Determinants of Shopping Experience for Mall Shoppers: Empirical Investigation in an Emerging City of Raipur (India)

Shopping malls have become key players in the Indian retail space. Even in upcoming Indian towns, malls have been mushrooming. Raipur, the capital city of the Indian state of Chhattisgarh has witnessed the growth over the last few years. However, this unplanned growth of malls in cities is expected to lead to oversupply of mall space in the near future, making things difficult for mall developers. The study is an attempt to identify appropriate strategies for mall developers to iron out such kinks. This paper presents 'shopping experience' as a tool to compete, succeed and explore its composition in terms of its constituent factors. The paper uses Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) on a non-probability sample of 350 respondents. It condenses a set of twenty-two mall variables into five factors that directly influence the shopping experience. These factors included ambience, infrastructure, marketing focus, convenience and safety and security. In terms of significance, shoppers assigned different weightage to each of these factors. The study shed light on interesting insights regarding the expectations of mall shoppers in the city of Raipur. The results though interesting, may be extended to different social, economic and geographic contexts to check the universality. While strategizing, mall developers must assign proportionate effort on the factors based on the respective contribution to shopping experience. In light of intensifying competition in Raipur, the study is significant for future prospects of malls. In the absence of a scientific and objective basis, the developers run risk of making wrong investment and management decisions. This paper is a useful addition to the body of knowledge on management of shopping malls in India and is unique in terms of its focus on mall shoppers in the smaller Indian cities like Raipur.