Dire State of Shopping Malls in India:- The Centre One shopping mall on the outskirts of Mumbai is gloomy and bereft of customers, even during Indias annual festive and wedding season when retailers traditionally cash in. The shopping centres empty look is no exception. In the past decade, supermarkets and malls have spread across Indias large cities and towns, fuelled by fast economic growth and excitement about middle-class buying power. A Malls in India report released by Images Research last month found 470 shopping centres were operational this year, But over 90 per cent of Indias malls are struggling, said Susil Dungarwal, founder of Beyond Squarefeet, a mall management and advisory firm based in Mumbai. Just 15 of these can be counted as running successfully. But Dungarwal and other analysts say the majority of Indias shopping centres are struggling with a potent mix of high real-estate prices, bad planning and sluggish demand as the economy slows. There is a huge mismatch between the demand for consumption and the pace at which retail real estate is expanding, says Saloni Nangia, president of consultancy Technopak. Indias slowing economy, with growth at a decade-low of 5.0 per cent in the year to March 2013, has put a firm dampener on spending. But other factors are compounding the troubles at the tills. Over the past decade, builders and developers have rushed to build without paying sufficient attention to what a mall requires to survive. The oversupply of malls means many have empty space: about a fifth of Centre One lies bare and so does up to 75 per cent of the Dreams Mall in Bhandup, an eastern suburb. Mumbais Atria, once a packed mall, now has For Rent signs coming up and looks deserted, with low footfalls owing to bad designing, causing people to miss stores, Dungarwal said. People do not go to a shopping mall to shop. They go there for the experience, to hang around, said Dungarwal. Retailers are therefore facing the double whammy of spiralling real estate prices and sluggish sales. They also face growing competition from online retailers such as Flipkart, Indias answer to Amazon, which hand-delivers goods to the front door for minimal cost. Shoppers can buy with the click of the mouse, with no need to battle traffic jams or Indias punishing weather. Malls will have to do everything to drive footfalls. They will have to make sure there is enough excitement to attract people, said Dutta from Third Eyesight.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 13:10:16 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015