From simple shopping centers to data-driven experience hubs

Danske Shoppingcentre: Microsoft Fabric behind the future shopping experience

DSC (Danske Shoppingcentre) operates a total of 830,000 m² across 16 shopping centers. Anonymised data from 74 million annual visitors and 25+ data sources is now being modeled in a new Microsoft Fabric platform – a paradigm shift in the data-driven way of thinking about and managing shopping centers. Millions of guests visit DSC’s 16 shopping centers each year. To provide the best possible experience, attract more customers, extend their time in the stores, and ultimately increase revenue, DSC relies on an innovative digital strategy powered by data, advanced BI analytics, and AI.

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A woman wearing a black sweater and jeans holds a pair of jeans while browsing a stack of folded jeans in a clothing store.

The company: Danske Shoppingcentre

DSC’s portfolio includes some of the largest shopping centres at the best locations in Denmark and counts a total area of approximately 820,000 m2 and about 1,100 retail leases in all.

With 72 million customers every year, DSC is the largest player in the Danish shopping centre industry.

DSC’s ambition is to develop market places of the future for commerce, inspiration and visitor experiences.

Visit Danske Shoppingcentre

Challenge

DSC faced limitations with a fragmented data setup, making it difficult to leverage insights from 74 million annual visitors and 25+ data sources. Critical data was siloed, and predictive analytics was not feasible, hindering decision-making and innovation.

Consulting approach

valantic conducted a thorough analysis and worked closely with DSC to co-create a tailored Microsoft Fabric platform. Acting as an extended BI team, valantic provided hands-on expertise and ensured a smooth transition, allowing DSC to rebuild its data ecosystem from the ground up.

Customer benefit and solution

With the implementation of Microsoft Fabric, DSC now has real-time insights and predictive analytics capabilities, allowing for smarter and faster decision-making. The new platform eliminates redundant manual processes, significantly improving efficiency and freeing up resources for more strategic initiatives.

By leveraging structured, high-quality data, DSC can enhance customer experience, optimize the value of its retail spaces, and strengthen its competitive edge. Most importantly, the modern data ecosystem provides a solid foundation for future AI and machine learning advancements, enabling DSC to stay at the forefront of data-driven retail innovation.

The Challenge in Detail

From simple shopping centers to data-driven experience hubs

Shopping today is more than just buying goods – it’s an experience.

DSC knows this and has the ambition to create the marketplace of the future. They leveraged this ambition to create the best possible combined customer experience, supported by data. This not only strengthens the reputation of the shopping centers among visitors but also helps build a strong employer brand for current employees and future (tech) talents, as DSC uses innovative technology to achieve its goals.

From a technical perspective, however, the ambitions did not align with the limited IT and data setup, where DSC’s integration and data platform were combined into one somewhat muddled and rather constrained solution – an integration platform with an SQL database as a sidecar, as they called it.

Data came from 25-30 different sources without a unified structure. Data from critical sources such as customer counters and financial systems was difficult to access. The abundance of Power BI dashboards and reports, created for specific niche projects, resulted in redundancy and inefficient workflows. Predictive models and advanced analytics were not possible. Data was not fully utilised.

The solution was to scrap the existing setup and start from scratch – with Microsoft Fabric. And with valantic as a partner.

Sebastian Krogh
Head of Tech, DSC

”valantic has been an important partner, especially when we were without a dedicated BI team. They provided skilled professionals who kept the department running for seven months. That was crucial to the success of the project.“

Solution & Results in Detail

Microsoft Fabric The platform of possibilities

Portrait of smiling young woman with shopping bags looking back

Following a preliminary analysis by valantic, Microsoft Fabric was chosen as a ‘platform of possibilities’ for DSC. In a close co-creation process and aligned with DSC’s internal strategy, Microsoft Fabric is now being tailored to fit DSC’s needs.

A fresh start with clean interfaces, greater transparency, enhanced security, and self-service capabilities within the organisation. An enablement of the future.

Bild von einer lächelnden Frau beim Shoppen | Unsere maßgeschneiderte SAP Lösung für Fashion Retail

Fabric’s modern lakehouse architecture combines the benefits of a data lake and a data warehouse into a single solution. It eliminates data duplication and ensures that data is always consistent and processed uniformly across sources, even when using cubes and other transformations.

Fabric is designed to handle both current data sources and future additions, such as ESG data, weather data, apps, video analysis, and real-time feeds – not to mention the growing use of artificial intelligence. DSC has an ambitious roadmap and won’t be slowing down anytime soon.

Sebastian Krogh
Head of Tech, DSC

”Fabric is not just a technical solution. It is a mindset that enables us to consolidate and benchmark data and drive innovation across the entire organisation.“

Solution and Client Benefits

Granular data creates innovation and experiences

DSC works both strategically and practically to meet guests’ needs – even before they arise.

It is about knowing what consumers want, analysing trends and tendencies, and shaping the centres so they remain relevant and invite consumers to shop, relax, and enjoy exciting experiences.

Anonymised data from sources like customer counters and video, among others, is collected and modelled in Fabric, making it possible to analyse demographics, customer types, movement patterns, and residence times in the centres. The anonymous data is used to enhance the experiences and opportunities for both customers and stores.

All decisions and discussions can thus be based on data and on the actual behaviour of customers – before, during, and after their visit to one of the 16 shopping centres.

Efficiencies, overview and enhanced competitiveness

Across 16 shopping centres, DSC’s management can now gain a complete overview and make quicker, more informed decisions with access to real-time data and predictive analyses.

At the same time, DSC can save significant resources by eliminating redundant, manual processes and reallocate them to more strategic tasks.

The rapid data processing in Fabric enables DSC to compete with e-commerce and other experience destinations by optimising the customer experience, maximising the value per square meter, and simultaneously creating a solid foundation for future AI and machine learning initiatives such as prescriptive analytics and automated recommendations.

Danske Shoppingcentre: Microsoft Fabric behind the future shopping experience

From simple shopping centers to data-driven experience hubs

Microsoft Fabric The platform of possibilities

Solution and Client Benefits

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