Everything you need under one roof – that was the idea behind the original shopping centre format. But in the face of growing competition from the online sector, shopping centres no longer necessarily have all that much to do with actually going shopping. But that doesn’t mean the end for them, by any stretch of the imagination. A look at the shopping mall renaissance ahead.

Glide along without a care in the world in a gondola before alighting at an impressive plaza, strolling around the shops and savouring a refreshing ice cream. What sounds like a trip to Venice is in fact a day out at the Puerto Venecia shopping centre in Spain. Here – and this is a development in the retail sector that we are all familiar with by now – the focus is no longer on shopping, but the overall experience. And that is exactly what shopping centres need to offer in this age of Amazon and all the other online retailers.

From showrooming to virtual window shopping

 

Businesses that fail to keep step with the pace of digitalisation are already starting to fall victim to a phenomenon dubbed “showrooming”: customers go to bricks and mortar stores for sales advice or to see the physical product and head back online to order it for less. To avoid losing customers to online retailers, traditional stores are going to have to manage the balancing act between real and digital services.

Sporting goods manufacturer adidas has been playing with innovative strategies over the past few years. One of its strategies: giving customers access to interactive virtual display windows outside normal opening hours where they come into contact with a broad range of products that they can save to their phone using the URL provided or make a purchase online there and then. Digital window shopping has arrived. Another is adidas 360° Shopping, which takes you on a virtual trip around the brand’s newest store in Sweden. And shopping in its real life stores is a visual experience: abstract product installations give you the feeling that you are in a contemporary art museum rather than a sports store.

Experience over products

 

Shopping centres are having to reinvent themselves: gone are the days of the shopping meccas, as centres rush to transform themselves into communal, interactive spaces where people come to spend time with each other – to catch up, participate in new experiences or even to relax.

1. Destination centres (in contrast to the notion of passing trade, here a specific store is the target location), are magnets for visitors – also from abroad – with a range of changing attractions such as pop-up stores, concerts or exhibitions. But it doesn’t stop there: you are just as likely to find roller coasters and artificial ski slopes there.

2. Anyone looking for a quieter and more personal experience will head for a value centre: smaller centres with a core value at the heart of everything they do. Examples include vegan lifestyle and upcycling. Talks, events and the products on sale all contribute to the authenticity of these locations, which are designed to bring together like-minded people.

3. Retaildential spaces, a portmanteau of the words retail and residential, applies to centres that are designed for people to actually live in. Unlike value centres, they are not devoted to a specific theme, but built around a specific demographic group instead. The concept is already up and running in Japan at the AEON Mall, which focuses on older members of society. All of the offers and services are tailored to them: elderly care, pharmacies and a health centre are fully integrated into the centre.

4. At innovation centres it is training and research that play a key role. Closely focused on data analysis, they also offer it as a service in its own right. Anyone with an interest in the subject or hungry for more information can test the latest products and technology and provide direct feedback to the companies behind them.

Although it still looks like it will be a while before we start spending our daily lives at the shopping centres of the future, the metamorphosis is already in full swing. And for people who are ready to embrace the change, the future is looking better than ever.