A case study on shopping malls attributes for young consumers

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to determine the mall criteria that are the most crucial for the youth market by determining the winning brand in comparison to other offerings to understand what is required to gain a competitive advantage and to differentiate a mall from its rivals. Design/methodology/approach This study chose the Stochastic Multicriteria Acceptability Analysis-2 method to evaluate the mall preferences of young people. By using this method, the various criteria were evaluated for more than one alternative to find the best solution. JSMA program was used to analyze the data. The survey was administered using the mall intercept method to reduce sample bias. Findings The study identifies that the criteria that have the highest impact on the mall preferences of young people are the mall campaigns for loyal customers; the traffic in the mall locality and the mall’s parking facilities; the mall’s facilities for disabled people; the quality of the mall locality; and the quality of the people visiting the mall. The study reveals that a mall’s physical features, its facilities and the criteria related to employees have a very low impact on the mall choices of young people. The study further finds that the youth market has very low satisfaction levels for all of the identified criteria. This study reveals that this macro accessibility criterion is less relevant for the youth market than for the general population. Originality/value Despite the importance of this market, there is insufficient research on the shopping behavior of young people. They have a considerable impact on the purchasing decisions of their families, significant disposable income and constitute the future market for the sector. This study uniquely enables the sequential ordering of customers’ decision-making criteria and determines the effectiveness or impact of these criteria in the mall sector.

The importance of distance and attraction in patronizing a shopping mall

“…Interestingly, the physical atmosphere of a SM did not affect customers’ choices. This finding is in line with the previously reported low impact of a mall's physical features and its facilities on mall choices for young people (Can et al , 2016). Atmosphere is treated as a hygienic, while customers simply expect all malls to be hygienic and safe.…”

“…Mall attractiveness is affected by the perception related to the range of available shops and the diversity of brands. Mall campaigns can affect mall choice (Can et al , 2016) and gifts and incentives can engage customers in word of mouth behavior. However, price is not always a decisive factor in shoppers' attractiveness.…”

Determinants of Shopping Mall Attractiveness: the Case of Shopping Malls in Nairobi, Kenya

“…In a different study, Can et al (2016), identified several factors affecting mall attractiveness. The factors were mall loyalty programmes; traffic around the mall and parking facilities; facilities for disabled people; the quality of the mall locality; and the quality of mall visitors.…”

Multi-dimensional Skyline Query to Find Best Shopping Mall for Customers

“…Because, chance of finding an item in a less popular shopping malls or less crowded shopping malls is higher [5]. This phenomenon indicates that consumer selecting a shopping mall depends of on many uncertain or probabilistic factors [6], so, ahead of time it is not easy to compute which shopping mall is best fit for customer ahead of time. However, with the help of uncertain or probabilistic data management, it is possible to compute customer choices with some certainty.…”