Coming On A Common Platform

The tug of war between online and offline retail is approaching a draw, and it’s time malls and shopping centres pulled up their socks and became anchors to both. In the times that we live in, where online players are busy setting brick-and-mortar targets for themselves and offline players are strengthening their Internet presence, it is time to reach a consensus with the only target being growth.

- Zainab S Kazi

Industry Insights 

Aptly setting the context of the story, Sunil Shroff, CEO, Viviana Mall shares, “Initially, malls were conceptualized as an amalgamation of stores meant only to be a shopping centre with the organized retail trend starting in 1999 in India. Malls only acted as aggregators of different retailers at a single location. Gradually, things have started changing. Malls started creating avenues for dining and entertainment to create better engagement platforms. Now, malls have evolved into a single destination offering a gamut of products, services and entertainment acting as a one-stop solution to customers. Today, malls put a lot of emphasis on mall positioning, zoning, promotions/marketing, tenant mix, mall layout, customer walk flow management and facility management.”

The dynamics of the industry have changed and changed considerably well. There have been mistakes and with mistakes there have been learnings. Yogeshwar Sharma, Executive Director at Select CITYWALK makes a valid point when he says, “The last 10 years have been a turnaround for the retail industry. We all know that mall culture in India is not more than a decade old. And in these 10 years we have evolved and learnt through our mistakes. It is wrong to say that we need to base our learning from international countries where the mall culture is relatively matured. Each country and each region has its own uniqueness. What works at one place may or may not work somewhere else.”