Malls as we understand, is a form of organized retailing.They lend an ideal shopping experience with an amalgamation of product, serviceand entertainment.


The story of great Indian mall boom started from theemergence of Gurgaon, an industrial suburb of Delhi. In a development thatsurprised many town planners, Gurgaon transformed itself overnight by firsthousing the headquarters of many multinational corporations and banks, and thencalling itself the "shopping-mall capital of India".


Then to join the bandwagon was Rajouri Garden with a numberof world class malls coming up within a short duration of time. But this MallClutter led to a gradual & continuing downfall of some of the malls inDelhi which was accelerated by the economic recession affecting the world withIndia & specifically Delhi as no exception to this impact. But that is abroader picture; we will specifically talk about the failure of some shoppingmalls & big retail concepts in Delhi. In spite of big brand names existingin those malls & good location, why these malls failed? What can be thepossible reasons?


On the basis of Market research & analysis, it can beinferred that the most important factor in the failure of these malls is themismatch of the brand & the consumer. The brands selected for themall should be consistent with the kind of demographic profile of that regionor location.


Now it is very difficult to attract the brands first beforedeciding or finalizing on the location of the mall & without properspecification & layout of the entire real estate. So, the better & mostlogical approach is to finalize the location first & then attract suitablebrands very carefully. It is very important to keep the consumer or clientprofile of that region in mind. The brands should be in accordance with thetype of customers in that region because they form the majority of thefootfalls. So in order to understand the client profile, their psychology,decision making criteria, buying behavior, tastes & preferences &motivations or driving force behind purchase decision should be carefullyexamined & inferred. For example, if the consumers of that region areobserved over time to have spent more on food than clothing, then a few goodrestaurants & fast food corners are a must for the success of that mall.


A research was carried out in the region Shalimar Bagh inNorth-West Delhi, where a Mall called Shoppin' Park resulted in acomplete failure because from survey it is established that the majority of thepopulation prefer to spend more on food & they prefer to shop Apparel fromlocal markets & approximately 30% of the population as found to be fashionconscious. The remaining population is not bothered about the brand name or thevalues associated with the brand. They lacked motivation to buy Brandedapparels.


Another example can be the failure of Spencer's storein Ring Road Mall in Rohini, where in spite of an excellent store in terms ofambience & assortment mix, the store is failing to attract customers.


Moreover, the presence of a strong Anchor store isalso a very critical factor in determining the success of that mall. Strongbrands like Pantaloons & Shoppers Stop acts as a pillar to protect thebrand. They attract the majority of the customer through their brand names& it results in the increase of footfalls in the malls & therebygenerating more sales to other stores also.


SHOPPIN' PARK witnessed the downfall of "Indiabulls"as a retail store & hence the entire mall crumbled down.


Adding to the woes is the rising prices of real estates. Thereal estate developers interests are not matching with the retailersinterests as the retailers are paying heavy rentals on real estate & theirmonthly sales is not covering their rentals for months in continuation.


So the picture depicted for future of the Mall Culture isthat the competition is fierce among the malls to survive & only thosemalls will survive which will successfully go through a detailed research onthe consumer decision making process of those regions in particular. This meanstaking a microscopic view of the consumer behavior including the study ofconsumer psychology & studying their tastes & preferences & thefactors which can influence their buying behavior in a positive direction.


The idea is to add a regional touch to the mallskeeping in mind the regional variations in buying behavior of the targetconsumers.


About the Author


The author is Course Coordinator for Fashion ManagementStudies at JD Institute of Fashion Technology.


Theviews expressed are author's personal point of view.