Why malls are getting a makeover

Online rivals are a threat, so centres need to pick up their game

● Shopping centres have been forced to become more creative as they fight the growing impact of e-commerce.

At least that’s the case among some of the leading shopping centres around the world as they expand their offerings to entice customers with more events, experiences and food to keep shoppers there for longer.

South African shopping centre owners have been slow to change, but the threat to local retail — though picking up — is not as marked as that faced by landlords elsewhere as more shoppers overseas buy digitally than in SA.

E-commerce retail sales are higher in the UK, US, Europe and China and shopping centres in those regions have seen reduced traffic and turnover growth. Online shopping makes up about 1.5% of total retail sales in SA compared with over 13% in the US, UK and China.

At the same time there are clear challenges locally as the department-store concept becomes less viable. Stuttafords has closed and Edcon is reducing its space.

SA already has the sixth-highest number of shopping centres per capita worldwide.

Total retail space in the country is 24-million square metres, with 34 new centres opening this year while 16 are planned for next year, according to Dirk Prinsloo, MD of shopping centre and property research company Urban Studies.

For most community and regional centres the vacancy rate is about 3% while at neighbourhood centres and super regional malls it is above 5%.

Neighbourhood centres are under pressure because of oversupply and a degree of cannibalisation where stores of the same brands are located too close to each other and share the same pool of shoppers. Super regional centres have higher vacancies because of closures by major tenants.

Prinsloo said there are still requests for market studies for new developments in metropolitan growth areas, townships, towns and rural areas but it’s unlikely there will be many new regional centres in the next five years.

A report by Stanlib this month highlights the use of technology and social media, and prioritising food, beverage, and entertainment to re-energise shopping centres.

Keillen Ndlovu, head of listed property at Stanlib, who wrote the report, said the time people spent in a mall was determined by the battery life of a cellphone. Malls now offer charging points, unlimited Wi-Fi and use social media and smartphones to drive traffic to the centres.

“Every mall is supposed to have its own app, capture what shoppers want and tailor advertising,” he said. In this way shops could advertise directly to customers. Some have digital screens with forward-facing cameras to detect males, females or children; the screens will adjust or change the advert to suit the person looking at it.

There are apps to make it easier to find merchandise. These direct you to the relevant stores, while adverts and specials pop up on your mobile as you pass through a store.

Smart parking informs you where parking is available and directs you back to your car. Apps also gather data on customers to know what they want and enable shoppers to see if their friends are at the same mall and give directions to find them.

Younger customers, especially in Asia, love games, said Ndlovu. So Pokémon, for instance, is used. But instead of staying home on the couch, these games take place in the shopping centres to get kids moving around.

There’s a shift from offering mainly takeaway food to places where people can sit down. There are whisky bars, wine bars, fresh-food markets and a range of restaurants, from Mexican to sushi.

Ndlovu said most of the malls in Australia offer three hours of free parking. The biggest mall in the southern hemisphere, the Chadstone in Melbourne, has 10,000 free parking spaces.

Rooftops are used for events and parking areas are better lit and more colourful.

“People don’t like to be in a basement as they find it intimidating, dark and uncomfortable. They want to be welcomed to the mall as soon as they drive in and being colourful is part of that experience,” he said.

“And part of that experience is that you feel safer.”

And while bathrooms may not offer much room for innovation, “in Scandinavia, for example Mall of Scandinavia in Sweden, bathrooms are seen as one of their anchor tenants. They are clean, well maintained with comfortable waiting areas and even hand lotion as well as places for mothers to take care of their babies.”

Malls have also introduced collection points for e-commerce retailers. The retailers don’t care if you buy your shirt online or at the store. In a mall, foot traffic and exposure are what count.

Mall owners are also encouraging innovation. They ask entrepreneurs to create new retail formats, with the winner getting space in the mall.

And new formats such as pop-up stores bring vibrancy and differentiation to their malls and promote smaller businesses or start-ups. Some of the pop-up stores, after trading successfully, end up being permanent tenants.

The CEO of the South African Council of Shopping Centres, Amanda Stops, said technology and e-commerce have undoubtedly changed retail.

Shopping centres and online retail would continue to play a role but the future is “not a binary choice between brick-and-mortar stores and online retail”.

Many malls in SA have increased their experiential and social offering.

“What physical retail is much better at than digital retail is offering customers an experience, one that is social, multisensory and engaging,” said Ndlovu.

“Malls now are not just about shopping; they are becoming experiential places and this has to do with aesthetics including pictures and sculptures where people like to take photos and share with friends.”

People want to take selfies and post to Instagram, so aesthetics have become a lot more important and this is also driven for, by example, cooking demonstrations by celebrity chefs.

Ndlovu said there was not an immediate return on making a shopping centre more aesthetically appealing, but shoppers liked to feel special and loved to Instagram or Facebook. Some shopping centres bring in celebrities to take photos with new launches, features and artwork.

“This brings people in. They end up shopping, buying coffee and ice cream.” Touch, feel and see are still crucial to retail. The key element for landlords is to bring in people and make them stay longer. This helps to drive sales.

So can SA do the same things?

“I think we’ve got the potential but there’s still a way to go. We can achieve it,” said Ndlovu.

People want to be welcomed to the mall as soon as they drive in

Keillen Ndlovu

Head of listed property at Stanlib and author of the report ‘Global Real Estate — Retail and Shopping Centre Trends’