Jill Renslew on Mall of America’s Black Friday strategy: ‘250,000 people’ will shop our stores

“About 250,000 people come to Mall of America on Black Friday,” Renslew said on the latest episode of the Glossy Podcast. “We don’t even need all the traditional doorbusters. People come for the tradition and the fun experience of [shopping] Black Friday [at Mall of America].”

Also on the podcast, Renslew discusses what it takes for a mall to be successful in 2024 and how she’s tackled marketing when 40% of the center’s 32 million annual visitors are tourists. 

Additional highlights from the discussion, which have been lightly edited for clarity, are below. 

Marketing a mall

“It’s a unique challenge because you have every walk of life coming through the doors, from 3-year-olds to 83-year-olds. And so, [it’s about] looking at where you want to market and working with the brands that are in your building. And that’s really the key to our success — we have amazing relationships with the brands in this building. We work with them from when they sign the dotted line on the lease agreement to their opening day and throughout the year — obviously, really leaning into the special holidays on the retail calendar. … Because of the power of social media in today’s world, it’s really important for [our tenant brands] to be sharing our content with their followers and their brand ambassadors, as well as for us to capture the content from them and [amplify] their message to a broader audience that they might not be aware of. So there’s a lot of power and collaboration across social channels, more than ever. And everybody’s in the [influencer] space trying to figure out the influencers that are best for their brand and that content creation. But it’s not only influencers and ambassadors that can amplify your message — it’s also about taking that in-house. At Mall of America, being established, we’ve been able to create our own content. We’ve created our own podcast called ‘So Much More,’ and we’ve created several different channels where we’re developing the content as experts in the space, leaning into the brands that we work with to make sure we have the right messages out there.”

Curating a desirable store mix

“Being a mature property allows us to be really picky about who we bring into this property. We want to make sure we have the right co-tenancy and the right mix to create those neighborhoods within our space to make it really attractive and fun for consumers to shop here and to be able to be exposed to a lot of first-to-market brands — there’s a lot of focus there. We want to make sure we’re the first [mall] in Minnesota or in the Midwest to have some of these brands — and, for some of them, it’s their first [store] in the country. Typically, we have flagship locations that are the top-performing in their chain. We’re very proud to say we have the No. 1 Lululemon in the country. … It’s great to have brands that really believe in us and understand the exposure opportunity here at Mall of America but also know that we’re willing to try new things and want to test out the market. We’ve had a lot of success in going after brands that don’t typically have brick-and-mortar. We say, ‘Give us a shot. Do a pop-up experience. See how it’s going to work.’ For example, we have Edikted. The brand kicked off on TikTok, and we are the second location in the country. They opened up in the early part of the summer season, which was perfect because they hit back-to-school hard. I think every Gen-Z female in this marketplace came to check out the store, and it was bonkers. … And it was just great because they had a built-in audience of followers from their TikTok content, which they just directly marketed to and brought that audience directly into the brick-and-mortar store. From a consumer perspective, they were so excited to experience the brand in person. … And for the brand, it allows them to get to know their consumer outside of the digital space. It’s just a win-win for everybody.”

‘The place to be on Black Friday’

“Some of our stores have started putting their holiday components up, but we wait till November 1. … And we’re a big space — 5.6 million square feet — so it takes a little while to put up all the holiday decor. Usually, it’s within about 7-10 days. … It’s magical during the holidays. … We double down on Black Friday. So, as much as it has been diluted across the nation and it’s just not what it used to be, 250,000 people come to Mall of America on Black Friday. Typically, we have a couple thousand people outside our front doors waiting to get in. We entertain them outside, we keep them warm, and when they come in, we usually reward the first 500 people in line. We make sure that they’re getting gift cards, and we have scratch-offs. … It is so much fun. All the local media are here because this is the place to be on Black Friday. And we don’t even need all the traditional doorbusters. People come for the tradition and the fun experience of Black Friday, and we — starting about 10 years ago — close on Thanksgiving.… Being able to put all the focus on Black Friday has allowed us to do it like no other.”