Pandemic Learnings: Upcoming Mall Developers Talk Consumer Behaviour, New Mall Design

The pandemic-led shutdown of all economic activity threw the Retail and Shopping Centre industries into chaos. Mall supply was severely impacted, and the future of many projects still remains ambiguous. Those who managed to overcome the worst of the pandemic spoke to IMAGES Retail Bureau about how different the future is for them – namely, building agility and resilience to face uncertain times, being fit for growth by aligning costs with priorities and investing in differentiated capabilities and digital levers…

- Sandeep Kumar

The beginning of the year 2020 saw a remarkable opening for the shopping mall industry. Industry experts predicted a smooth journey ahead, mall developers were bullish on the growth potential of organised retail keeping in mind the flourishing economy and industry experts including ANAROCK had predicted the launch of around 100 new malls spanning over 49 million sq. ft. pan India by the end of 2022. Then the pandemic hit, and it was pandemonium all around.

The subsequent global lockdown, shutdown of all economic activities threw the Retail and Shopping Centre industries into chaos. The growth scale became imbalanced in a matter of weeks and all predications were disproved.

Needless to say, therefore, that mall supply was severely impacted by the pandemic and the future of many upcoming malls/projects still remains ambiguous. In the COVID era, only 5 malls came up in India, in Gurugram, Delhi, Lucknow and Bengaluru, covering an area of around 2.75 million sq. ft. Mall developers in other Tier I, II & III cities and towns, unsure of what lies ahead, have yet to announce any launch dates.

As a result, many reached a dead end and were stopped permanently. Mall developers with more reputed brand images and brand values also suffered but managed to overcome this period with limited resources.