mall, anchor store, draw tenant, seamless mall, specialty mall, mall management, mall layout, malls in India, facilities management in INdia, failure of malls

1. Mall Management
Dr. Parveen Nagpal

2. Mall
• Mall is one of the basic configurations of the term “shopping centre”.
• It is the most common design mode for regional and super-regional centres
which is often referred to as a ‘shopping mall’.
• It is typically enclosed, climate-controlled and lighted, flanked on one or
both sides by storefronts and entrances.
• On-site parking, usually provided around the perimeter of the centre, may
be surface or structured.

3. Mall
• The mall must have a few characteristics for it to be known as a mall, as
otherwise it will become a shopping centre. According to the norms, a mall
needs to have three distinctive characteristics:
1. In a mall, space should not be sold but leased to tenants as a policy.
2. The mall should have its anchor stores well defined and signed up in
advance
3. A successful mall must have strong organizational discipline and a mall
management team which will be responsible to manage the mall
professionally
Mall management is defined as an overall operation and maintenance of the
entire building infrastructure, including the services and utilities, ensuring
that they are used in a way that are consistent with the purpose for which it
was acquired.

4. Types of Malls
• Regional Centre – 2 or 3 anchor stores. It has area up to 8,00,000 sq. feet.
E.g. Oberoi mall
• Super Regional Centre – Many anchor stores. It has area above 8,00,000 sq.
feet. E.g. Phoenix Market city
• Fashion and Speciality Centre –Depth in a single category
• Seamless Mall – Mall with no partitions between stores. E.g. Bangalore
Central
(Anchor Stores: Large retail outlets, usually located at the ends or corners of
the shopping centre and chosen in part for their potential to attract
consumers to the shopping centre/ mall. Supermarkets are typical anchors in
smaller malls and community centres. Anchor stores are also called Draw
Tenant)

5. Seamless Malls
• Seamless mall is laid out without boundaries within the floor plate, which
offers direct walk-ins to brands.
• It is designed in such a way that it helps the brands to attract maximum
footfalls and thus greater conversions into sales.
• Thus the consumer gets to experience the brand in a seamlessly uniform
ambience with no boundaries in between. To him, it may appear as a single
large department store.
• Thus it provides world-class retain experience to customers

6. Specialty Malls
• A specialty mall is the one that focuses on the depth of a category of
merchandise and services.
• Gold Souk was the first specialty mall that opened in Gurgaon in the year
2002.
• The specialty of this mall is that the tenants are jewelers conducting their
family business and also new and upcoming jewelers as well as reputed
international jewelers.
• This mall is positioned as an exclusive gold mall and has since its opening become
a destination for gold shopping
• Specialty mall pulls customers from various locations, thus becoming a
destination for wider catchments.

7. Mall Management
Components of Mall Management:
1. Positioning - location of the shopping mall which is determined by the
access via road, good visibility
2. Zoning - division of mall space into various zones for the placement of
various retailers
3. Promotions and Marketing – may include celebrity visits, food festivals
etc.
4. Facility Management - specialized services ranging from parking, security,
to housekeeping etc.
5. Finance Management - monitoring and controlling of cash receipts and
collection of income

8. Mall Layout
• Dumbbell shape – A linear shopping area layout with anchor stores on
each end
• Double dumbbell – A cross shape shopping centre with anchor stores
at all 4 corners
• U-Shaped – A U-shaped layout with the anchor store in the centre
• T- Shaped – With anchor stores at the 3 corners

9. Emergence of Malls in India
• The mall as a retail format has been emerging very rapidly in India.
• It began long ago, with the advent of 'shopping complexes, where the entire
structure assumed a 'build and sell' real estate model. Since the late 90s the
actual mall format has been founded, a format which only leases out spaces
and manages the mall mix with a professional mall management team.
• This has led to many retailing companies looking at malls as good retail
destinations.
• Over the last few years malls in India have been very successful and can be
compared to those in developed economies.
• They have attributed to the growth of modern retailing in India, giving
global brands the promise of good retailable space in India.
• Rapid urbanization coupled with a huge infrastructural development has put
many Indian cities on the global market.

10. Emergence of Malls in India
• Central Business District (CBD) and high-streets in many cities are not
capable of supporting the massive growth plans of retailers and hence
retailers look up to the developing malls for fulfilling their expansion plans.
• Malls in India are spread over the several cities across India, including
Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune etc.
• The mall phenomenon is changing the way people shop and the way they
look for entertainment for the family in India.
• Malls are becoming the single point destinations for food, shopping and
entertainment.
• Professional mall management teams are ensuring that malls have more
footfalls and conversions into business. This is done by making available
merchandise and services at the right price at right locations.

11. Facilities Management in Malls
• Generally malls outsource facilities management of the premises to
ensure proper maintenance, cleanliness and proper security both for
the customers and the tenants.
• Facility management companies offer professional services to meet the
specifications laid.
• There needs to be adequate parking space and facilities provided to
avoid inconvenience to customers

12. Reasons Responsible for Failure of Some Malls in India
• The reasons for failure of some malls in India are specific to each mall,
and should be studied in detail to address them.
• Generally, if the malls retail tenant mix is not coordinated well to
match the target customer profile, it is bound to fail.
• A successful mall needs to have a strong and professional mall
management team that can coordinate and synergistically leverage the
strength of all the tenants to design strategic programmes to increase
footfalls, conversion, up-selling and cross-selling.
• The credibility of the mall developer is very important, as there should
never be an opportunity for any gap to exist between promises and
delivery.

13. Reasons Responsible for Failure of Some Malls in India
• In India mall spaces are booked a few years in advance and in this
scenario, the reputation of the developer to deliver what was promised
to the retailer at the time of booking is very important.
• The mall culture has just begun to evolve in India and is here to stay.
• As customers are evolving in a growing economy, malls will redefine
the landscape of modern retailing in India.
• In future, the traditional malls will give way to malls that become
"lifestyle centres".
• As trends will change, fashions will change and consumer attitudes will
change along with the availability of good retail spaces in malls in India,
mall retailing has a good future.

14. References
1. Gibson G. Vedamani, “Retail Management”, 4th Edition.
2. Nagpal, Sharma, “Retail Management” Sheth Publishers