Introduction
Lakeforest Mall was opened in 1978 with four major anchor stores. It was inclined with ample parking ground and many major inline tenants. Retailers were competing to get a space in the Mall, which made it the pride of Montgomery country. However, four decades down, the Mall’s presence had diminished due to changing consumer habits, increased competition from other distant shopping centers, increased famous town center-style developments, insecurity, and poverty in the neighborhood (Reed, 2017). This study will evaluate the factors that have led to the Mall’s decline, what the Mall should do to improve its performance, the shopping trends in the next ten years, and new retail concepts.
What the Mall Should Do to Improve Its Performance
Concentrate On Data First
Most businesses fail due to the lack of consideration data. Lakeforest Mall should prioritize data first by having foundations that capture real-time data of the consumers. This includes collecting data about the number of people who come to their Mall, the stores they visit, the place they spend the most time on, and the highly purchased products. This data can be collected through cloud technology, location and context analysis, and real-time data capture technologies (Calvo-Porral & Lévy-Mangín, 2018). This way, they can note the parts of the Mall that attract more visitors and those that do not attract any visitors and use that data to improve the location of the stores. The increase of quality data in retailing business has helped predict customer behaviors (Calvo-Porral & Lévy-Mangín, 2018). Some of the dominant outlets, such as Walmart, thrive by collecting customer data because it helps them predict future customer behaviors. Lakeforest Mall should collect its independent data from the stores and use it to improve the customer’s shopping experience.
Lakeforest Needs Re-Organization and Hyping
The management of Lakeforest Mall needs to re-organize the Mall and hype it. While the mall business is all about leasing shops to retailers, most people come to the shops because of the Mall itself. The Mall’s architecture speaks much about the shops and products in it (Yohn, 2020). Therefore, Lakeforest Mall should integrate the Mall with technology and the latest architectural infrastructure to ensure that the Mall appeals to the consumer’s eyes. In addition, Lakeforest Mall should work with store owners to ensure that they match the exterior face of the Mall to the interior.
Lakeforwest Mall should have a digital platform to showcase its retailers and the products that they sell. According to Yohn (2020), 69% of American shop online. This implies that in every ten individuals, six shop online, which shows that the online market has significant potential for many businesses. Therefore, integrating the Mall’s experience in the digital space by having a website would improve the presence of the Mall and retailers to the consumer.
The management should design the Mall as an exciting experience for shoppers. They should include an attractive front end and a fulfilling backend with a central mobile-point sale where the small shoppers can easily get their products. This will ensure that the Mall is well arranged and consumers can conveniently shop according to their needs and time. For instance, the entrance can be filled with enticing essential products such as eateries and quick-goods shops, while the bac-end can be used for fashion stores. This will ensure that there is an active movement in the Mall as people get the products they need, which wil bring the Mall back to life.
Enhance Security in the Mall
Security is essential in shopping places whereby people need to feel safe. There have been many incidences of insecurity in the neighborhood and the Mall, which may scare away consumers (Daroch et al., 2021). Lakeforest Mall should increase its security details by adding more CCTV cameras across the Mall and its surroundings and ensuring active security staff on patrol. The parking lot should be well lit and have 24 hours security personnel to ensure that people’s belongings are not stolen. These reforms should be announced to the public to ensure that they are aware of the changes.
Shopping Trends in the Next Ten Years and How They May Affect Suburban Regional Shopping Malls
An increase in technological advancements characterizes the shopping trends in the future. For instance, many stores will be cashierless in the future, whereby people will be checking in, picking the products, and walking away. Automatic checking out machines will be able to detect the products that a consumer has picked and automatically deduct them from their cards (Mostaghel et al., 2022). This move will aim at making shopping more convenient and quicker for consumers. However, for his trend to work effectively, security at malls will have to be upgraded to ensure no incidences of shoplifting and other irregularities. This technology is already at the trial stage in Amazon stores.
The other shopping trend in the next ten years will be tagging. This is whereby mobile devices will be able to scan a product and redirect the consumer to a seller of the product (Mostaghel et al., 2022). For instance, if a person passes with nice pair of jeans, the consumer can use their phone to scan it and get redirected to the retailer of the jeans. They will then be able to order and pay for it online. This trend will affect the Mall by forcing them to pick the phase of digitalizing their services by having websites where their store’s products can be linked when tagged. This implies that when shoppers identify a product bought at the Mall, the tagging app can redirect the customer to the Mall.
New Retail Concepts
One of the prevailing retail concepts is social selling because of people’s increased time on their phones. An average American spends almost three hours on their phone, which shows that it has become a very convenient way of selling products (Perreault, Cannon, & McCarthy, 2021). Retailers have taken this opportunity to create brand awareness and sell their products to their consumers. In addition, social selling increases market targeting to ensure the product reaches the right audience and has a high likelihood of creating a purchase. According to Perreault, Cannon, & McCarthy (2021), 55% of e-commerce consumers are likely to purchase a product after seeing it online. Malls should include social selling in their future projects to enable them to integrate themselves into the future.
Another important aspect of future retailing is livestreaming. Due to the increase in virtual businesses, shoppers are more interested in interacting with the sellers. One of the best ways to interact is through live streaming (Perreault, Cannon, & McCarthy, 2021). The seller starts a live stream, and consumers join to ask their questions about the products or make purchases. This is one of the most promising concepts in the future. To learn more about these concepts, consumers have to stay aligned to the technological advancements in the retail industry by following their updates. This includes following updates on business journals, researching the internet, and visiting various latest retail outlets to see the technologies they use.
Conclusion
The future for shopping malls is not yet over, people are still relying on physical and online shopping for their products. However, malls have to find their underlying challenges and adjust to meet consumer expectations. For instance, Lakeforest Mall faces the challenges of changing consumer habits, increased competition from other distant shopping centers, increased famous town center-style developments, insecurity, and poverty in the neighborhood. To overcome these challenges, they should rely on data analytics, re-organize the Mall, hype it, and enhance security.
References
Calvo-Porral, C., & Lévy-Mangín, J.-P. (2018). Pull factors of the shopping malls: an empirical study. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 46(2), 110–124. Web.
Daroch, B., Nagrath, G., & Gupta, A. (2021). A study on factors limiting online shopping behaviour of consumers. Rajagiri Management Journal, ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print). Web.
Mostaghel, R., Oghazi, P., Parida, V., & Sohrabpour, V. (2022). Digitalization driven retail business model innovation: Evaluation of past and avenues for future research trends. Journal of Business Research, 146(3), 134–145. Web.
Perreault, W. D. Jr., Cannon, J. P., & McCarthy, E. J. (2021). Instructor’s manual to accompany Essentials of marketing: A marketing strategy planning approach 17th edition. McGraw-Hill
Reed, D. (2017). This dying Mall could be a big opportunity for Gaithersburg. Ggwash.org. Web.
Yohn, D. L. (2020). The Pandemic Is Rewriting the Rules of Retail. Harvard Business Review. Web.