Ready for the Summer Rush From Day One
Robbergbay opened its doors in November 2024, into a Plettenberg Bay market where Market Square already had years of local loyalty behind it. We built a Webflow site that the on-site team update themselves, live in time for the Garden Route summer season.
A new centre opening into peak season
Robbergbay Shopping Centre opened in November 2024 in Plettenberg Bay, right as the Garden Route fills up for summer. Opening into peak season is a gift and a risk: the traffic is there, but so is the competition, and a new centre gets one chance at a first impression. They needed shopping centre website design that was live and working before the summer crowds arrived, ready to be found by tourists and locals alike.
- A brand-new centre with no reputation yet
- An opening timed to the Garden Route summer rush
- An established rival, Market Square, with years of local loyalty
Competing with a decade of loyalty
Robbergbay was not opening into empty space. Market Square had years of local loyalty behind it, the default place people already went. A new centre cannot buy that overnight, but it can be easy to find, easy to understand, and clearly worth the trip, which is where the website comes in. Being the newcomer is only a disadvantage if nobody can find you. For summer visitors who do not know the town, the site is often the first impression the centre makes. A shopper choosing between two centres they have never visited picks the one that looks open and easy.
A site the on-site team runs themselves
A shopping centre changes constantly: tenants come and go, trading hours shift around holidays, events pop up. A site that needs a developer for every change goes stale fast. So ThinkStory built Robbergbay's site on Webflow with the on-site team in mind, so they can update tenants, hours and news themselves, without calling us. The people closest to the centre keep it current. Handing over the keys is what keeps a launch site from becoming a museum.
Live before the summer traffic arrived
Timing was the whole point. The site went live before the summer traffic arrived, so when the Garden Route filled up, Robbergbay was already there to be found, already answering the questions a visitor asks: who is here, when are they open, how do I get there. Miss that window and you are marketing to a town that has already emptied out. A shopping centre website earns its keep in exactly those small, practical moments. Peak season does not wait for a soft launch.
Built to grow with the tenant list
A shopping centre website should cover the basics brilliantly: tenants, trading hours, location and getting there, plus whatever is on. For Robbergbay we built that on Webflow and handed the keys to the on-site team, so the site grows with the tenant list instead of dating the day it launched. The brochure-site trap is going stale by March, and this one does not. Opened into peak season and ready for it, the centre had a digital front door from the start. A centre is never finished, and neither should its website be.
Common questions.
What should a shopping centre website include?
The practical basics done brilliantly: tenants, trading hours, location and directions, plus whatever is on. For Robbergbay Shopping Centre we built exactly that on Webflow, so a summer visitor could quickly find who is there and when they are open.
Why build a website the on-site team can update themselves?
A centre changes constantly, so a site that needs a developer for every change goes stale. We built Robbergbay on Webflow so the on-site team can update tenants, hours and news themselves, keeping it current.
How do you compete with an established shopping centre?
Be easy to find and clearly worth the trip. Robbergbay opened against Market Square's years of loyalty, so we made sure its website was live before the Garden Route summer traffic arrived and answered a visitor's questions instantly.
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