Active Play Is Becoming the New Retail Anchor

As convenience moves to the phone, retail destinations need more than footfall. They need reasons for people to stay, explore and discover.

The old anchor tenant is not dead. But it is being asked to do a very different job.

For years, the role of an anchor was relatively straightforward. A large supermarket, department store, fashion offer or cinema helped pull people into a retail destination because shoppers needed something. The anchor created a reason to visit, and the rest of the centre benefited from the movement around it.

That logic still matters. Essential retail, strong brands and popular leisure uses will always play an important role in destination planning. But the way people decide to visit, move through and spend time in a centre has changed.

Convenience has moved to the phone. Many purchases that once required a trip can now be completed from the sofa. A centre can no longer rely only on need-based visits. It has to give people a reason to stay longer, wander further, bring the kids, meet friends and come back even when they do not strictly need to buy anything.

That is why active play is becoming a serious consideration for retail destinations.

From entertainment add-on to operating system

When people hear "play" in a retail context, it is easy to think of entertainment as a nice extra. A temporary attraction. A vacant unit filled for a weekend. A one-off event designed to create a spike in visits.

Those things can have a place. But active play is more powerful when it is treated as part of the centre's operating system, not as decoration around the edges.

That means play should be visible, easy to understand and simple to join. It should work for families, groups and repeat visitors. It should encourage people to move through the centre, not cluster in one place. And it should be considered alongside the outcomes that matter to asset teams and tenants: dwell time, cross-shopping, tenant visibility and the use of different parts of the destination.

In other words, the question is not simply: "What can we put on to attract people?"

The better question is: "What behaviour do we want to create once people are here?"

Footfall is not the same as movement

A centre can look busy and still have areas that feel underused. Entrances may perform differently. Some corridors may be ignored. Upper levels, side malls or quieter zones may struggle to attract attention, even when overall footfall appears healthy.

This is one of the most important gaps in retail destination planning: the difference between attendance and movement.

If visitors arrive for one big draw, visit that attraction and leave, the centre has gained traffic. But it may not have gained exploration. Tenants outside the obvious route may not benefit. Shoppers may not discover anything new. The destination may feel active in one area while other parts remain disconnected.

Active play can help address this because it gives people a reason to move with purpose.

A scavenger hunt, trail or challenge-based experience can turn a visit into a journey. Instead of walking only between the car park, the anchor and the exit, visitors are invited to notice more of the centre. They may be guided past stores they usually miss, encouraged to look up, pause, interact, complete a task or continue to the next location.

This is where the real shift is happening. The anchor is no longer just a place. It is a behaviour.

Designing for discovery

Retail destinations are full of overlooked opportunities. A tenant with a strong product but poor visibility. A food offer just outside the main flow. A community space people do not realise exists. A new store that needs awareness beyond its immediate frontage.

Traditional wayfinding helps people get where they already intend to go. Active play can help them discover places they did not know they wanted to visit.

That distinction matters. The future role of a centre is not only to fulfil a shopping list. It is to create a sense of experience around the visit. People need reasons to slow down, look around and feel that there is something worth exploring.

For families, play is a natural driver. Children often influence how long a visit lasts and whether a trip feels enjoyable or stressful. A simple, accessible activity can give families a shared purpose and make a centre feel more welcoming.

For groups of friends, challenges can create a social reason to visit. For occasional shoppers, they can make the destination feel more dynamic. For tenants, they can provide a route into the customer journey that is not limited to window displays or promotions.

The point is not to replace shopping. It is to make discovery part of the visit.

Repeatable beats one-off

One-off events can create useful moments of excitement. But if the ambition is to influence behaviour across a destination, repeatability matters.

A centre needs experiences that people can understand quickly and return to without friction. If participation is too complicated, requires too much planning or depends on a narrow time window, it risks becoming another event rather than a useful layer of the destination.

This is why digital, no-download experiences are becoming increasingly relevant. Gonow Play, for example, is built around the idea that a scavenger hunt should be easy to access and simple to take part in, without asking visitors to download an app before they can begin.

For a retail destination, that kind of low-friction participation is important. People are already in the environment. The experience needs to meet them there, invite them in and encourage them to keep moving.

Repeatability also supports operational thinking. A centre can refresh themes, highlight different tenants, support seasonal campaigns or direct attention to specific zones without reinventing the whole experience every time.

The path between attractions matters

Many retail and leisure strategies focus on the big draw. That is understandable. A strong anchor, popular food offer, cinema, event or leisure concept can create a clear reason to visit.

But the path between attractions is often where value is won or lost.

What do people pass on the way? Do they slow down? Do they notice the smaller tenants? Are there reasons to turn left instead of right? Are quieter areas connected into the wider experience? Does the visit encourage exploration, or does it simply move people from one fixed point to another?

Active play is useful because it can be designed around these questions. It can encourage visitors to travel through different zones, complete challenges near selected tenants or discover parts of the centre that are not naturally on their route.

This does not need to feel forced. The best experiences are simple, visible and enjoyable. They give people a reason to participate without making the centre feel like an obstacle course. The aim is to add a layer of purpose to movement, not to complicate the visit.

Measuring what matters

If active play is treated as a serious part of the centre experience, it should be measured against serious objectives.

That does not mean reducing play to a spreadsheet. It means being clear about why the experience exists.

Is the aim to increase dwell time? Encourage cross-shopping? Improve visibility for specific tenants? Support family visits? Connect underused parts of the centre? Give people a reason to return? Different objectives will shape different experiences.

A challenge that simply entertains in one location may be useful for atmosphere, but it will not necessarily improve movement. A trail that spans the destination may do more to support discovery. A tenant-led challenge can help bring attention to specific stores. A family-friendly scavenger hunt may increase the sense that the centre is a place to spend time, not just complete errands.

The important step is to plan play around the behaviour the centre wants to encourage.

The new anchor is behavioural

The anchor tenant used to be defined by scale, category and necessity. It was a place people came for.

Today, the most effective anchors may also be behaviours: exploring, playing, meeting, discovering, sharing time and returning because the destination feels worth being in.

This does not make traditional anchors irrelevant. It changes the job around them. A strong draw is still valuable, but the centre also needs to think about how that draw connects to the rest of the environment.

For 2026 and beyond, the best retail destinations will not design only for attendance. They will design for movement.

They will ask where people already go, but also where they do not. They will look at the spaces between stores, not just the stores themselves. They will consider how families, groups and casual visitors can be invited to take part. And they will treat discovery as something that can be designed, not left to chance.

The question for every centre is simple:

Where do people still not go, even when footfall looks healthy?

The answer may point to the next generation of retail anchors. Not just a unit, a tenant or an attraction, but an active reason to move.