What’s Left for the Shopping Mall?

January 8, 2016 by

Image credit: Flickr

Most everyone knows a “dead mall”.

Plain old empty, or completely demolished, dead malls—former shopping malls since closed—are a fact of life in an America where online shopping is increasingly winning people over.

Mobile shopping has had a hand in here too, but can mobile commerce be a part of a new mall, a post-retail mall?

A new future for malls comes from Allen Zeman of Lan Kwai Fong Group in Hong Kong: the mall needs to stop selling things and instead start selling experiences.

Dead mall issues aren’t limited to the United States; China’s shopping malls are likewise in decline as groups like Alibaba see huge hikes in sales. Developers, panicked, are calling Zeman wondering what to do, and his answer is simple: change the mall format.

Malls these days—those that are left, anyway—are about 70 percent retail and 30 percent food and beverage options.

That’s not a recipe for success in an environment where anyone can hop on Amazon from any device, including mobile, and buy whatever’s desired. Zeman’s future still has some room for retail, but envisions the retail floor as a showroom for products. It’s what people often use the brick-and-mortar store for anyway, so why not roll with it?

That’s why Zeman’s newest planned development, the Shanghai Dream Center—slated for a 2017 opening—will be mainly experiences; a DreamWorks animation studio, an IMAX theater, a stage for Broadway-style performances, food and beverage venues along with some fashionable retail.

This is a strategy that worked well for the Mall of America; at one point, its entire uppermost floor was bars and restaurants, one a sports bar that had a Dactyl Nightmare machine that I remember fondly. In order for shopping venues to survive, they must offer things that can’t readily be had online; food is one such item, and experiences another.

Build-a-Bear Workshop locations—can’t stuff filling into a bear online—laser tag arenas, perhaps even that former mall staple, the video arcade, can make a comeback into an environment where it’s not about shopping so much as fun. Mobile payment systems will still have a place here, as replacements for cash changing hands.

Changes need to be made to ensure the mall is ready for the next generation, and when it’s as easy as pulling out a phone to make a purchase, it’s clear that retail isn’t the mall’s future any longer.

Related Articles