IMPACT OF WAREHOUSE RETAILING SCHEME (WRS) ON SHOPPING MALLS

Abstract

The Economic Development Board launched a new industrial retailing program known as the Warehouse Retailing Scheme (WRS) recently and loosen restrictions, allowing warehouses in industrial land to now have a permanent retail segment. Warehouse retailing is usually characterized by lower prices, offering a wide variety of products and availability. Hence, this study seeks to find out whether patronization level to shopping mall will drop if the success of warehouse retailing in the North America and Europe is repeated in Singapore, given the fact that most people are attracted to lower prices and one-stop shopping convenience. The results from the study showed that most respondents are receptive toward shopping in a warehouse giving the top three reasons as ‘Lower prices', 'Agglomeration of warehouses' and ‘Products varieties'. They coincide with the results for some of the consumers' general shopping preferences of 'prices', ‘wide products variety ’, bigger size of shopping area' and 'wide variety of stores'. It may seem that the scheme will be successful with its characteristics fitting most of the preferences of consumers. However, other factors such as facilities and customer's services, which ranked highly for consumers' preferences is not available in WRS. The ‘location ’? 'worthiness of traveling to buy the products' and 'transportation' is also taken into considerations. Therefore, these findings will provide a better understanding of the key factors in implementing the WRS in Singapore.