Beyond foot traffic: How multi-tenant retailers can finally prove marketing ROI

For years, shopping malls, airports and mixed-use centres have been trying to answer the same question: How do we prove that our marketing efforts drive revenue for tenants?

Even with sophisticated tools and large-scale foot traffic studies, the numbers don’t tell the full story. A busy corridor doesn’t mean visitors are converting. High dwell-time could mean engaged shoppers—or it could mean people are killing time between flights. In short, “People walked by your storefront!” doesn’t satisfy tenants who expect measurable performance.

As customer journeys evolve and tenant expectations rise, the traditional toolkit of metrics is showing its limits. The good news? Multi-tenant retail properties don’t have to settle for incomplete insights anymore.

Keep reading to learn how you can take your multi-tenant retail strategy into 2026 and beyond.

A changing multi-tenant landscape

Multi-tenant retail centres represent a huge economic engine in Australia, and retail centres, mixed-use portfolios, airports and casinos all play a role in a broader ecosystem of shopping, dining, entertainment and services.

Unsurprisingly, changes to the landscape are accelerating the need for smarter marketing investments:

• Spend is flowing through multi-tenant properties. Retail and service-based concepts such as fitness, dining and medical continue to grow.
• There’s a shift toward experiential strategies. Retailers are increasingly investing in engagement-driven tactics—activations designed not just to attract foot traffic but deepen loyalty.
• Customer behaviour is always changing. Visitors move fluidly across tenants, channels and trip purposes. Take a casino quest, for example—they could dine, browse and play all in one visit.

This makes multi-tenant properties rich with opportunity but uniquely complex to measure.

The challenges with ‘traditional’ retail marketing metrics

Many property operators still rely on metrics that have limitations when used on their own. Let’s dive into a few examples.

1. Foot traffic doesn’t equal revenue

Foot traffic studies can tell you whether people entered the building or walked past a storefront. What they can’t tell you is:

• Who those visitors actually are
• Whether they bought anything
• If marketing influenced their behaviour

When tenants ask for proof of ROI, many of these brands are used more measurable insights from their marketing investments, and they expect more from their partners.

2. Fragmented consumer behaviour = a lack of actionable insights

Modern shoppers rarely act in a linear path. They browse in one location, buy in another, redeem loyalty offers days later and engage across multiple channels. Without a way to connect these behaviours, property owners and tenants end up with siloed insights that don’t reflect the real customer journey.

3. Precision targeting is difficult without complete data

When data is split between tenants, property owners and media partners, precision targeting becomes nearly impossible. As a result, budgets stretch thinner, campaigns underperform and proving ROI becomes more of an uphill battle.

The result of these traditional ways to measure retail impact? Incomplete insights, duplicative spend and missed opportunities.

A new approach: Epsilon’s multi-tenant marketing intelligence

To help properties and tenants work from the same playbook, Epsilon crafted a digital solution built specifically for multi-tenant environments. Its goal is simple: help properties prove marketing ROI—accurately, transparently and without heavy technical lift.

Here’s how it works at a high level:

• Create pseudonymized buyer files based on past property visitors
• Segment audiences by actual spend behaviour, not assumptions
• Model net-new lookalike prospects who resemble high-value customers
• Activate digital campaigns to bring those audiences back on-property
• Measure real, unmodeled ROAS tied directly to in-store or on-property transactions

Shared value for both owners and tenants

A major advantage of this approach is that it creates a mutually beneficial environment for both tenants and property owners:

• Tenants gain access to high-intent audiences, not broad demographic lookalikes. That means more efficient marketing spend, better customer acquisition and clearer visibility into the impact of on-property media placements.
• Owners can demonstrate measurable marketing ROI, which is crucial for leasing teams that need to demonstrate that the property is more than a destination, it’s a revenue-generating partner.

Case study: Large mall boosts ROAS with Epsilon’s multi-tenant solution

A well-loved indoor mall wanted to drive spend and visitation but struggled to reach high-value customers. To get more customers in the door, the retailer tapped into Epsilon’s transactional data to reach past spenders and likely spenders at stores within nearby malls, serving them eye-catching cross-device display and video to generate buzz. The result?

• $17.1 measured ROAS
• $6.45 million measured visitor spend
• 4.2 million unique individuals reached
• 56,000 total transactions

Wrapping it up

The retail sector is in a period of reinvention. Investment volumes are rising, tenant mixes are evolving and guest expectations are high. As the lines between retail, entertainment, travel and service blur, properties need better ways to understand and influence behaviour.

Digital transformation is no longer a “nice to have.” It’s foundational and extending to every sector. And buyer intelligence gives multi-tenant destinations the clarity and confidence they’ve been missing and a way to connect the dots.

If you’d like to explore how this approach can help your property prove ROI with more confidence, let’s talk. In the meantime, learn more about Epsilon’s multi-tenant solution here.