As the retail sector gears up for BCSC in September, I started looking into the latest hot topics and trends, and surprisingly Pokémon Go came up…

Now I have little or no knowledge of Pokémon, having let the phenomenon pass me by twice, but I know basically what it is and I found it particularly interesting that the latest wave of augmented reality Pokémon are actually having a significant impact on the UK’s shopping habits.

At a point when I thought everyone was starting to get ‘Pokémon Go fatigue’, with the brightly coloured critters seemingly appearing in every other news item, this certainly doesn’t appear to be the case for retailers as Pokémon are apparently responsible for driving some significant footfall into shopping centres and retail parks.

As avid PG fans scour the four corners of the earth for Pikachus and Charizards, especially throughout the lengthy summer holidays, they are finding their way into shopping centres and whilst there, they are spending some significant amounts of cash.

Retailers and shopping centre management companies have debated long and hard about how best to engage with shoppers to encourage them to get off their phones and tablets for a few hours and spend some significant dwell time in their shopping centres and retail parks. But it seems that all they need to do is make Poké shoppers aware that the colourful little blighters might be just around the next corner of the Mall, and they’re coming in in their droves. A retail strategy that ticks both boxes as online activity via an app is influencing footfall in the shops.

So, to drive sales in new retail outlets from the get go, the answer is simple – put it on the map. The information for Pokémon Go was originally taken from Google, so make sure you’re registered to Google Maps for the next augmented reality app. To get in the game now, I have it on good authority that you can register the location as a Pokestop with the developer (Niantic) and this itself gives a direct link to their augmented reality apps like Pokémon. You could even take it a step further by paying for ‘lures’ at your Pokéstop which apparently attract more Pokémon to your location… although that may be a step too far - you don’t want to be overrun with little monsters!