Mall patronage: Dimensions of attractiveness in Urban context

Major cities in developing countries have a heavy concentration of malls and one of the main reasons for this phenomenon is the growth in urban population with comparatively higher levels of disposable income. They have better spending power but are time constrained and hence prefer one-stop shopping and entertainment solutions. This led to mushrooming of urban shopping malls. City centre malls are located in close proximity of each other and offer quite similar tenant mix. Hence, there is a need to identify the unique attributes valued by urban shoppers, which will help the shopping mall managements to devise distinctive strategies to attract shoppers. This study was undertaken with an objective to examine the dimensions of attractiveness of city centre shopping malls, based on the perception of urban shoppers, in the most cosmopolitan city of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. A survey was undertaken using non-probability sampling method. 320 completed questionnaires were collected and the data was analysed using factor analysis and structural equation modelling. The result showed six dimensions that makes a shopping mall attractive to urban shoppers in Malaysia. Among them, child friendliness and parking facilities were the dimensions that stood out in making shopping mall most attractive. The findings will help the urban shopping malls to differentiate themselves, serve shoppers better, and in turn increase the mall image and mall patronage.