The masterminds of the nation's two top shopping complexes said one of the secrets for success in the retail industry is introducing a strong product mix to cater to customers' needs.
"If you screw up on this element, then it'll be the end of the game," John Sironic, general manager of Taipei 101 Shopping Center, told more than 50 members of the European Chamber of Commerce Taipei (ECCT) at a luncheon yesterday.
Steven Wu (
"With a variety of merchandise brought into the shopping areas, the next issue is to organize the products based on price and category so that customers can find the items they want easily," said Wu, who also attended the event.
Sironic and Wu were the two guest speakers invited by ECCT yesterday to share their retailing experience.
Sironic said five key attributes -- retail mix, accessibility, layout, customer service and ambiance -- decide the fate of a shopping mall.
Boasting that the mall occupies a "premium and international retail space" in Taipei's prosperous Hsinyi district, Sironic said the third floor of the mall is dedicated to luxury-goods shops. But as the market of name brands has been expanded into non-traditional areas, such as home accessories, hotels and cars, he said the future trend will be to attract younger shoppers, not just affluent female professionals above the age of 45, as the conventional concept holds.
Wu said the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store, which has 11 outlets in Taiwan, has its own strategies to retain customers in the face of weakened brand loyalty.
"In addition to introducing a strong product mix, we look into details like lighting and indoor design," Wu said.
Since women account for 80 percent of the customer base, Wu said they provide sufficient lighting in car parks to noticeably increase safety and comfort.
"This is conducive to the building of a brand image, which cannot be attained by merely offering good prices," he said.
As the saying goes, "Easier said than done." The worse-than-expected performance of the Core Pacific City Mall (京華城) was singled out in a question-and-answer session at yesterday's luncheon to challenge what the guest speakers termed their "promise to create a new lifestyle."
Wu said the Hsinyi district's urban development project is propped up by many operators, which offer different types of retail activities -- compared with the single choice provided in the ball-shaped Core Pacific City Mall.
But Core Pacific City Mall spokeswoman Alison Kao (
Core Pacific was opened in mid-November 2001. It achieved NT$10 billion in revenues last year, a figure that Kao said was "unsatisfactory but acceptable."
"Revenue growth of 15 percent is expected this year," she said.
The mall is planning some major remodeling projects in the latter half of the year, including adding karaoke services on the 9th floor and a 2,600 ping (8,580m2) indoor playground for kids, which would make it the nation's biggest.
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