I was browsing the web when I came across a New York Post article titled, Judge bars Starbucks from closing 77 failing Teavana stores. Apparently, a major mall company in Indiana, Simon Property Group, has asked that Starbucks not be allowed to close Teavana stores on their properties. They claim (and greatly fear) that Starbucks actions might cause other stores in their malls to begin closing their shops.
This subject is quite surprising to me because, personally, I still love shopping in brick and mortar stores. I know online businesses are starting to claim large chunks of the retail market, but I still see a ridiculous amount of people out shopping in physical stores.
Is there really a chance that mall stores could start closing their doors? Is online shopping in such high demand that soon malls, as we know them, could be nonexistent?
When I started to think about this issue more in depth, I realized how outdated malls are. People do still love shopping in physical stores, but the types of stores they frequent are not at your typical mall. The malls who still seem to be busy are not the simple indoor malls with two floors and rows of stores; It's the outdoor malls and the malls with crazy attractions to complement your shopping experience. People also prefer to shop in unique stores and malls have hosted the same basic stores for many years with little improvement.
One of my favorite shopping destinations is a downtown strip of stores. Particularly in my city, Greenville, South Carolina, the main street downtown is filled with local shops and unique stores that you don't see at a mall. I love going into these stores because they're new and different. I prefer to do my shopping in stores, but only at unique shops.
So my point is this: If you're a store worried about having to close your doors, you need to reconsider your business and marketing strategy. People want shopping to feel like an experience. If there's nothing special to get them through your doors, you won't need that physical building much longer.
Being an event minor in college, of course, I relate this to the way you make an event become an experience. It's the little details and the special perks that keep people coming. I think about stores like Kendra Scott who always seems to have fresh drinks and simple cookies or desserts to share. They are putting in the extra effort to make shopping in their store a new experience and one that is enjoyable.
To compete with the online market and get people in your doors, you need to spice things up. It's the feeling I get inside of a store that makes me want to come back time and time again. You have to inspire a specific feeling every time a customer walks through your doors. Make sure you're focused on appealing to your customers in a way that makes your physical shops irresistible.
