaces over the internet. The online sales platform can then make it easy to sell digital screens, video walls, speciality leasing places, promotional stands, voice commercials or touch-screens. This includes a content manager, which allows a mall manager to quickly approve ads to be shown.
The third part of Hyper[in]’s service, “Connect”, helps managers bring in more customers to their malls though Facebook advertising, newsletters, and other methods. Much of this side of the platform is focused on ad-enabled touch screens they offer their customers, which provide managers with details on what shoppers are searching for, and where they are going.
Going towards Asia
“Now we’re in the position with a management and monetization service for shopping malls. We’re a market leader in Finland, and have a strong foothold in the Nordic and Baltic countries. Now we need to go to where the actual shopping mall market is, and that is of course Asia and North America. We have selected Asia as the market is really booming, and based on our market research it is the place to be.”
Hyper[in]’s solution reaches 87 million consumers in the Nordics and Baltics through their advertising platform in the Nordic and Baltic countries, in more places than just shopping malls. “Whenever you go to a ski resort or the airport and you see those billboard ads, you might be able to see a small ‘Powered by Hyper[in]’ logo, as those are actually sold through our advertisement sales portal.”
Despite these figures, the company is reluctant to state how many commercial real-estate locations are using their solution.
