CBRE has launched a ground-breaking research on Russian consumer behaviour – The report ‘What Do Russians Think about Shopping Malls?’ reveals the key success factors for a shopping mall such as: attractive prices, cleanliness, convenience of access to the shopping mall (less than 30 minutes away), and opportunity to spend time with family.
CBRE surveyed 1,000 consumers in 7 Russian Federal Districts. Respondents differed by age, income level, marital status and size of household.
Highlights from the report include:
The majority of respondents purchase clothes and shoes, accessories, jewellery, household goods, etc. in regional and super regional shopping and entertainment complexes with a gross leasable area (GLA) of more than 40,000 sqm.
Consumers indicated that price of goods; cleanliness and location were the most important factors when choosing where to shop. The percentage of respondents who mentioned these three factors was 73 percent, 69 percent and 62 percent respectively. In this regard Europeans have the same criteria when choosing a shopping centre for the purchase of non-food products.
Navigation inside shopping malls often becomes a crucial factor for many visitors, as it is sometimes unclear and inconvenient. Typical problems usually include a lack of signs and difficulties in their interpretation.
The neutrality of respondents to such factors as ‘Presence of specific retailers’ and ‘Tenant mix’ should also be mentioned. The reason is mainly that the majority of shopping malls in Russia are very similar in terms of tenant mix and marketing concept. Relatively weak competition has allowed developers to implement standard solutions in their shopping malls.
Such factors as ‘Presence of department stores’, ‘Good quality restaurants’, ‘Entertainment zone’, and ‘Marketing events’ have practically no influence when choosing where to shop. The importance of these factors was stressed by only 20 percent of respondents.
64 percent of respondents spend from 10 to 30 minutes to get to a shopping centre to purchase non-food items. Only 2 percent of Russians spend more than 1 hour to travel to a shopping centre.
On average, 48 percent of Russians travel to shopping centres by car, 32 percent use public transport and only 16 percent of customers walk to the shopping centre.
The survey indicated that price of goods was the most important factor when choosing where to shop despite all marketing efforts to generate alternatives to attract customers to shopping malls.
Maxim Palt, an analyst at CBRE Russia Research, commented: “No doubts that location is the key success factor, and travel time to the shopping mall of over 30 minutes might reduce the number of visitors significantly. However, it is not enough, and owners (both national and international) should take into account the consumer’s priorities and regional specifics. Both of these factors significantly influence a shopping mall concept. Attention to details, which had already migrated in the section “must”, is also very important. Such elements as free parking, convenient navigation, and detailed information brochures contribute to the positive perception of a shopping mall and increase of customers’ loyalty.”
