I think this story is repeating all over the world, with fast and ubiquitous online shopping making “in person shopping” less of a necessity, malls are converting.
The malls that I do see succeeding arn’t focused on shopping for stuff, but rather experiences, places to be, food, social activities. (or just a place to get away from the heat.)
There is the high margin high spend retail fashion malls that still exist for the high touch items people want to see in person, but not enough demand in this space to support all the legacy malls out there.
I’ve been to malls in Malaysia… for the technology malls, its kinda pointless. Its a bunch of small shops covering a huge mall… ALL OF THEM SELLING THE SAME 100 things. No variety, no specialization, if you do want something they don’t have - they offer to order it for you. I’m not sure why this is so common, maybe people love to haggle?
The online experience is much better, even as bad as the interface is, you can actually find what you want, quickly, and not have to haggle (in the mall is still more expensive then online).
Example Bose QC35 Replacement ear pads in the mall $20… the SAME EXACT ear pads from aliexpress $2.50 shipped.
I think this story is repeating all over the world, with fast and ubiquitous online shopping making “in person shopping” less of a necessity, malls are converting.
The malls that I do see succeeding arn’t focused on shopping for stuff, but rather experiences, places to be, food, social activities. (or just a place to get away from the heat.)
There is the high margin high spend retail fashion malls that still exist for the high touch items people want to see in person, but not enough demand in this space to support all the legacy malls out there.
I’ve been to malls in Malaysia… for the technology malls, its kinda pointless. Its a bunch of small shops covering a huge mall… ALL OF THEM SELLING THE SAME 100 things. No variety, no specialization, if you do want something they don’t have - they offer to order it for you. I’m not sure why this is so common, maybe people love to haggle?
The online experience is much better, even as bad as the interface is, you can actually find what you want, quickly, and not have to haggle (in the mall is still more expensive then online).
Example Bose QC35 Replacement ear pads in the mall $20… the SAME EXACT ear pads from aliexpress $2.50 shipped.
No experience with Malaysian malls, but in Shenzhen asking the price in English instead of Chinese comes with a big markup.
Tourist tax