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Sonae Sierra: Going Global with an International REIT

Oct 30, 2019

4 min read

By: Mappedin

Learn about how Mappedin worked with this global REIT to streamline their mapping efforts and digitize venue maps across 33 of their shopping centres.

The Customer

Sonae Sierra is an international real estate company committed to delivering solutions to meet its client ambitions.

Sonae Sierra develops, manages and invests in sustainable assets and provide investment, architecture & engineering and property management services for clients in geographic areas as diverse as Europe, South America, North Africa and Asia, whilecreating shared value for their business.

The Opportunity

The opportunity came as a chance to work with a REIT that had venues across several countries in order to help them increase their organizational efficiency. Integrating Mappedin’s products into their tech stack also helped them update outdated maps that they had been using, and give their customers a more digitally advanced experience when interacting with their properties’ brand.

The team at Sonae Sierra also needed to be able to manage multiple properties through one system, as well as the ability to manage properties located across Europe from their office in Lisbon, Portugal.

Prior to using Mappedin, Sonae Sierra had been using SVG maps on their website, which was sufficient but was not inclusive of wayfinding. This provided an opportunity for Mappedin to help create an experience that would encourage Sonae Sierra’s customers to engage more with technology on the property and continue their digital experience while shopping.

We’re continually looking for state of the art technologies that can increase shopper engagement. Mappedin’s web wayfinding platform adds a consistent means for shoppers to navigate our Shopping Centers, providing a completely interactive and immersive experience. We’re very glad to take advantage of the Mappedin technology that has highly contributed to improving our customers digital experience.

- Ana Fé, Digital Marketing Coordinator, Sonae Sierra

The Solution

In order to help update their product and experience, Mappedin created a digital map for 33 of Sonae Sierra’s properties across several countries, which was delivered through Mappedin Web.

We began a pilot with Sonae Sierra in September of 2018, with the addition of a number of venues towards the end of 2018. The overall goal was to create a product that allows customers to research and plan their visit in advance, and then to continue that experience seamlessly through a mobile device once on the property.

In order to fully address Sonae Sierra’s needs with regards to their European customer base, we also created several solutions for the unique challenges of an international product.

Responsive Web App: Updating Sonae Sierra’s existing maps to digitize them and upload them into our CMS allowed for a fully customized experience. The addition of Mappedin Web allowed customers to search and navigate on both desktop and mobile devices.

Point of Interest Translation: Mappedin added several new languages to Mappedin Web during the implementation process, to account for the bilingual nature of many of the countries, and to account for the variety of languages across the different countries. This also included updating points of interest with country-specific and appropriate terms.

Expansion of Mobile Device Support: Product adjustments were made to ensure that viewing the Mappedin Web product on mobile was optimized for European-make mobile devices. Several differences included size of screen optimization and accounting for a wider variety of models than one might see in the North American market to ensure that all customers receive a consistent and seamless experience.

The Results

After implementing the pilot project and successfully converting the project to scale and scope requested by the client, we worked with them to significantly increase their unique user sessions 260x month-over-month since implementing Mappedin Web.

The user sessions show an upward trend in user sessions and engagement, corresponding to all 33 venues in the portfolio being onboarded at the beginning of 2019.

Over time, more venues have been added as Sonae Sierra continues to expand their investments in properties and management across the world.

They have continued to grow both their portfolio and tenant base for the past several years - an international client dedicated to continuing expansion of their services in a number of different countries, including entering into new markets like Poland and Romania through partnerships.

Looking Forward

We continue to work with Sonae Sierra to support new venues that are added to their portfolio, as well as the addition of new products and features that fit with their needs and direction going forward.