Tenant Mix Research Articles

Transforming a Retail Centre into a Brand Through Professional Mall Management

With the changing lifestyles, incomes and shopping habits, there is a lot of scope for organized retailing which is growing day by day. Shopping malls are really helping these retail giants by providing them the infrastructure required by them to grow fast.The present study is based on the multiple drivers of growth & the issues being faced today by these shopping malls when more are coming up but they are not able to find the right rentals nor the footfalls required.Therefore, before planning for a mall, developers should position their property according to Customer Profile. It is suggested that they should not act as realtor, because poor mall management and poor tenant mix have resulted in low mall traffic and low conversion rate (8-10 percent only). They must know their customers in the area well and try to have a tenant mix as per the target customers. Create USP for their malls and have the right rentals for their shopkeepers because high rentals will lead to less profit for their shop owners. The mall developer should create an ambience and maintain a hygienic and a clean environment for family members to shop and come again and again making their shop owners more profitable in future.

Transaction Costs, Firms’ Growth and Oligopoly: Case Studies in Hong Kong Real Estate Agencies’ Branch Locations

Centuries ago, there were some small scale real estate agency firms in Hong Kong. Many of them were small scale family business. As large scale shopping malls were uncommon at that time, these shops were opened on the streets. Nowadays, the market structure of real estate agency sector is an oligopoly. Ricacorp, Centaline, Century 21, Midland Realty, and Hong Kong Properties are the five major large-scale agency companies in Hong Kong. In the modern era, many of these agency firms open their branches inside the shopping malls beneath the large scale residential estates. To better understand the reasons for this phenomenon in Hong Kong, we have conducted two case studies. The case study of Ricacorp, one of the large-scale real estate agency firms in Hong Kong, shows that over half of the Ricacorp real estate agencies shops are opened in shopping malls that are owned by the major developers in Hong Kong. The second part of the case study explores some of the major shopping malls in Tseung Kwan O, a new town in Hong Kong. We find that many shopping malls have similar “content” and appearance because they have similar branded shops. Secondly, the agency firms also open their shops in different malls owned by the same developers. We therefore propose that the oligopoly market structure is caused by two factors: 1) lower transaction costs are incurred when the large scale agency owners negotiate with the mall owners in settling the terms of contracts: A) the mall owners do not need to draft separate contracts for the different agency companies. One piece of contract (or more or less the similar terms of contracts) fits all the agency branches owned by one single firm. B) there is no need to search for background information on each company if the shopping malls are contracting with a single agency company. C) By looking at the other shopping malls, the shopping mall designers can gather information and predict the success of the tenant mix easily. 2) Modern shopping centres usually locate below the towers of residential buildings. By opening the agency firms inside these malls, the consumer’s search costs can be lowered. Despite both the small and large scale agency firms know that these shopping malls can help them secure better business returns, the large-scale companies can easily build up closer relationships with the mall owners (due to factor 1) find it easier to rent their units at a lower rent while the smaller firms find it hard to expand in the New Town’s shopping malls. These small firms are forced to stay in lower profit margin regions in old estates where there are only street shops without large scale developer’s renting administration. Therefore, it is sufficient to conclude that the shopping mall has imposed a relative higher costs to new comers should they wish to enter the real estate agency market in new town area.

Enhancing the Image & Brand Equity of a Shopping Mall

With the changing lifestyles, incomes and Shopping Habits, there is a lot of scope for organized retailing which is growing day by day. Shopping Malls are really helping these Retail giants by providing them the infrastructure required by them to grow fast. The present study is based on the Multiple Drivers of Growth & the issues being faced today by these shopping Malls when more are coming up but they are not able to find the right rentals nor the footfalls required. Therefore, before planning for a mall, Developers should Position their property according to Customer Profile. It is suggested that they should not act as realtor, because poor mall management and poor tenant mix have resulted in low mall traffic and low conversion rate (8-10 percent only). They must know their customers in the area well and try to have a tenant mix as per the target customers. Create USP for their Malls and have the right rentals for their shopkeepers because high rentals will lead to less profit for their shop owners. The Mall developer should create an ambience and maintain a hygienic and a clean environment for family members to shop and come again and again making their shop owners more profitable in future.

The “Malling” of Main Street

This article looks at King Street, Charleston, South Carolina, the main street of a successful historic tourism city that in recent years has seen a steady transition in tenant mix from one dominated by local merchants, to one today that features such national chain merchants as Victoria’s Secret, Banana Republic, Gucci, and many others. The issue considered herein, based upon survey data collected from both local residents and tourists, is the effect of the city’s changing merchant mix. The findings offer insight that should be helpful to tourism and government officials in any city experiencing, or concerned about, a similar metamorphosis in their community. Helping to explain the community attitude toward change, a new model, the Cycle of Acceptance, is presented.

The Development of Location Decision Making Support System for Chinese Shopping Malls from the Developers’ Perspective

This study aims to explore the factors that determine the attractiveness of shopping mall locations for developers, from the perspective of those who want to select site to open shopping malls in China, and to evaluate the relative importance of these factors. Through a literature review, shopping mall location, store attractiveness in the shopping mall, fit between target market customers and prices, and shopping mall image were identified as the four components in shopping mall attractiveness. The measurement variables under these constructs were also identified: size of the population within the catchment area, proximity, anchor store, tenant mix, number of stores, the shopping mall size, products, properties, and visual presentation. The preference among the four competing shopping malls in Beijing was measured after identifying the relative importance between the criteria for the four constructs and nine measurement variables through pairwise comparison using the AHP of the five experts. The researchers applied this model to four shopping malls in Beijing. Through the AHP analysis, the researchers found that the relative importance of the variables was in the following descending order: store attractiveness > fit between target market customers and prices > shopping mall image > location. Using the results, the researchers can establish a Location Decision Making Support System for shopping mall in China.

Building Consumer Loyalty through Servicescape in Shopping Malls

India is experiencing exponential growth in retail sector and Global Retail Development Index consecutively ranked as one of the most promising retail destinations of the world. Due to this reason lot of investments are happening in India and new players are entering the market. Shopping Mall being the latest organized retail format entering the market witnessed huge popularity and consumer attention, luring mall developers going all out to launch their projects. However the mushrooming growth of shopping malls has posed lot of challenges. Recent studies have revealed that 45% of the malls in cities are vacant. Poor mall management and poor tenant mix have resulted in poor mall traffic and low conversion rate. This paper attempts to explore the possibility of building consumer loyalty through effective use of servicescape (physical environment) in a shopping mall to attract and retain serious buyers. Study revealed that seven servicescape dimensions considered i.e., ambient factor, aesthetic factor, layout, variety, cleanliness, signs, symbols & artifacts, and social factor are all relevant in shopping mall context and capable of inducing significant variations in consumer loyalty.

Spending time, spending money: passenger segmentation in an international airport

Changes within the air transport sector have required many European airports to either develop or expand their commercial activities. Strategies have included the expansion of retail space, a broadening of the tenant and merchandise mix and the development of a passenger segmentation strategy. This paper explores the efficacy of this approach by identifying the behaviour of different passenger segments while in an international airport. Using a framework of strategic market segmentation, it identifies how travellers allocate their time having entered ‘airside’ and details any purchases made. Using observational research and a face-to-face quantitative survey, 301 passengers were tracked and interviewed. Through a broad based, a priori form of segmentation, significant differences in shopping behaviour are identified. Such findings assist with the development of the airport's commercial strategy and allow a number of observations to be made about the value of market segmentation from both a theoretical and managerial perspective.

Drivers of agglomeration effects in retailing: The shopping mall tenant's perspective

Retail and service enterprises seek benefits and synergies from locating their stores within retail agglomerations, such as shopping streets and malls. The aim of this paper is to identify the main drivers of such synergetic or ‘agglomeration effects’ for tenants. A literature review reveals four sets of drivers that are related to the location, the tenant mix, the marketing, and the management of an agglomeration. Based on a survey of 217 managers representing stores that are located in five regional and four supra-regional shopping malls, we demonstrate that location-related drivers including geographical location, accessibility, and parking conditions have a the highest impact on agglomeration effects in terms of the economic success of tenants. The results were consistent amongst different types of tenants differentiated by store size, customer footfall, industry affiliation, and perceived role within the respective mall (as footfall taker or generator within the network).

Urban place marketing and retail agglomeration customers

Through identifying the attributes of a place that have an influence on the patronage behaviour of urban retail customers, this paper presents a conceptual model that proposes direct and indirect antecedents regarding the different retail-related dimensions associated with urban place attractiveness. An empirical study was conducted whereby the model was tested by surveying approximately 500 actual customers at the time they visited a particular town centre for the purposes of shopping. The results showed that the retail tenant mix, the merchandise value, and the atmosphere had a direct impact, and the product range and the sales personnel an indirect impact upon the evaluation of attractiveness. Furthermore, a number of additional effects towards these antecedents were identified with respect to parking conditions, the non-retail tenant mix, manoeuvrability, and orientation. This revealed that retailing activities were a major driver of attractiveness for an urban place. The practical implication of these findings suggests that place marketing activities should be proactive in supporting and enabling retailers in fulfilling their roles.

Gender differences of shoppers in the marketing and management of retail agglomerations

This paper aims to first identify gender differences in perception and evaluation of retail agglomerations, and second, discuss the implications of these differences for marketing and management. Based on a conceptual model 2151 agglomeration shoppers were surveyed using interviewer-administered questionnaires. Structural equation modelling revealed that accessibility, parking and infrastructure are perceived differently between gender groups. The attractiveness in terms of satisfaction, retention proneness and patronage intention was also evaluated distinctively. Nevertheless, when examining the impact of the perceived attributes on agglomeration attractiveness, there was no difference. In both settings, the retail tenant mix and the atmosphere are the main antecedents of attractiveness. Finally, an importance–performance analysis offers managers a method for prioritising their marketing efforts considering gender differences.

Restaurant customer satisfaction and return patronage in a Bloemfontein shopping mall

Purpose: Restaurants form one of the core components of a mall's retail offering and its tenant mix. In order to successfully manage the tenant mix, research suggests that mall management continuously monitor their tenants' performance through customer satisfaction and return patronage surveys. The purpose of the study on which this article is based, was to gain insight into restaurant customers' satisfaction and return patronage in a shopping mall context. Research questions: The research was conceptualised with the following three research questions in mind: Which dining attributes are important for customer satisfaction and return patronage in mall restaurants? Is there a difference in restaurant customers' satisfaction and return patronage levels based on their demographic characteristics? Is there a difference in restaurant customers' satisfaction and return patronage in the respective mall restaurants? Design / methodology / approach: A mixed-methods research design was followed. The views of restaurateurs and mall managers were explored (qualitative) and 590 customers of eight restaurants situated in the mall successfully completed questionnaires (quantitative). Analysis of variance, t-tests, correlation analysis and regression analysis were performed to reach the objectives of the study. Findings: This research showed that food quality, quality service, restaurant ambience, the quality of facilities and the presence of management are important attributes in contributing to customers' overall dining satisfaction. Food quality and overall dining satisfaction are regarded as important attributes for restaurant customers' decision to return to a mall restaurant. Demographic characteristics of restaurant customers have little impact on customer satisfaction and return patronage levels. Mall restaurants were not equally successful in satisfying their customers in terms of service quality, quality of facilities and the presence of management. Implications: From a managerial perspective, it is important for mall restaurateurs to continuously strive to increase the levels of customer satisfaction and return patronage by emphasising the dining attributes identified in this article. Mall management needs to monitor customers' satisfaction in those restaurants that obtained significantly lower customer satisfaction ratings. Restaurateurs should address areas identified for improvement by this research. Originality / value: This article offers the South African restaurant subsector increased insight into customers' satisfaction and return patronage. The contribution of this article is unique in that, for the first time, customer satisfaction and return patronage are investigated from the context of restaurants situated in the same mall. The research findings supported the strategic responsible growth objectives of the National Tourism Sector Strategy.

Investigation of the Effects of Stores’ Tenant Mix and Internal and External Environmental Conditions on Customer Satisfaction from Shopping Centers in Iran

The research aims to determine the attractiveness of factors of Iranian shopping malls from the shopper’s point of view. Researchers used a conceptual framework that proposes significant impact between store tenant mix, internal and external conditions from shopping centers, and different dimensions of attractiveness. Then they test the hypotheses using a survey of 385 consumers of two shopping centers of Iran, to identify shopping mall attractiveness. A structural equation model using a correlation matrix with maximum likelihood was estimated by LISREL 8.8. The results indicate that from the attractiveness factors, retail tenant mix and atmosphere were the most influential factors in shopping centers and retail tenant mix was strongly affected by product range and to some extent by merchandise value. Thus, management teams of shopping malls can increase their mall attractiveness by identifying optimal retail tenant mix and protect their establishments with appropriate atmosphere.

Socio-economic aspects of improved sanitation in slums: A review

This socio-economic review provides an overview of the sanitation crisis in slum areas, and re-emphasizes the importance of sanitation. It highlights a lack of recognition of actual drivers for sanitation improvements, and the complexities in the provision of sanitation services in the context of urban slums with a mix of tenants and landlords. It elaborates how the drivers of demand for sanitation outlined in contemporary research are not universal but are rather context specific. The authors point out specific knowledge gaps for future research; for example, the need to establish a scientific basis for context-specific drivers of demand for sanitation improvements in slums, and a better understanding of associated complexities in order to set boundary conditions for achieving desired improvements.

A Decision Support on Planning Retail Tenant Mix in Shopping Malls

Consumption and shopping patterns are subject to changes for a variety of product categories. Shopping malls are becoming new places that consumers visit where the shopping itself has changed meaning and focus. Retailers are now concerned to find ways of presenting themselves inside these modern buildings and adapt to rapidly changing consumer expectations. Shopping malls, on the other hand, should focus on planning the appropriate retail tenant mix that will contribute their image and attract more visitors and shoppers. Although tenant mix selection has been a concern for shopping mall managers, no best way or strategy is offered as solving this problem. In this study, a multicriteria decision making framework is developed to prioritize the factors related with planning retail tenant mix within shopping malls. Shopping mall managers and experts are interviewed in accordance with the iterative steps of the decision making process. First of all, the factors are identified by the respondents. Then they are requested to indicate the relationships among factors. Analytical Network Process (ANP) is selected to construct the framework because of the dependencies and feedback relationships among the factors. Finally, the relative strengths of direct influences of factor pairs with respect to the third affected factors are revealed based on the pairwise comparison questions. As a result, the priorities of the factors are computed. Retail store's creating variety in shopping mall with its product offer, satisfying the needs of the shopping mall's target consumers, sales revenue per square meter, awareness of the retail store brand, being an anchor store for the shopping mall are found as the important factors. The priorities of factors can give guidance to shopping mall management team as a rating tool. The total rating score of a candidate retailer can be computed as the weighted average of individual contributions of the store with respect to each factor where weights are the computed priorities. This score can be used as a resulting acceptance/rejection decision of including a retail store into tenant mix. The proposed framework can also be utilized for open-air centers and hybrid centers. The priorities of the factors found at the present study can be compared with those of further studies conducted in different countries and cultures.

A virtual reality tool to measure shoppers’ tenant mix preferences

Tenant mix is an important key to the success of a shopping centre. Rules dictating the ideal tenant mix are still based on assumptions about consumer preferences and consumer behaviour. However, research into consumers’ tenant mix preferences seems to become more prominent in this context. As standard questionnaires are inadequate to measure preferences regarding the locational components of tenant mix, the purpose of this project is to develop and test an enhanced virtual reality tool to elicit shoppers’ preferences regarding tenant mix. The tool can be used in the case of designing or developing new shopping centres as well as in the case of refurbishing or restructuring existing shopping centres. A prototype version of the VR-tool has been tested in a real world context. A Dutch neighbourhood centre, planned to be refurbished in the near future, was selected as a test case. The findings show that the VR-tool can be used to measure shoppers’ preferences regarding tenant selection and tenant placement. Taking into consideration these preferences may increase the attractiveness of a shopping centre, and therewith the competitive position of the centre in the region.

Place marketing and urban retail agglomerations: An examination of shoppers’ place attractiveness perceptions

This article approaches the perceptions of shoppers towards urban retail agglomerations from the perspective of place marketing. Acknowledging that place marketers need to be mindful of how place users can be best fulfilled, this research conceptualises the agglomeration as a place marketing site. The literature reveals the role of place users, in particular the retail customers, in the place-formation process. As such, an evaluation framework proposes antecedents of (retail-related) place attractiveness in order to understand what the key drivers of this behaviour are. An empirical study is presented involving almost 500 face-to-face interviews of shoppers at the time they visit a town centre. The results show that the retail tenant mix and the atmosphere influence attractiveness most significantly. Critical reflection of the literature, with respect to the empirical findings, reveals the crucial necessity to understand and integrate the place user's point of view into the concept of place marketing. This research addresses a gap in the literature on place marketing, focusing on place users’ perceptions as opposed to the dominant theme of place actor's strategic needs.

Lifestyle retail internet marketing: how does it meet consumer needs

This study investigates how shopping centres communicate their market position to perspective shoppers. The content analysis of lifestyle shopping centre communications is framed in Fishbein's multi-attribute model. The purpose of this study is to investigate if lifestyle centre websites clearly communicate the identified retail attributes to customers. Nine attributes related to lifestyle centre retailing, identified in previous research, were used to create a multi-attribute model that provided the basis for this study. Fifty recently established life-style centres websites, identified by the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) were used. The content analysis revealed the most frequently mentioned attributes on the lifestyle centre websites were tenant mix, centre events and convenient location. Parking and safety were the least mentioned attributes on the websites.

A tenant‐mix model for shopping malls

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a novel tenant mix model for shopping malls based on an analogy from ecological theories.Design/methodology/approachThis study empirically investigates the tenant species‐area relationship and tenant species‐abundance distribution in shopping malls. In this study, the tests on species‐area relationship and species‐abundance distribution in shopping malls are derived from ecological theories. Empirical tests by a sample of 18 shopping malls for the species‐area relationship and of five malls for the species‐abundance distribution are carried out in Hong KongFindingsIt shows that, in line with the findings of biogeography, the tenant species‐area relationship follows a power law of exponent of about 0.20. Furthermore, the species‐abundance distributions of the five large‐scale malls are found to be closely in track with a geometric distribution as commonly found in ecology. These results imply that tenant mix strategies are governed by two principles: the number of tenant species is related to the mall size; and the shop area allocation follows a geometric distribution.Research limitations/implicationsThe study provides the first quantitative tenant mix model on the number of tenant species in a particular mall size, and on the tenant species abundance distribution pattern. These results provide far‐reaching implications for research and practice, including a quantitative benchmarking of tenant mix strategy and an optimal design of shopping malls.Practical implicationsThe model is the first tenant mix model for practitioners to formulate quantitative tenant mix strategy, and evaluate the effects of tenant mix on the performance of a shopping mall.Originality/valueIt is the first quantitative model for tenant mix, and would open up a novel agenda for research on tenant mix strategies.

A Tenant Mix Model for Shopping Malls

The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel tenant mix model for shopping malls from an analogy of ecological theories. This study empirically investigated the tenant species-area relationship and tenant species-abundance distribution in shopping malls. By a sample of 25 shopping malls are carried out in Hong Kong, it is showed that, in line with the findings of biogeography, the tenant species-area relationship follows a power law of exponent of 0.30. And the analysis results suggest that different developers or mall operators adopt similar tenant-mix strategies. Furthermore, the species abundance distributions of several large-scale malls are found to be closely in track with a geometric distribution commonly found in ecology. The study provides a very good prediction model on the number of tenant species in a particular mall size, and on the tenant species abundance distribution pattern. These results provide very far-reaching implications for research and practice, including a quantitative benchmarking of tenant mix strategy and an optimal design of shopping malls.

Towards defining shopping centres and their management systems

Today, the subject of shopping centres is more complex than ever. In many ways, their complexities are in terms of size, type and characteristics. Consequently, the formats of shopping centre have often been confused with their identities. This is due to the fact that the industry has grown and evolved so much that the existing classifications are no longer adequate. In today's world, the roles of shopping centres can be seen from different perspectives, that is, as a place of business, as a property and as an investment. Shopping centre managers need to understand these perspectives before developing their own objectives and policies in managing their shopping centres. Having an excellent management team is no longer enough if the management systems are not effective. This will raise further issues in the areas of managing properties and facilities or in managing tenant mix within the shopping centres. Shopping centre managers should, however, take these issues as a challenge in order to improve the existing systems. This paper attempts to provide an overview of shopping centres and their management systems to gain a general understanding of the background of shopping centres.