DESIGN PROCESS FOR MALL EVENTS TO

INCREASE FOOTFALLS

INTRODUCTION:
As the contemporary retail sector in India is reflected in sprawling shopping centres, multiplex
malls and huge complexes offer shopping, entertainment, food and services all under one roof,
the concept of shopping and mall management has altered in terms of format and consumer
buying behavior, ushering in a revolution in shopping in India. Shopping malls play multiple
roles in modern day culture- that of a limitless paradise, a timeless space or a getaway without
any landmarks- a little holiday on its own terms.

ABOUT NASHIK CITY CENTRE MALL:

Nashik City Centre was built to address the retail gap present in the city of Nashik, where retail
space mostly limited itself to standalone stores on high streets. City Centre mall was the first
of its kind which housed brands like Westside, Big Bazaar, Cinemax etc., and gave the residents
of the city, a chance to experience the feel of a regional centre, offering high street fashion,
entertainment, dining and services all under one roof. Owned by Sarda Group of Companies
and facilities managed by JLL, it was opened in April 2009 and became fully functional from
September 2010.

Nashik City Centre Mall, spread across an area of 9,00,000 sq. ft., is the largest mall in the city
of Nashik, boasting of a 4-storey building having a 12,000 sq. ft. (1,100 m2) terrace lawn, a 5-
screen multiplex operated by Cinemax, food court area over 8000 sq. ft., a 6-storey multi-level
parking and underground parking, hypermarkets spread across an area of 40,000 sq. ft., a Grand
Banquet Hall for family functions, corporate meetings etc., kids play-zone and few fine-dining
restaurants. Housing a multitude of brands- both international and regional, it has over 150
retail units (93 stores and 60 kiosks).

SITUATION DESCRIPTION:
Being the only mall in Nashik city, CCM has witnessed a steady traffic of footfalls over the
years. The average footfall at the mall falls to 32000 per day, 27000 – 52000 being the range.
On occasions like 15th August, 26th January, Valentine’s Day etc., footfalls surge up till
2,00,000; almost 6.25 times the average footfall received in a day. Apart from the fact that the
mall takes on a festive atmosphere on these days with décor complementing the prevailing
festival, massive discount seasons are led by Big Bazaar and Pantaloons, the mall’s anchor
tenants. Similarly, footfall at the mall also follows a seasonal trend. Holiday months of May
and June see a rise in footfalls, whereas February to April witness a dip in the footfall trend.
Weekends are great crowd-pullers whereas on weekdays, the mall essentially remains deserted.
 31
1800000 Footfall trend 30
29
1350000
28
Footfall

900000 27
26
450000 25
24
0 23
22
Jan-19 Apr-19 Jul-19 Oct-19 Jan-20 Apr-20 Jul-20 Oct-20 Jan-21
21
Month 20

Recently, with the new system of footfall counting measures inducted at the mall, where staffs
working in the mall were deducted from the counting process and footfall tickers replaced, the
footfall figures have seen a huge dip in the numbers. Taking the average number of footfalls
received over a period of 5 months, we can see that the numbers have dipped from 57,016 to
23,162 on weekends and that from 26,832 to 14,327 for weekdays (footfall calculated daily).

Footfall data for Jan-May'17

200000 DATES
Jan-17
Feb-17
150000 Mar-17
Apr-17
May-17
Footfall

100000

50000

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Date

Footfalls have a direct impact on the trading densities of the retailers in the mall and hence on
the overall revenue generation of the mall. Nashik City Centre Mall houses a total of 93 stores
ranging across international, national and regional brands, out of which 21 retail tenants are in
the lease + revenue sharing model and the rest are under fixed rent model. A total of 60 kiosks
are present in the mall, which are in the fixed rent model with a lease period of minimum six
months. As per the data acquired from the leasing and marketing department of the mall
regarding the trading densities of various retailers, anchor tenants in the mall like Big Bazaar,
Reliance Trends, Reliance Footprints, Cinemax etc. haven’t seen much fluctuations in sales,
both compared to past trading density data in the mall over the past year, and also to the industry
average trading density range for the same in the country. For e.g. trading density range for
hypermarkets in malls in India during 2012-2016 (taking the data from top ten cities in India)
is in the range of 1000-1350 psfpm and Big Bazaar’s TD in the mall is constant, fluctuating
around 1180 psfpm. However, the same cannot be said for other retailers in the mall. The
problem of declining sales is acutely felt by the second-floor tenants and other food court
kiosks. Having said that, it should also be noted that the mall management, at present,
doesn’t have the correct and accurate trading density data for majority of the retailers
(most of these retailers are on the fixed rent model) as the process of collecting data is based
on informal communication of sales data by the retailers rather than the actual sales figures
(information received from the marketing manager Mr. Dinesh Yadav).

Taking help from the survey conducted by KPMG on customer and retail analysis of the mall,
done in June, 2016, shopping is the most preferred activity for 60% of the customers who come
to the mall. The average time spent by a customer in the mall is 1.5 - 2 hours. While majority
of the survey participants said that they mostly came to the mall for the brands present there, it
was the lack of the very same (lack of new brands) that made the consumers not want to visit
the mall again. While men’s wear brands at the mall account to 51.45% of the total apparel
category mix at the mall, unisex and women’s wear account to 21.74% and 26.80% of the
category mix. 1/3rd of the customers complained about the lack of women centric apparel and
accessories brands in the mall. The research participants who belonged to the luxury and
affluent categories said that they preferred to go to Mumbai for shopping purposes rather than
shop in Nashik, due to the wide array of brands available and updated merchandise present
with the retailers in Mumbai malls. It was also found that awareness among customers
regarding brands present in the mall was low.

Food court of a mall, in most cases, is the major crowd-puller in a mall. Food is pivotal to
shoppers because it: first, creates an entertaining ambience, conducive to a pleasant or exciting
shopping experience. And second, provides a needed break from hours of shopping and or as
a conclusion to an extended shopping excursion. The food court at CCM spans over an area of
8000 sq.ft. and mostly houses regional brands. Options for fine dining are limited to Rajdhani
and the recent addition, Barbeque Nation. International food chains are also missing. The
location of food court at the mall, next to Cinemax multiplex, serves a mutually beneficial role
that works in tandem with the multiplex. The synergy in food court provides an add-on
advantage to the mall and vice versa.

Regarding leisure activities and customer-engagement drives, Nashik City Centre conducts
very few in-house promotional activities, according to the marketing department of the mall.
Events and activities are restricted to promotional activities organized and sponsored by the
anchor tenants. Awareness is low among visitors regarding the various events, loyalty
programs, competitions etc. 60% of the customers state that they are not aware of the activities
conducted in the mall (taken from KPMG study). Complaints from customers range from
website of the mall, being misleading, to not being informed about the promotions and
activities via sms, even after continuously registering for the same.

Customers were found to be unhappy with maintenance and cleanliness standards of the mall.
The complaint’s book at the customer help-desk is filled with complaints of customers
unsatisfied with the hygiene standards maintained at the food court and low cleanliness levels
of the common areas. The regular patrons of the mall complain about innovativeness in the
ambience of the mall. On high footfall days, big queues for parking facilities and entry to the
mall are witnessed, resulting in increasing the wait time for visitors and in turn, lowering the
experience for the customers. On confirming with the mall management, it was noted that
managing the crowd on high footfall days, becomes a huge problem for the mall management.
Housekeeping services and security also become issues. Overall, it was observed that customer
experience in the mall is low as customers do not get enough reasons to shop, eat or simply,
bird-watch at the mall.

Infrastructure management refers to the management of facilities provided to the tenants within
the mall. Complaints from retailers range from leakages in stores, pest infestations to air
conditioning problems etc. HVAC of the mall is currently operating at 50% capacity and needs
upgradation and automation. Parking operations are slow (capacity constraint) leading to
increased wait time and shrinkage of revenues, hence system design needs improvement. Basic
facilities like washrooms are not well maintained and lack consumables, lighting system dim
and inadequate and no control zoning is in place1. Due to the gap in operations and
housekeeping services, the ambience of the mall gets affected. Inadequate cleanliness standards
in the common areas, food court and washrooms result in reducing the customer experience for
the visitors.

Since the inception of the mall, no proper positioning of the mall had been decided upon based
on the category of services to be offered with respect to demographics, psychographics, income
levels, competition and extensive market research of the catchment area. Hence, there was no
pre-planned zoning or retail mix decided for the mall. The objective of the mall developers
then, was to fill up the vacant spaces as soon as possible, on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Though Nashik City Centre is a structure that has been functional since 2010, a lot of facilities
and infrastructure are going through changes or renovation. Various projects are in the pipeline
like automating the parking lot system and facilities, renovation of the washrooms, expansion
and restructuring of the food court etc. Processes in operational activities, currently handled by
Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) are also undergoing changes. Plans to get in retail brands like Central
and others are also in process. Thus, it is imperative to evaluate the current situation and
identify the problems that the mall currently faces, which can be targeted and resolved,
garnering useful information and insights in the process, hence, paving the way for continuous
improvements in the processes/products offered by CCM.

SITUATION ANALYSIS:
In today’s situation of rapidly changing retail scenario, where retail businesses get acutely
affected by trends like e-commerce/online shopping and Omni channels purchase behaviour,
one thing remains constant. It’s the customers. Real estate prices, elegant showroom displays,
branded products, state-of-art technology do play a part in the success of a retail outlet or a
mall, but it’s the customer who can make or break the highly dependent ecosystem. Retail
business, like any other business, starts with the customers and grows only because of them.

Mall developers, have no choice but to create more reasons for consumers to come to the malls
than just for shopping, as shopping can be done anywhere, it’s the overall experience &
engagement that will keep the consumer come back to malls again and again. Malls, which can
understand the current trends and envisage the future, should position themselves much beyond

1
Information and insights received from mall operations personnel.
shopping; like an experiential ambient zone where one likes to dwell around and spend his/her
leisure time. Hence, it is imperative for a mall to give its consumers a holistic experience which
involves a complete sensory treat along with focusing on the core consumer requirements.
Mall advisory comprises the processes of conceptualization, positioning, zoning, deciding the
tenant mix, promotional activities and marketing of the mall as well as facility and finance
management. All these put together ensure that the mall targets the right audience, provides
them a good experience and garners the correct responses from them not only to make the mall
a successful place, but also to ensure that the retailers gain maximum benefit, and therefore the
mall developer.

Problems identified at the mall are multi-faceted and range across various functions. Some of
them are listed below under heads.

 FACILITIES MANAGEMENT:

 INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT: forms an integral part of mall management

as they are the basic amenities that any tenant or customer would look for in a mall.

o Infrastructure for hardware and software automation not present in the mall

o Footfall counting system faulty

o Safety: Fire-fighting and detection system inadequate, no dedicated security

system

o Power: HVAC operating at 50%, emergency lighting not present in all areas.

o Toilets are not well maintained and equipped with consumables

o Housekeeping and security services are constrained due to shortage of

personnel, lack of equipment, improper task division and gaps in inter-
departmental communication.

 AMBIENCE MANAGEMENT: Maximizing footfall and dwell time in malls and other
shopping destinations is the highest priority for any retail developer.

o No proper cleaning of façade glasses

o low overall cleanliness of the mall

o low daylight penetration into the mall and dim lighting of the mall at night

o lackluster entry points to the mall

o layout and design problems leading to low visibility of tenants

 TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT:

o parking facilities inadequate

 o system design needs improvement/automation

o pricing strategy needs revision

o foot traffic management/crowd management inside the mall becomes difficult

during weekends and holidays.

 FOOD COURT:

o Very few food retail outlets at the food court

o no variety of cuisines available and lack of branded QSRs

o lack of products offered at different price points

o ambience and cleanliness of food court needs improvement

o Limited availability of fine-dining restaurants.

 ZONING AND RETAIL MIX: Zoning refers to the division of mall space into zones
for the placement of various retailers.

o Tenant mix poor and vacant spaces left on every floor

o Brand mix and sub-category mix, sub-optimal

o Entertainment scope limited at the mall, targeting all age groups.

o Less aspirational brands present in the mall although 3/4th of the total revenue
of mall is contributed by affluent & luxury profiles

o Women-centric apparel and accessories brand amount to 27% of the retail mix
and hence low

o Heavy dependence on anchor tenants like Big Bazaar for balancing category
mix, promotions and generating footfalls.

 POSITIONING:

o No proper positioning of category of services offered based on demographics,

psychographics, income levels, competition and extensive market research of
the catchment

 PROMOTIONS AND MARKETING: Promotional activities and events in a mall form

an integral part of mall management, as they not only increase foot traffic and in turn
sales volumes, but also act as a differentiator for a mall.

o Lack of market research studies to understand the customer base visiting the
mall (lack of thorough catchment area analysis, demographic study absent).

o No marketing plan drawn up to address KRAs and general positioning of the

mall
o No proper in-house event calendar drawn up apart from promotional schedules
of existing tenants

o less or no media coverage for events, various awareness or engagement drives

and in-house customer engagement activities

o no digital marketing strategies in place

o website not updated with forthcoming events and offers

o social media presence low

o Feedback generation system not in place

o Loyalty programs non-existent

 REVENUE OF THE MALL

TRADING DENSITY NON-RENTAL PARKING

RENTALS
(revenue sharing) REVENUE FACILITIES

INFRASTRUCTURE
OTHER FOOTFALLS (potential CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT
FACTORS customers) EXPERIENCE
(FACILITIES)
control variable
con

AWARENESS PROMOTION & FOOD COURT

AMONG CUSTs. ACTIVITIES

RETAIL MIX LOYALTY AMBIENCE

PROGRAMS MANAGEMENT

POSITIONING
ISSUES

CUSTOMER MARKETING
ANALYSIS INTERVENTIONS
(independent variable)

Dependent variables
While problems faced at the mall range across various functions of the mall, a single point
focus on one aspect or function (independent variable) of the mall can bring about changes in
other variables. Infrastructure management (control variable) is critical and a pre-requisite to
making a mall a success and providing the customers a good overall experience of the mall,
but renovation is a high cost affair and should be dealt with, only after doing a thorough ROI
analysis. As infrastructural changes are already on-going at the mall, it is critical, that
marketing interventions, focusing on improving the overall consumer experience journey,
should also be planned for giving the mall the right direction and complement the efforts
(projects) undergoing and address the current and future issues (both short-term and long-term)
that the mall faces.

Revenue generation of CCM is positively dependent on the trading densities of the retailers
present in the mall and the trading densities are in turn positively co-related to the footfalls
(potential customers) generated in the mall on any given day. While there could be many
parameters of assessing if a mall can be described as a failure or success, the main attribute for
any mall is customer entry (footfalls) data. While benchmarking of the footfall data is not
possible, (CCM being the only mall in Nashik), the footfall data based on the new counting
system at the mall showed a 50% dip in the average numbers, when compared to the data based
on earlier methods of counting. Thus, it becomes important to investigate the counting
system practiced at CCM and identify the gaps present in the system to better analyze
the current situation of the mall. However, trends and fluctuations in the existing data hold
true in all circumstances and can lead to several deductions such as detecting high and low
footfall months and days and measuring the effect of seasonality and marketing interventions,
on the footfalls and in turn the sales conversions at the mall. However, at present, necessary
infrastructure to measure sales conversions at the mall is not present and hence, methods
and processes should be devised for measuring the relation between footfalls at the mall and
sales for the retailers.

Referring to the footfall trends’ chart given in the situation description, we can come to this
conclusion that apart from weekends, footfall count is exceptionally high on special occasions,
public holidays and during festivals. While this surge can be attributed to reasons like discount
seasons led by mall retailers and the fact that they are holidays, they can also be due to customer
engagement activities organized through workshops and competitions, conducted by the mall
management or the tenants themselves. Similarly, footfalls see a rise during festival months of
October and November, January and August, when events and décor enhancements are done,
whereas; they remain exceptionally low during the months of March and September. Thus,
artificial increment in footfalls through specific marketing interventions is a viable theory
for Nashik CCM.

The primary reason for a mall’s existence is revenue generation, both for the retailers present
in the mall and for the mall developers. At present, rentals contribute to 47% of the total mall
income. Retailers who are in the rent plus revenue sharing model contribute to 38% of mall
income and the remaining 15% come from parking and other sources. Opportunity for
increasing the revenue by converting high performing stores to a Rent + Rev Model can prove
beneficial for the mall. But this, in turn puts the onus on making the retailers successful, on the
mall management. Getting footfalls to the mall and into the stores then, becomes the top
priority for the mall management. The presence of vacant spaces in the mall amounting to
more than 25% of the mall space is a direct loss for the mall owners. Thus, getting new retailers
can be beneficial, both in utilizing the vacant spaces and also in adding an innovativeness and
vibrancy in the retail mix of the mall, leading to additional footfalls at the mall. Augmented
footfalls at the mall, not only will facilitate the mall management in securing tenants for mall
faster, but also create a network effect in attracting more footfalls. Scope for non-rental revenue
exists for the mall and can be tapped for incremental revenue.

Driving trading densities for retailers in the mall come under a mall management’s domain and
trading densities is fundamentally dependent on the footfalls generated in the mall. Looking at
the trading densities data of various retailers, from the accounts and leasing departments at the
mall, it cannot be said for certain that trading densities are low or suffering, both looking at
temporal data and industry averages of the retail categories. However, significant seasonal
fluctuations are observed for vanilla stores in the mall. Weekends, public holidays (festivals)
and special occasions featuring events at the mall are expected to have increased the TDs
of the retailers, especially for the food retailers, whereas months of September and March
have seen significant drop in sales for tenants across all retail categories. But the
unavailability of actual sales data from the tenants and a lack of analytical understanding
of factors affecting sales conversions makes it difficult to come to any conclusive
relationship between sales conversions to footfalls generated and other driving factors.

Promotional activities and events in a mall are an essential part of mall management and have
great potential to attract footfalls and result in greater sales conversions at the mall. Events
and customer engagement drives have been known to enhance footfalls significantly at
CCM and have a positive, but unmeasured impact on the sales of the retailers. City Centre
Mall organizes very few promotional and customer engagement activities, both in house and
for tenants. No marketing calendar, concentrating on events and promotional activities, has
been designed keeping in view the needs, the culture, social habits and characteristics of the
local consumers and the category of retailers present in the mall. Nashik city has a unique
consumer preference palette, with different demographic, psychographic and disposable
income attributes differentiating the region and consumer buying behaviour. Options in the
entertainment arena in the city are also limited for the population. Therefore, there is a gap
present in the entertainment space in the city and measures can be taken towards converting
this void into an opportunity for the mall, by making it a destination for entertainment and other
leisure activities in the city. Not only will this help in making CCM a part of the social fabric
and day to day lives of people, help build loyalty and enhance customer satisfaction (targeting
repeat customers and mall patronage), but also, create awareness about various brands at the
mall and attract new customers from untapped potential catchment areas (footfall
enhancement) to increase sales for the tenants. As of now, there is little or no analytical
understanding of the effect of demographics, social and cultural characteristics of the city
and seasonality on footfalls and sales conversions at the mall and no consideration of
category of services offered (positioning of mall) by the mall, potential customers of the
mall (segmentation and targeting) etc., before planning and designing the entertainment
and promotional mix for CCM.
CONCERN AREAS:
 Absence of a reliable and robust method for ascertaining the quantity and nature of
footfalls at the mall (qualitative)
 Lack of understanding of factors and challenges that influence footfalls at the mall
 Lack of infrastructure and methods to measure the relation between footfalls and sales
conversions at the mall
 Lack of understanding of the customer base (potential customers) of the mall and of the
retailers present in the mall

Concerns at Nashik City Centre mall are many, but for doing a systematic assessment and
targeting of problems at the mall, the entry point data needed is accurate footfall levels, which
is presently unavailable at the mall. As revenue generation of the mall and the retailers is
directly dependent on the footfall levels received by the mall, assessing the footfall levels and
taking steps to enhance it is of prime importance for the mall management. The absence of
reliable footfall data and lack of a detailed understanding and analysis of the nature of footfall
received at present, makes it difficult to come to any conclusive relationship between footfalls
generated and other dependent/causal factors. Therefore, a thorough qualitative and
quantitative assessment of validated footfall levels becomes a necessary pre-requisite for
formulation of strategies to enhance footfalls at the mall.

PROBLEM STATEMENT:

How do we assess and enhance footfalls at the mall?

OBJECTIVE:
To study, assess and analyze the quantitative and qualitative nature of the footfall levels at the
mall to enhance them.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY:

STEP 1: DEVELOPMENT OF A RELIABLE FOOTFALL COUNTING SYSTEM

 Studying and understanding the existing system of estimating footfalls at the mall

 Validating the data generated through cross verification and benchmarking with
established footfall counting models/systems

 Analyzing and identifying the gaps present in the existing system

 Developing a reliable and robust method/system for counting accurate footfall levels

 Validating the new method/system to check its robustness by conducting controlled

experiments in the mall

STEP 2: ASSESSMENT AND ANALYSIS OF NATURE OF FOOTFALLS

  Study the existing data and studies done on Nashik CCM to analyze the nature of
footfall

 Identification of gaps present in the existing studies to decide additional set of

variables needed to further study the footfall situation

 Designing and conducting a survey to collect data OR conducting an observational

study through CCTVs to analyze the nature of footfalls and the factors driving
footfalls at the mall

 Analyze the data collected and design matrix to understand the co-relation/isolation
of factors affecting footfalls at CCM

 Formulate feasible strategies, depending on the results of the study, for conducting
interventions to attract footfalls
STEP 3: IMPLEMENTATION AND MONITORING OF FOOTFALL
ENHANCEMENT STRATEGIES:

 Prepare planning framework for interventions, outlining type of activities, objectives,

key messages, staffing and co-ordination, timeline, budget outline, promotion,
resources etc., with the marketing department and other supporting departments

 Developing a monitoring framework: establishing methods and processes for impact

measurement before, during and after interventions

 Conducting the intervention and evaluation of the intervention

 Report and case study preparation.