The Hindu Business Line : `More brand-conscious shoppers to grade malls'

HITTING the shopping mall nearest to you may soon become passé. With nearly 300 malls in various stages of completion across the country — about 60 in the National Capital Region (NCR) alone, analysts and developers see consumers beginning to grade various malls as they currently do for traditional markets like Greater Kailash and Janpath in Delhi, MG Road in Bangalore or Colaba Causeway and Fashion Street in Mumbai.

"At present, a limited number of malls are operational and therefore, consumer choice is also limited. But as district centres become operational in all metros, we will see consumers grading malls on factors like brands, anchor stores, footfalls and even parking. This has already started to happen," says Mr Santhosh Kumar, Director, Chesterton Meghraj Property Consultants.

According to Mr Arvind Singhal of KSA Technopak, a retail consultancy, "In the present scenario, where the penetration of malls is low, high premium and mass brands co-exist in the same space.

"But brand segregation is bound to happen as real estate segregation happens, and there will be clear-cut destinations for super premium and mass brands. This phenomenon is prevalent overseas; it helps the consumer to avoid `shop hopping' and find brands he wants under the same roof."

Another retail industry expert sees speciality malls as a step in this direction, since they offer an entire gamut of products of a particular segment and give brands the convenience of targeting specialised consumers.

Mr Ajay Khanna, Executive Director of DLF Retail Developers Ltd, sees malls getting segregated into two categories — destination malls (for upmarket and brand-oriented consumers) and neighbourhood malls (for utilitarian-oriented consumers).

"High-end brands do not require massive distribution and capacity to generate heavy footfalls. I expect that destination malls and neighbourhood malls would attract different sets of brands in the future," he said.

And within brands too, there could be segregation.

Mr Abhijit Das, Head - Ansal Plaza Mall Management Company, admits to such a grading taking place, but does not see brands "confusing" their customers through the placing of different products at different stores based on the type of footfalls.

"Doing so may leave a bad case for the target audience, as customers tend to move from one price level to another," he says, adding that ultimately footfalls would be driven by the anchor store of a mall.

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