Dear Readers,
Welcome back!!! It is great to see you again. Hope you are having a great day. Today, I want to discuss about How E-Commerce is slowly killing Malls and Why Malls may not be the best places to open your shop or start a new business in Bangalore anymore.
The Mall culture is a relatively new one in Bangalore. We had large shopping complexes when I was growing up in Bangalore. We had large shopping complexes like Gupta Market, Alankar Plaza, Jayanagar Shopping Complex, Utility building, Unity Building etc. We would get all sorts of clothes, shoes, food, toys, beauty products, travel bags, purses, perfumes, watches etc in these shopping complexes. But, there were no movie theaters in these shopping complexes. There were lot of single screen theaters in Bangalore in areas like Majestic, Malleswaram, Jayanagar etc. But, then came along the ingenious business idea to club the two things together. Hence, started the Mall culture in Bangalore in the late 90's with the advent of multiplexes inside large shopping complexes.
The Malls were much bigger and grander in scale than the largest shopping complexes in the city. People were excited to see the glittering lights and escalators. The well dressed house keeping staff added a very professional look to the area. There were all sorts of small and big restaurants also stacked into the same area. There were scary houses, bowling alleys, pubs, paint ball, Gaming areas etc. People were lost for choice when it came to shopping for clothes. There were the world's best brands competing alongside with the local discount brands. There were numerous electronics stores as well. People could buy their dream TVs, Cameras, Refrigerators, Washing Machines, Cell Phones etc in these stores. There were also stores for beauty products, hair salons, massage parlors, coffee shops, ice cream parlors, toy stores, book shops all in the same mall. There were also Grocery stores and Vegetable outlets. In short, people were spoiled for choice. But, the icing on the cake were the multiplexes. You could now watch your favorite movies by booking them in advance over the internet. There was no longer any need to stand in long queues or pay for black tickets anymore. Someone had just brought the entire city together and placed it in a single mall.
Malls have been a successful business venture for almost two decades now. The success of this venture has grown like a wild fire in Bangalore. Now, we have malls in every major part of the city. In fact, we would rarely find a prominent area without a Mall these days. In fact, real estate people also promote their new apartments by saying that they are in the locality of a major Mall. But, then the days of every successful business venture are numbered. The down slide of this business has also started already. With the advent of E-Commerce people are getting great discounts on almost anything they purchase. Also, there is the ease factor of buying stuff without leaving the comfort of your home. With the middle man (read the show rooms or the mall stores) out of the picture warehouses are shipping products directly to the end user. There is no longer need for a retail store to sell the product. This new marketing model has hit the malls very badly.
You could argue that there are still so many people venturing into the malls. Yes, that is true. But, let's analyze which stores are these people actually visiting and what are these people actually buying ? Most malls have several budget restaurants. There are lot of affordable food chains like Mc Donald's, KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Domino's Pizza etc in every mall. There is also a large food court and one or two affordable restaurants like Sagar, Kamat, Rajdhani etc in every mall. But, the maximum percentage of the people come for only the movies. Malls were mainly targeted for the middle class families. And, middle class people are the smartest buyers. They are the most careful people when it comes to handling their finances. Most of the people just window shop. Some smarter people planning to buy some phone or electronic product get a nice hands on or a demo from the mall retail store. But, they always either end up buying in the E-Commerce store or ask the retail store to reduce their price to match with the E-Commerce store. This trend has started to slowly kill the mall business.
Many shops are shutting down in Malls each day. In fact, maintenance cost of a mall is so huge owing to the 24*7 lighting, house keeping staff, security staff, business tax etc. Also, the malls are mostly empty on week days and generally have large number of visitors only over the weekends. There are many malls like Gopalan Sirsi Circle Mall, Magadi Road ETA Mall etc which have only got a multiplex along with few shops. Most of the mall is deserted and the shops are all shut down. The few open shops are having very few buyers and they are not able to afford the exorbitant mall rents. There are few new malls which are under construction since several years or where the construction has been abandoned owing to huge financial losses.
While nobody can predict the future of the mall business. But, it may not be a great idea to start a new shop or business in a mall without carefully evaluating the risks involved. The people will still continue to enjoy the multiplex experience and the fast food centers would also continue to be full. Maybe the business men now need to focus on what really the customers want ? Maybe opening multiple multiplexes in a single mall and increasing the fast food centers could help to revive their business. Also, people like to buy discounted clothes, beauty products etc. It may even be useful to have a Grocery store. After all, a profitable business is always the one which keeps up with the changing times.
I hope you all liked this article. Please send me your valuable feedback and I will be happy to reply back.
With Love,
Gunjan.
Welcome back!!! It is great to see you again. Hope you are having a great day. Today, I want to discuss about How E-Commerce is slowly killing Malls and Why Malls may not be the best places to open your shop or start a new business in Bangalore anymore.
The Mall culture is a relatively new one in Bangalore. We had large shopping complexes when I was growing up in Bangalore. We had large shopping complexes like Gupta Market, Alankar Plaza, Jayanagar Shopping Complex, Utility building, Unity Building etc. We would get all sorts of clothes, shoes, food, toys, beauty products, travel bags, purses, perfumes, watches etc in these shopping complexes. But, there were no movie theaters in these shopping complexes. There were lot of single screen theaters in Bangalore in areas like Majestic, Malleswaram, Jayanagar etc. But, then came along the ingenious business idea to club the two things together. Hence, started the Mall culture in Bangalore in the late 90's with the advent of multiplexes inside large shopping complexes.
The Malls were much bigger and grander in scale than the largest shopping complexes in the city. People were excited to see the glittering lights and escalators. The well dressed house keeping staff added a very professional look to the area. There were all sorts of small and big restaurants also stacked into the same area. There were scary houses, bowling alleys, pubs, paint ball, Gaming areas etc. People were lost for choice when it came to shopping for clothes. There were the world's best brands competing alongside with the local discount brands. There were numerous electronics stores as well. People could buy their dream TVs, Cameras, Refrigerators, Washing Machines, Cell Phones etc in these stores. There were also stores for beauty products, hair salons, massage parlors, coffee shops, ice cream parlors, toy stores, book shops all in the same mall. There were also Grocery stores and Vegetable outlets. In short, people were spoiled for choice. But, the icing on the cake were the multiplexes. You could now watch your favorite movies by booking them in advance over the internet. There was no longer any need to stand in long queues or pay for black tickets anymore. Someone had just brought the entire city together and placed it in a single mall.
Malls have been a successful business venture for almost two decades now. The success of this venture has grown like a wild fire in Bangalore. Now, we have malls in every major part of the city. In fact, we would rarely find a prominent area without a Mall these days. In fact, real estate people also promote their new apartments by saying that they are in the locality of a major Mall. But, then the days of every successful business venture are numbered. The down slide of this business has also started already. With the advent of E-Commerce people are getting great discounts on almost anything they purchase. Also, there is the ease factor of buying stuff without leaving the comfort of your home. With the middle man (read the show rooms or the mall stores) out of the picture warehouses are shipping products directly to the end user. There is no longer need for a retail store to sell the product. This new marketing model has hit the malls very badly.
You could argue that there are still so many people venturing into the malls. Yes, that is true. But, let's analyze which stores are these people actually visiting and what are these people actually buying ? Most malls have several budget restaurants. There are lot of affordable food chains like Mc Donald's, KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Domino's Pizza etc in every mall. There is also a large food court and one or two affordable restaurants like Sagar, Kamat, Rajdhani etc in every mall. But, the maximum percentage of the people come for only the movies. Malls were mainly targeted for the middle class families. And, middle class people are the smartest buyers. They are the most careful people when it comes to handling their finances. Most of the people just window shop. Some smarter people planning to buy some phone or electronic product get a nice hands on or a demo from the mall retail store. But, they always either end up buying in the E-Commerce store or ask the retail store to reduce their price to match with the E-Commerce store. This trend has started to slowly kill the mall business.
Many shops are shutting down in Malls each day. In fact, maintenance cost of a mall is so huge owing to the 24*7 lighting, house keeping staff, security staff, business tax etc. Also, the malls are mostly empty on week days and generally have large number of visitors only over the weekends. There are many malls like Gopalan Sirsi Circle Mall, Magadi Road ETA Mall etc which have only got a multiplex along with few shops. Most of the mall is deserted and the shops are all shut down. The few open shops are having very few buyers and they are not able to afford the exorbitant mall rents. There are few new malls which are under construction since several years or where the construction has been abandoned owing to huge financial losses.
While nobody can predict the future of the mall business. But, it may not be a great idea to start a new shop or business in a mall without carefully evaluating the risks involved. The people will still continue to enjoy the multiplex experience and the fast food centers would also continue to be full. Maybe the business men now need to focus on what really the customers want ? Maybe opening multiple multiplexes in a single mall and increasing the fast food centers could help to revive their business. Also, people like to buy discounted clothes, beauty products etc. It may even be useful to have a Grocery store. After all, a profitable business is always the one which keeps up with the changing times.
I hope you all liked this article. Please send me your valuable feedback and I will be happy to reply back.
With Love,
Gunjan.
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