The Indian mall is evolving. From being a simple shopping destination, it has become a family entertainment zone – a place where families eat, shop and indulge in leisure activities, a place where families spend quality time together.
The fear that the Indian shopping mall will lose its sheen with the meteoric rise of e-commerce in the subcontinent, has been so far, unfounded. Despite the fact that online shopping has not deterred the Indian mall rat, mall owners are striving hard to provide consumers with an unparalleled experience, a heady mixture of shopping, fun, food and activities.
One mall which has abundantly met consumer needs, thus becoming one of the more successful shopping centres in the Capital city is Pacific Mall, Tagore Garden.
For upping the ante – and many an eyebrow – in the calendar year 2017, setting benchmarks, and creating landmarks at a time when the digital media explosion is challenging retail businesses and environments to reinvent and redraw their approach to consumers, Pacific Mall received the IMAGES Excellence Award for Operations Management & Business Transparency 2018.
One of the main reasons which led to this prestigious award being given to mall was that Pacific, Tagore Garden saw an exorbitant growth of 20 percent in the year 2017, when it clocked Rs 920 crore in consumption and 15 percent growth in footfalls – to close at Rs 1.25 crore for the fiscal.
Results of Tenant Mix Change in 2017
The mall changed its tenant mix last year, with the aim to refresh and repackage itself. The strategy proved to be immensely successful as it helped in sustaining customer interest and attracting ongoing retail sales.
Thirty-one stores – spanning all retail categories including food and fashion – were either added, relocated, or resized in various categories resulting in approximately 65,000 sq.ft. of built up area offering freshness in the mall. Premium offerings in the mall were increased as was the efficiency per sq.ft.
Marketing & Promotion
Over the years Pacific Mall has become synonymous with entertainment, fine dining and the latest collection of brands and trends in fashion and lifestyle. The mall management has increased its focus on creating niche campaigns and events for customers based on their feedback and preferences.
The exciting line-up of new retail and restaurant brands at the mall, adding to the shopping and leisure experience was coupled with activities like wedding showcases and fashion shows involving high street and top brands present in the mall.
The plan was to create larger than life experiences for customers and towards this, the mall carried out an astoundingly high number of marketing and promotion activities – independently as well as jointly with tenants.
Some of the never-seen before focal and décor elements included:
– 40-foot life-size submarine was installed in the foyer
– A live Scuba Diving and Snorkeling experience was organised – the first ever in a mall – in association with DIVE India.
– 4-week long Scuba Diving summer workshops for kids – more than 3,000 kids participated in the workshop
– 50-foot Statue of Liberty installation
– 20-foot tall majestic elephant installation
– A replica of Taj Mahal for Valentine’s Day
Pacific Mall was also the first mall ever to launch its own web series called Mall O’Holic.
Apart from this, many events were celebrated with aplomb, including a Grand Shopping Carnival, the Mega End-of-Season Sale and the mall’s 6th anniversary celebrations. Customers participated in and won many prizes including a bumper prize – free shopping worth Rs 6 lakh, weekly prizes – free shopping worth Rs 60,000, and a daily prize – free shopping worth Rs 6,000. To engage customers online, the mall also developed a Slot Game, which users could play on Pacific’s social media pages and win mall vouchers.
These activities conducted in 2017 recorded a 19 percent increase in footfall over same period in 2016. There was also a 30 percent growth in consumption as well as a 9 percent growth in spend per customer. The churn enhanced the overall offering of the mall while substantially increasing the trading density/ sales per sq. ft. of the churned area as well as the overall mall.
The fashion category in the mall recorded a 129 percent growth in trading density per sq.ft. by replacing non-performing brands with relevant performing brands and downsizing, relocating existing brands.
There was a 40 percent growth in the overall Food Court sales simply by relocating Haldiram and replacing underperforming brands with performing ones.
Cosmetic Changes Up Numbers
An underperforming restaurant was replaced with Chili’s, Café Delhi Heights was brought into the mall in place of an underperforming retail store and a single restaurant was restructured to carve out space for three restaurants instead. The changes increased the total number of F&B options from 7 restaurants to 10 as well as recorded a 51 percent growth in trading density.
Filling in the Gaps
Leasing of kiosks was done in a strategic manner to fill in the gaps of offerings in the mall. Since the electronics category is most affected by online and it is no longer feasible to have electronic appliances stores, the mall management decided to offer it through kiosk format.
Kiosks of brands like Oppo, Motorola, Portronics, Mobiliti, Yaantra, to name a few, were introduced. With this the sales per sq. ft. of kiosks went up tremendously. Resultantly, the rent per kiosk also went up. Kiosks of cosmetics, jewellery were also added to increase sales per sq.ft which saw 25 percent growth later.
Tenants with Best All-India Sales Figures
Lifestyle is the number one store in the country with an annual turnover in excess of Rs 160 crore. Another top performing store is Splash, then there are stores like Spar Hypermarket. The GAP store at Pacific Mall, Tagore Garden is the top-performing GAP store in India in terms of sales per sq. ft.
Brands like Jack & Jones, Vero Moda, Tommy Hilfiger, Only, Kazo, Charles & Keith, Da Milano, Rosso Brunello, Puma, Nike, Café Delhi Heights, Haldiram, Dunkin, Unicorn Apple are amongst the top performing stores in the country, all of which can be found in Pacific Mall, Tagore Garden.
Powerful Logo, A Progressive Message
While upgrading the mall brand mix to premium international brands only, Pacific Mall also formally changed its logo to a premium one in an effort to reinforce its premium positioning – that the mall carries within it a brilliant brand mix, exceptional services and promises an unparalleled customer experience at various touchpoints. The new logo highlights the brands vision of delighting people and their style of living by introducing the elements of ‘Art of Leisure’.
The evolution of Pacific Mall’s logo signifies a change in the brand’s attitude by showcasing itself as a progressive, powerful and innovative mall which aims to provide an international shopping experience to its customer.
The premium brand mix, dining, entertainment and array of services ensure that every visit to Pacific mall is a mesmerising experience for all customers.
