Shopping Malls in Oman - The Potential

Oman, unlike many other GCC countries, is surely lagging behind, when it comes to the Shopping Mall Culture. Barring a couple of Malls in Muscat, most other Shopping Malls are small shopping complexes & with limited offerings. With competition coming up, the way the malls are designed, Built, Marketed & managed is set to change drastically, in Oman. With more than 30 Malls on the drawing board in Oman, only a few will survive. Since most malls in Oman are planned as neighborhood Malls, once we see the advent of Destination Malls, these neighborhood Malls will vanish.

Also, with the stiff competition coming from the online portals, the Mall developers are left with little choice than to change their strategies & to work harder at adding better offering in the Malls. The footfalls across most Malls have dropped by 20-30 % & this is impacting the expected overall revenues of the Malls. Most Mall Developers, who have a long-term vision for their assets have consciously adding new tenants, F&B outlets, renovating their Malls to give customers a new experience, adding new categories of fun, adding newer concepts to ensure that the engagement with the customers does not decline. With all these add-ons, the Malls all slowly moving towards becoming an destination Centers than just a small Neighborhood Mall, with just shopping, which they were popular for once. This transformation from a neighborhood Mall to Destinations Mall will help the Mall developers to invite the customers more often to the Malls.

While a few Mall developers are doing the changes on their own, most of them have realized the impact of them & are hiring professional Asset / Mall Management companies, to reduce the risk of failure. With the market conditions not conducive for growth, due to the current slow-down in the Market, developing Malls is getting more challenging. Today, consumer is not looking at only shopping as an reason to go to a Mall, they are expecting that the Malls, should be able to offer options beyond Shopping, as shopping is now done on their palms, thanks to the portal online options available to the consumers.

To ensure that the Malls are not left behind, Mall developers, have no choice but to create more reasons for consumers to come to the Malls than just for shopping, as shopping can be done anywhere, it the overall experience & engagement tht will keep the consumer come back to Malls again & again. Malls who can understand the current trends & also envisage the future, will have to gear-up for the future, which is in the interest of their asset/Mall. The Malls of future will have to be planned much beyond shopping, they have to be an epicenter for Entertainment, Enjoyment, Experience, Engagement, Experiment, Enthralling, Eatertainment, Edutainment, and many more.

Shopping Mall Specialists will have to play a big role in this transformation, as they bring with them the required experience & expertise of running successful Malls. Malls, which are not geared for this transformation, will have to develop or Decay.

Oman has yet to see a great Mall like the Dubai Mall or The Mall of emirates, in Dubai. Also to boost the retail sector & thereby the Mall culture, the government will have to drive the growth of Shopping Malls, as these Shopping Malls, have the potential to increase the tourists to any country. Almost 50% of spending in Malls in Dubai or Singapore comes from tourists, thereby earning huge foreign exchange for them. Oman Mall Developers, will have to look beyond the small shopping complexes & look to build Malls, which are not only increase the GDP, but also is the large employment generator.

The potential of large destination shopping Malls in Oman is huge, but mostly untapped & unexplored. Since the real estate market is undergoing correction, this is the best time to look into this growing sector. Retail-Real Estate (Malls), is the best bet when it comes to ROI, within the real estate sector & gives the best returns, provided the Mall developer understands the Shopping Mall Business. Malls should not be looked at as a real estate business, but a retail business, where you partner with the retailers & other occupants to enhance the value of the asset.

With the new developments of Malls, Oman is all set to keep pace with trends in GCC, the caution however, is that… will the Mall developers, get it right?

About the Author:

?Susil DUNGARWAL is the Sole Promoter & Chief Mall Mechanic? of Beyond Squarefeet, A shopping Mall Specialist company with clients in India, Iran, Nepal, Nigeria, Oman & Qatar. . He has been part of the Retail & Mall Industry for over 3 decades.