Relief during peak hours: This is how shopping centers benefit from smart parking solutions

The challenges shopping centres face at peak times

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Customers who want advice before choosing a new electrical appliance, or who want to try on clothes and shoes before buying them, drive to the nearest shopping centre or to a shopping arcade in a large city. In doing so they not only support local retail, they can also take their purchases straight home with them.

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Seasonal discounts of the kind that come with the winter sales, however, often bring challenges for retailers and their staff. Special offers draw bargain hunters into the high streets and shopping centres. The rush is inevitable, and it puts shopping centres in particular under pressure. Having to queue constantly can spoil customers' mood: at the entry barrier to the car park, at the tills in the shops and finally, laden with shopping bags, at the pay stations. 

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Customers already frustrated by the search for a parking space then sooner or later face shop staff who are working at their limit because of the rush and are stressed themselves. However fast they serve, queues form and customers' mood sinks, because on a bargain hunt the rule is ‚while stocks last‘. The next special offer in the next shop will not wait.

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Handling the rush: the key role of parking management in a shopping centre

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A visit to the shopping centre can be relaxed even in the middle of the sales rush – provided the first hurdle disappears: the stressful search for a parking space. It can therefore pay for shopping centres to rethink their parking management and, like the das einstein shopping centre in Munich, opt for a digital, barrier-free system.

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A solution of this kind works with data protection compliant licence plate recognition at the entrance and exit. From the times of arrival and departure, the system automatically calculates how long customers have parked and checks whether they have paid for the entire duration. Shortly before leaving, customers pay for their stay at touchscreen machines with user-friendly menus by entering their licence plate. Depending on which machines the shopping centre has installed, it can rely exclusively on cashless payment or additionally offer cash payment. On request, drivers receive a receipt for the parking fee paid. Alternatively, payment is made by smartphone via parking apps such as EasyPark or Parkster, or online. In that case there is no need to visit the pay station at all. After paying, drivers have around 15 minutes – depending on the size of the car park or parking garage – to leave the site. 

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A visit to the shopping centre becomes more attractive still where a free parking period applies. Introducing such a limited free or maximum parking period also makes sense for shopping centres or arcades that do not yet monitor or operate their parking areas, as it keeps long-stay parkers away without any additional staffing effort. At the same time nothing changes for customers, as long as they leave the site within the free or maximum parking period. 

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The benefits of innovative parking systems at peak shopping times

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Reduced operating costs

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For shopping centres, digital parking management systems also pay off financially, because these solutions require little hardware on site and are therefore comparatively inexpensive to purchase. Digital systems are economical in operation too, as they manage practically without wear-prone components, which saves on repair, servicing and maintenance costs. Digital parking management systems also automate steps and processes in parking administration, which eliminates sources of error and saves working time. Solutions that use automatic licence plate recognition need no on-call service of the kind barrier systems require, because there are no barriers at the entrance and exit. That removes the expense of maintaining one. By doing away with conventional parking tickets, shopping centres also save paper or plastic waste – and costs.

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Flexible pricing through smart analysis

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A parking management system based on licence plate recognition also supplies real-time data on how parking areas are used, without any need to install additional sensors. Shopping centres can view and analyse information about their sites in a user-friendly dashboard. This ability to analyse makes it possible to introduce a flexible pricing model based on how busy the site is. Data on current occupancy can also be transmitted to websites and shown on displays in or at the car park. 

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Seamless entry and exit for car parks and parking garages

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Barrier-free entry matters above all at peak times, on Saturdays for example or during shopping events such as Black Friday, because customers and staff can enter and leave the site seamlessly at any time. There is no stopping and no ticket to take, which avoids queues at the entrance and exit. That not only speeds up the parking process, it also reduces CO2 emissions on site.

Shopping centres offer even more convenience when they let customers pay parking fees via a parking app or a mobile website. Drivers can then end their visit without any waiting at the machine, even when the centre is busy.

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Satisfied customers and staff

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Customers who can enjoy their shopping without stress even at peak times not only come back gladly, they also complain less. That in turn improves the mood among staff, who can concentrate on their actual work instead of dealing with customer complaints and enquiries about parking.

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Fewer unauthorised parkers

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Unauthorised parkers who use the site without paying or leave their vehicle there beyond the permitted maximum or free parking period can be traced virtually without gaps thanks to licence plate recognition. They receive a payment request for an increased parking fee set by the shopping centre. This makes the site unattractive to unauthorised parkers and keeps the spaces free for customers. The visit to the shopping centre then begins in a relaxed way, even during the sales, rather than with a stressful search for a space.

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How the Haerder Center handles peak times with Peter Park

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The Haerder Center is a shopping centre in Lübeck's old town offering customers a wide range of shops and services across 10,000 square metres. It includes an underground car park with 250 spaces, operated by KWL GmbH, a subsidiary of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck. In autumn 2022 the centre replaced its barrier-based parking system with the digital solution from Peter Park and thereby opened the first barrier-free parking garage in Lübeck. The new digital parking system is considerably more cost-efficient and less prone to faults in operation, because maintenance-intensive wearing parts such as defective barriers are no longer needed. Thanks to GDPR-compliant licence plate recognition, drivers now enter the underground car park seamlessly and without stopping at the entrance and exit, even at peak times: „With the new barrier-free parking garage, the city of Lübeck benefits from a parking system that not only makes parking in the city centre easier, but also prevents congestion and reduces CO2 emissions“, explains Dr Ralph Bruns,  Head of Parking at KWL GmbH. Drivers can pay for their stay in the car park in cash, by card and by app. 

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Alongside the Haerder Center in Lübeck, the das einstein shopping centre in Munich also uses the digital parking management system from Peter Park.