Big brands plan to pull out of malls

September 21, 2008	(Be the first to rate this story!)  Loading ...
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Many big brands have pulled from malls as the mall traffic is quite low. Another factor that contributes to the trend is the faulty mall management. ETAM, the French lingerie brand, recently pulled out of Palm Beach Galleria mall in Navi Mumbai, together with six other retailers such as grocery chain Foodland Fresh and Manoranjan sarees. ETAM has so far closed four stores in cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Surat and Ahmedabad. Reebok has closed two of its five stores in the Great India Place in Gurgaon. Levi Strauss India, had also said earlier that it will be pulling out of a substantial number of malls in 2008.

“Once the stores are leased out, the developers are not worried about the promotion any more. Though a few malls organise some in-house promotional activities but that alone doesn’t guarantee a good footfall. Customers will get to know about the in-house promotions only when they come to the mall,” says a retailer that has multi-brand store in The Great India Place A lot of brands have recently walked out of mall owing to decreasing footfalls. Experts feel that the developers have not paid enough attention to the mall management aspect of retail. “Thinking about the efficiency of mall now is like thinking about the fuel efficiency of the car after it’s launched. Majority of the developers have done nothing about the branding, marketing, budgeting, financing part of running a mall. This is hurting the efficiency resulting in set back in the main business,” says Rajneesh Mahajan national head-retail services Cushman and Wakefield.

Contending the responsibility of proper management of a shopping mall is often shrugged off by builders. “Once the novelty of a shopping mall wears out, there is an urgent need of engaging the customers in promotional activities. But they should not be sporadic rather should be well spread out and customised keeping the clientele in mind. The retailers are treated as cash cows instead of being considered an integral part of mall. We decide the locations keeping all this in mind and this has limited our expansion plans,” says Amit Rai business head of Oliver, an apparel brand.

There is a lot to be desired from the mall developers in India, says Wong Kok Wing, a mall management veteran in Singapore and south East Asian countries. “The developers have started spending money but it is not being spent in the right direction. Malls were constructed keeping the demand in mind but what the customers want was not considered, leading to this problem. India will have to learn from the other Asian countries,” he adds.

News Published Under:   Real Estate Developers |

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