Booking of time slots at shopping centres sees preferential bias

In an interesting development, results of a survey conducted by Viviana Mall across Thane and the MMR threw up some interesting revelations where patrons of the mall were subjected to a series of questions to ascertain their preferences and choices when it came to the reopening of the mall in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. The survey results showed 61% of the shoppers are ready to pre-book their visit to the mall and 48% of the total visitors would prefer to make an appointment with a store they want to shop at. A whopping 68% of shoppers expressed interest in visiting the mall for various reasons in the initial month of the mall’s reopening.
As per the findings, 11% of the footfalls are expected immediately after the mall has reopened, 34% within a week of re-opening and 23% have confirmed about visiting with a month. Almost 50% of the respondents also shared willingness to pay a nominal convenience fee for the facilities that will be put up to ensure the visitors get a safer environment to make their purchases at.
Based on these findings, Viviana Mall has tied up with one of the leading ticketing brands, BookMyShow.com in order to provide shoppers with an alternative of appointment-based visits. Shoppers will also be allowed to enter the mall without an appointment. Each visitor will have to book their visits at the mall by taking a token from website. Based on these tokens the individual will be allowed to be within the mall premises for a specific time duration. At the entrance gate, the shopper will have to scan appointment’s QR code and proceed for security and sanitisation checks. Express Entries will also be permitted from specific gates at the mall’s ground and basement floors.
To make payments for the shopping done, only 13% of the visitors may continue to pay through cash, while the majority have either switched over or would pay through cards or mobile wallets. At the food court or restaurants, 94% said they would want contactless food ordering service or packaging.
On the survey, Rima Kirtikar, Chief Marketing Officer, Viviana Mall said, “The survey provided us with some interesting insights. For example, one of the interesting findings was that 32% of the shoppers would visit Viviana Mall every week.”
The survey also showed that 85 percent of the visitors would prefer visiting the mall in a self-owned vehicle and only 11 percent said they will travel using either auto rickshaw or a cab.
“As we move closer towards mall’s reopening, we have come up with ‘7 Cs Model’ for smooth functioning and to provide better service to our customers, retailer partners and employees post-lockdown. These 6 Cs are ‘Change’ in the business strategies and processes for better outputs, ‘Confidence’ about being able to combat the challenges with a positive approach towards the situation, ‘Collaboration’ with our retail partners and vendors, ‘Concern’ about our consumer preferences and most importantly our own staff, ‘Connect’ with our consumers to understand their sentiments to meet their expectations in an effective way, ‘Cash’ i.e. to generate positive cash flows and revenues to service and grow the business and lastly is to ‘Comfort’, i.e. to be able to provide our consumers with an effortless shopping experience at the mall,” said Manoj K. Agarwal, Chief Executive Officer, Viviana Mall.
“Novel coronavirus outbreak has disrupted the way we live, hence a new normal has come into play. In line with that, we can comfortably say that we are taking #EkNayaKadam in this world wherein having Arogya Setu app is mandatory. It is a new world and a new beginning for all our stakeholders including mall visitors. Our #EkNayaKadam is to gear ourselves to battle out the challenges during such unprecedented times,” said Kirtikar.
The survey which comprised of 60 percent male, 39 percent female and 1 percent from the third gender (total 2,252 sample size), showed that 82 percent of the respondents had installed Arogya Setu on their handsets. At Viviana Mall, it will be mandatory to have the mobile app installed to be allowed entry into the premises.
When visiting Viviana Mall, the shoppers will find sanitisation tunnel at all the entrances, as 89 percent of them said it’s important. Several other important measures have also been put into place, for example, installation of Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation (UVGI) in the air-conditioning systems to keep coils continuously clean and disinfected. Regular deep cleaning and fumigation are also being carried out by the Viviana Mall management apart from hosts of other precautionary measures such as lane marking, distancing at the food court, restrictive entry at stores, heightened cleanliness, etc.
Besides, in order to be rest assured about maintaining the safety of their patrons, the mall has tried make the best possible use of Ultraviolet radiations (UV rays) in disinfecting all the common areas inside the mall. Viviana Mall has installed UV lights for sanitizing the escalator belts from beneath. UV box has been set up in food courts and restaurants to sanitize the cutlery and crockery used to serve the customers. Additionally, a UV tower has been raised to sanitise some peculiar areas.