Vertical Search vs Specialty Malls!
March 06, 07 by BharaniIn many ways, Spencer Plaza in Chennai is the first Mall that I visited. It was way back in 1995! Ever since, I have visited many malls in India, Belgium and neighbouring countries. But Gurgaon’s Mall Culture is the best I have seen. There are 15+ Malls in this small town. In fact, there are 7 Malls next to each other within a space of 500 meters! And, there are many more coming up….
Among these all-purpose malls, there are “Specialty malls” that are slowly cropping up across the country. Of all the Specialty Malls, the prominent one is “Gold Souk” . Started by the Aerens Group, this shopping place houses a huge number of global jewellery brands both from India and Abroad. The same group has started “Wedding Souk”, a specialty mall focussed on marriage.
After few searches, I found that a Real estate mall, Interior Decoration mall, Automobile mall, Wellness Mall, “House to Home” Mall and a Furnishing mall are either available or under construction across India. The Real Estate mall will help an individual in buying/selling a house, getting home loans for the house, buying/selling land, getting office spaces and ofcourse assist in furnishing the house (or can redirect to furnishing malls!). The “House to home” Mall will sell construction materials, interiors, furniture, furnishings, landscape elements, art works, home appliances, white goods and insurance facilities. It will also provide the services of architects, Vaastu and Feng Shui experts, contractors, consultants, interior decorators, real estate agents, etc! Quite a vision this is 
A research study shows that the conversion of footfalls in such specialty malls is around 80-90% compared to 5-10% in all-purpose malls. A mouth-watering stat!
Going by the trend both online and offline, I can foresee Travel Malls, Education Malls, Job Malls, Movie Malls (A bigger giant than Multi-plexes. Can house not just movie-theatres but even DVD rentals, DVD purchases etc.,), Financial products Mall and the list goes on…The fundamenal idea is to group similar products/services together, to provide a great shopping experience for consumers and great infrastructure for shop-owners. If the consumer does not find a product/service of his taste, he can look around for alternatives easily. (He does not have to go through the painful automobile-parking process again :)). Retail Industry is getting organized….big time!
This all-purpose malls and specialty malls can be compared to General Search engines and Vertical Search engines. Though the Vertical Search engines has a niche audience, it will have high conversion rates and high-worth sales!
Related Links:
Gurgaon Shopping Malls - Search for stores
Ramki Says: 06.03.07 at 5:25 am
You will be visiting all these malls very soon. And this time for actual purchases rather than window shopping.
Monk Says: 06.03.07 at 6:30 am
yeah right… experience (read ‘pocket pinch’) talks
Ramki has become wise & old
Ramki Says: 06.03.07 at 9:27 am
@Monk, amazingly I haven’t visited even one mall till now.
Not that there are lots in Bangalore, but even the ones that are there haven’t benefitted.
Jeeva Says: 06.03.07 at 1:54 pm
What about the “Mall” in Amsterdam? That is a “mall of malls” right ?
uday Says: 06.03.07 at 3:00 pm
Not sure if you are aware of a GOLD SOUK in chennai,
http://www.realvalue.in/realgold_souk_decs.htm.
Ya while speciality malls do offer a lot more than shopping experience, i really doubt the ROI with respect to setting up bussiness in these malls compared to conventional individual establishment. To me buying in malls become cheaper once cost of setting up malls becomes less, real estate wise.
Scott Says: 07.03.07 at 4:31 am
I’m in the process of building a Water Property Cyber Mall right now. You really put it together. Thank you.
Murugesh Says: 07.03.07 at 7:15 am
Quite nice to see you back on track…
I had some great experiences in Moscow. I happened to see IKEA furniture mall. One of the best I have seen.
Then there was a electronics super market(3 floors). Deals can be negotiaited. Its called Gorbushka.. Moer like our Richie street. But it happens in Mall.
http://www.gorbushka.ru/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorbushka
I happened to purchase at a spot called Auchan. One of the best organised retail super market I have seen. Complete Moscow shops there… Every thing is 10-30% cheap. Typical saravana stores.. but a superior quality and well organised billing and service… The important Management lesson I learnt there was..”Lesser the margin, bigger market share you acquire, and there is no need for big advertising… the customers do it for you, If your service happens to be good”…
http://www.auchan.ru/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auchan
Hope Reliance makes something of that kind in India. It will help the middle class. Retail should focus on Middle class to make it big.
Monk Says: 07.03.07 at 7:34 am
Ramki,
I didn’t refer to the mall… it was more on “time for actual purchases”
Jeeva,
Amsterdam is famous for different reasons –> so that becomes “maalamaal”
Jeeva Says: 07.03.07 at 12:23 pm
Monk
I did mean maalamaal.
Jeeva
Bharani Says: 07.03.07 at 6:53 pm
Ramki, Monk makes sure that you are always on your feet answering his questions
Jeeva, \”Mall of malls\” huh? LOL…I need to chat with you sometime…will ping you in the weekend. Allow my application
Uday, I did read about the Gold Towers (different from Gold SOUK) you are referring to. Infact, Gold SOUK is planning a branch in chennai too…You are right about ROI. I don\’t see huge crowds in this GOLD SOUK which is next to my apartment…No facts available too…
Murugesh, thanks for writing about Russian malls…
The art of profitability - Adrian Slywotzky (part 1/3) « Me-and-erring scribbles Says: 08.03.07 at 9:35 am
[...] The model seems applicable in very specific scenarios but consider a travel agent that offers the best deals on all airlines and hotels as opposed to one that has limited tie-ups. The concept of specialized malls as mentioned in B’s post is another such example [...]
Manish Madan Says: 03.06.07 at 4:47 pm
There was a time when these malls were fast running out of business because footfalls didn’t really translate into purchases. One study said this was because of powercuts in the Delhi/NCR region. Whenever there was a powercut, people headed to a mall to enjoy the airconditioned atmosphere!