The Art of Mall Management

Background

Malls have evolved primarily due to need created in the

market especially urban where there is shortage of time,
issues of traveling and parking, lack of choice & facilities,
scattered shopping areas, working couples, requirement of
critical mass for survival.
They have become joints for social meetings, pastime areas
like parks and lakes but with modern facilities.

Definition

A standard definition of Mall Management could be like “An

advanced Building Management System” which includes
various aspects of running a mall such as Positioning,
Zoning, Facilities mgmt., Finance mgmt, Marketing,
Corporate Social Responsibility, customer service and
liaison.

The Art of Mall Management is to make mall a success in

terms of Footfalls, sales turnover, increase in rentals and
decrease in Common Area Maintenance while doing “a fine
balancing act” between the expectations of the developer
and brand while giving customers a value for their visit and
time, so that they would keep coming back again and again.

A builder would like to decrease its operational expense to

minimum, while a brand would expect enormous
expenditure.

Customer on the other hand is oblivious to this and wants

the best of everything i.e. brands suitable to their taste and
requirement, a social meeting joint, fun, entertainment,
safety-security and top class facilities.

The “success” of a mall depends upon numerous aspects

right from the concept stage out of which a few are

Stages

 Ideation —The Location of the mall

 Design - The circulation of traffic, ease, convenience,

ambience and safety.

 Construction – Optimizing cost and completion within

deadline
 Leasing – In house or outsourced

 Management – A professional and experienced team

 Positioning & marketing stage – as per the catchment

area and demographics

 Operational stage – Rent/ Cam collection, revenue
generation.

Malls a novelty in Tier II and Tier III cities

Tier II and III cities face unique issues which are not seen in
metros.

Customer characteristics

 Less traveled
 No exposure to modern facilities
 Suffers from ‘Glass syndrome.’ A typical Indian customer
is used to bad shopping conditions, bad hygiene, poor
systems and methods to an extent that when he enters a
 mall which is clean/ polished/ shining with glasses
/escalators and elevators/ air conditioning/ spic and span
toilets, he feels that the cost of the same has inbuilt in the
products that are being sold there.

Issues Faced by mall management

 Over use and spoilage of toilets

 Theft of toiletries
 Misuse of elevators and escalators which are being used
as free Joy-rides
 High maintenance cost
 Improper parking and confusion
 People sitting idle for the entire day in air conditioned
environs.
 Littering by customers
 Spitting in the corners
 Messing up with security and housekeeping staff

There is no shortcut to overcoming these problems as

people will take time to absorb a mammoth mall in to their
social system.

Over a period of time, as novelty of a new mall will wear off,

The practical problems which a mall faces in general are as

below

Developer’s end

 A poor understanding of the catchment area.

 A mall has to be in synchronization with the society and

should not stand out as an alien.
  Wrong positioning and unsuitable brands to the
environs and the economic capacity of the people
 Improper tenant mix
 No differentiation of positioning from the competitors
 Unprofessionally managed
 Lack of trained manpower
 Malls with “sell out” model [tri-party], affects the
tenant mix.
 Government interference

Brands end

 Too many stores of same brands in a single city, takes

off the charm and cannibalizes the business.

 Lack of coordination with Mall Management. Any
suggestion from Mall management is treated as “
developer trying to teach a brand- how to do business’
 Poor delegation of powers and authority to the store
managers.
 Lack of supervision from Head Office and poor ability to
understand problems of store managers which vary
from store to store.
 Poor participation in mall events and promotions.

 Delay in rent and CAM payments, which hamper the

cash flow and thus the operational smoothness.

Government’s Role

The local bodies such as Municipal Corporation are right now

silent spectators. Town Planning shall have to come in
picture to avoid too many malls to come up in a particular
area. It puts pressure on the entire system which consists of
water supply, drainage, electricity, traffic, parking,
congestion etc.

Malls are going to stay and as families will go nuclear, Traffic

and parking issues, shortage of time shall force people to
shop/ entertain and eat at a single location.

At the end of the day only those malls which follow Darwin’s
theory will survive. “Survival of the fittest.”

Anshu Mathur
PGD Retail Com’n Mgmt [MICA], MBA Marketing, B.E. Production
General Manager
Himalaya Mall Ahmedabad