A STUDY OF HOW ANCHOR TENANTS ENHANCE THE ATTRACTIVENESS OF SHOPPING MALLS

Abstract

Anchor tenants are usually the significantly larger and leading stores in a shopping mall whose prestige and name recognition attracts other tenants and shoppers. This research aims to study the attractiveness of different types of anchor tenants to customers from different demographic groups, i.e. gender, age, income and marital status.

Both quantitative and qualitative research methods are adopted. Results from 311 respondents showed that anchor tenants generally contribute positively to the overall shopping experience. Analysis from descriptive statistics also showed that different types of anchor tenants have different levels of attractiveness to shoppers. Further analysis from ANOVA suggested different types of anchor tenants attract people from different demographic groups. Gender difference is revealed as the most impactful factor contributing to different attractiveness of anchor tenants from this study.

Knowing the potential attractiveness of different types of anchor tenants towards certain demographic groups of people can be insightful for developers and decision makers to make better strategies in order to enhance the positioning and branding of shopping malls.