The “Bilbao Retail Strategy 2025” stands as the municipal roadmap to improve and strengthen the competitive position of the sector and the attractiveness of the City as a commercial hub, both for locals and visitors.
To this end, it will work on the construction of an orderly, attractive and sustainable commercial model for the city, consistent with an institutional commitment to the city that integrates the attractiveness of large multinational brands with the differential factor of local shops that have an important role to ensure quality of life, social cohesion and amusement in the communities. The Plan also foresees the modernization of the retail sector, through digitalization, and the support to young entrepreneurs.
Moreover, this strategic plan aspires to contribute to build a unique and attractive story of Bilbao, which would help to position the city as a reference in terms of urban economy, from the integration of retail, culture and leisure boosting its tourist attractiveness. At the same time, it seeks to reinforce identity and city pride within the local communities. All this, from an effective public and private partnerships management.
KEY INTERVENTIONS:
The Bilbao 2025 Strategic Plan for Commerce is structured in four main areas of action to be developed until 2025:
1: Designing the city for retail: urban planning and sustainable mobility.
Within the framework of this line of work, the aim is to reinforce the commercial attractiveness of the heart of the city through four interventions associated with transformative projects, complementing these actions with a commitment to strengthening the attractiveness and commercial life in the neighborhoods.
It also will reinforce sustainable mobility, with the creation of a network of park-and-ride parking lots and the reinforcement of public transport, among other important actions.
2: Omnicanality and competitiveness.
The aim is to promote digitization through shared digital projects, optimize the service to enable a competitive shopping experience and improve the sustainability of current retailers and support entrepreneurship and the creation of new businesses.
3: Promotion of Bilbao as a city of retail, culture and leisure.
Communication and marketing strategies will be worked on with the aim of "making community", boosting collaborative tools to stimulate local businesses -as happened with the #Bonobilbao campaign- and pursuing synergies between retail and tourism.
4: Improving public-private partnership.
The objective will be to support retail associations, strengthen institutional policies and take advantage of competitive intelligence tools in order to improve decision-making processes and the governance of the plan.
Meanwhile, the BILBAO RETAIL FORUM has also been created, in order to assess the progress and actions to be undertaken during the implementation of the Plan.
