VIABILITY OF AN OMNICHANNEL SHOPPING MALL IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

The continuous digitalisation of the retail industry has influenced retailing models, retailing strategies and shoppers’ shopping behaviour. With the advent of online commerce, it is even more important to provide synergy across the different retailing channels to optimise shopper experience. The recent moves by shopping mall landlords show an increasingly popular trend of omnichannel shopping malls in Singapore. With such changes, shopping malls now take an active position to enhance its shopper experience through the incorporation of offline strategies that complement shoppers’ online shopping behaviour within the shopping mall. This study adopted a mixed method methodology to study the viability of omnichannel shopping malls in Singapore. It explores the motivations to shoppers’ visit to shopping malls, explore omnichannel retailing strategies adopted by shopping malls that improve shopper experience, as well as shoppers’ attitude towards future omnichannel retailing strategies. 20 interviewees and 292 survey questionnaires were gathering to complete the triangulation approach. Qualitative interview data were assessed through identifying common chains of thoughts while quantitative survey data was processed via Pearson’s correlation coefficient, significance tests, and one sample T-test. The findings suggest that shoppers are motivated to patron shopping malls despite their online shopping habits for a mixture of product-oriented, recreational, and social purposes. Furthermore, omnichannel retailing strategies are found to have a positive linear relationship with the overall rating of shopping experience at a 99% confidence level. Last but not least, shoppers revealed a generally positive attitude towards the introduction of new strategies.