Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
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" Because we come with experience in hospitality and tourism, we see every- thing through the eyes of a customer. For us, that is the biggest challenge." Consequently, Select Citywalk is thriv- ing, despite sharing its district in south Delhi with two other malls: DLF Saket Place (property of DLF Group) and the Metropolitan (belonging to MGF Group). "In our positioning, we have kept the woman at the center of our offering," Sharma said, noting that women shoppers outspend men. "The key to this is staying ahead of the curve." Select Citywalk is a favorite place for national and international brands to launch themselves in India, because it is "essentially the most prominent and fashionable part of the city," according to Renjhen. The other hot spot in India for new fashion brands looking to con- nect with trend-conscious consumers is southern Mumbai, where the Palladium is the prime spot, says Renjhen. Italian leather-handbag maker Furla opened its first India store last July at Select City- walk and then followed that with a store at Palladium in September. "Forum is essentially midmarket fashion brands," said Renjhen. "It doesn't have a Zara; it doesn't have any of the international luxury brands. But it's placed very well for the Bangalore market, which is much smaller compared to Delhi or Mumbai." While design appears to have been an afterthought at many of India's malls, it was a priority at the Palladium. That center consists of a three-level, glass- domed atrium overlooking marble-and- onyx-tiled floors, and, its website says, its "fluid use of space and light" creates "an indulgent and languorous shopping environment" that satisfies the "consum- ers' aspirations for super exclusive and coveted luxury brands." The mall is con- nected to High Street Phoenix, a com- plex covering 3.3 million square feet that also contains a five-star hotel, a multiplex and a bowling alley. This sits on the site of a textile factory — gone now save for a chimney painted white and with the center's name in red lettering plus its red logo: the mythical phoenix bird. Susil S. Dungarwal, head of mall advisory firm Beyond Squarefeet, lauds Atul Ruia, developer of High Street Phoenix, for creating an excellent tenant mix in a city with the most expensive real estate in India. Phoenix Market City is "more midsegment or aspirational" [but] "Palladium is a bridge to luxury," said Dungarwal. Most of India's consumers fit into the middle segment, he says, but the higher premium market is growing — and that is the coveted target, not luxury. "People who can afford luxury prefer to shop abroad while they're traveling," he said. Palladium is certainly doing some- thing right. "The numbers are what ev- ery developer would dream of," Dungar- wal said. "They get almost as much as 3 million people a month." In contrast, Bangalore's Forum is an aspirational mall in its retail position- ing, says Dungarwal. "The tenant mix was just right," he said. "They took their time and had the patience to get in the right tenant. They knew what customer they wanted from day one." Indeed, "Forum really created a benchmark in this part of the world," said Dungarwal, who was with Prestige Group until 2007. Forum was the first Indian mall to have a food court on the ground floor, he points out; until then, Indian malls had their food courts on upper floors. "The more you complicate it, the more difficult the mall becomes to manage," he said. "Easy in and easy out is what I would say is the mantra of the mall business." These three malls "really stand out," concurs Hemant Kalbag, a part- ner at consulting firm A.T. Kearney who headed the Asia-Pacific consumer and retail practice from 2010 to 2014. "India has a very congested real estate market, even though it's a fairly large country," Kalbag said. "The congestion makes Manhattan seem spacious by comparison. Finding the right footprint for a shopping mall is very difficult, but all of these guys have managed to do it." The three have struck the right bal- ance between location, store mix and an array of nonretail services to keep customers coming back, he notes. And the India consumer market is where the global action is, Kalbag says, point- ing out that even if 20 percent of India's population is the target demographic for most international retailers inter- ested in the country, "they're talking about more than 200 million people," he said. "There are very few places in the world with that many new consumers becoming available to retailers." To gauge how the market has changed, Kalbag says, he used to go to shopping malls in India and count how many people had shopping bags. "People were using the infrastructure and the air conditioning to get out of the heat, but they weren't really shopping," he said. "In the early days, you'd see a hundred people and two shopping bags. Now you would see perhaps 10 to 12 shopping bags for every hundred people." The numbers are only going to in- crease, observers predict. "By 2025, we will be the second- biggest economy in the world, after the United States," said Sharma. "So inter- national brands need to look at coming into India as a long-term market." S C T 46 S C T / J u n e 2 0 1 5 "The more you complicate it, the more difficult the mall becomes to manage. Easy in and easy out is what I'd say is the mantra of the mall business."