BERLIN: The Palais Vest shopping centre in Recklinghausen in western Germany can surf for free online, get their electric car recharged or drop their kids off at a play pen while they stroll among the stores.
STUTTGART’S Milaneo shopping mall has a same-day home delivery service for its customers.
Both shopping centres are a sign that Germany’s malls are changing the visitor experience to attract more customers.
“Shopping malls have to work harder to attract attention,” says consumer analyst Marco Atzberger from Germany’s EHI Retail Institute.
“The market is getting smaller and there are fewer suitable places to build malls. Owners have to get more creative.”
Shopping centres are nowhere near as popular as they once were, in part because there are so many of them. At the beginning of 2014 the EHI counted 460 large shopping malls in Germany with an entire floor space of 14.4 million square metres. There are no figures available for the amount of business that was done.
Palais Vest is owned by MFI. The mall used to be called Recklinghausen Arcaden, which is similar to many of MFI shopping centres’ names. MFI is now following a policy of standing out from the crowd as much as possible with the aim of bringing in more shoppers.
“We discovered that our visitors and our store owners want more than just an attractive shopping experience,” MFI boss Karl Reinitzhuber told Germany’s business magazine, Wirtschaftswoche.
“Achieving that means a centre has to develop its own signature.”
