We have a few retail customers with stores located inside malls. During a recent phone call a mall business owner stated “malls are dying, there is no traffic ever!”
Oh no you didn’t…
Let me start here, we grade malls by A, B and C. A being your best (Palm Beach Gardens, Cherry Creek Mall, Summerset Mall, etc.) B is a decent mall with strong anchors. C malls have food courts consisting of Mrs. Fields and Auntie Anne’s pretzels, you know what I’m talking about, you likely have an A, B and C in each in your DMA depending on where you live.
Let me first start off by asking you one simple question: Do you depend on mall traffic to sustain your business? If the answer is yes, send me your address and I’ll mail you a shovel, you’re dying a slow retail death.
Let me tell you why your retail store doesn’t have to be dying in a mall, whether that be an A, B or C.
The days of mall traffic and growing your retail store by simply the traffic your mall brings in is over. I don’t need to explain this, you are all smart.
Does your mall store have an Apple store? Want to know what they have that you don’t? No, it’s not about the technology accompanied by millennial employees wearing joggers. Apple is cool. Apple is hip. Apple has a global, national and local following. People actually want what they have for zero discount.
Is your retail mall store cool? Do you host events and bring your customers to you? Do you invite your customers in every month? Do you have a young professionals networking event every month? Do you have hired influencers going crazy over your brand and posting on their blog, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat? Do you have a dunk tank in store for charity events? You have to cast a line of bait and hook new customers every single day with both grassroots and traditional marketing and advertising. Don’t wait on the mall traffic to build your business.
I could go on for hours with ideas. Don’t try and revitalize your mall space especially if you have a long lease, revitalize your business. If you build it, they will come, I promise. Get hungry and get your fair share of the market. Malls rule!
Honestly Yours,
Kendall Kennedy