Pakistan retail industry has grown rapidly in the past decade. Few years back shopping markets were more popular than the retail brands. We had various markets specialized for specific products.  Most consumers might still remember shopping markets like Anarkali Lahore, Ichra Lahore, Liberty Lahore etc., the birth place of many famous retail brand. As the retail brands got more customer loyalty and with the change in the buying behavior, location priorities of these newly developed brands also changed. The customers started hunting the brands instead of markets and whole new geographical relocation emerged. Clusters of brands targeting almost same customers established new shopping areas. Customer expectations from the shopping locations also changed with the passage of time. Customers started looking for more convenience, fun and security. These expectations brought the mall war to retail and real estate sector of Pakistan.

Mall management is almost a science. Shopping Malls will soon replace most of the stand-alone retail stores in large metros. The fast paced development brought new opportunities for retailers and some challenges for the Malls. For growth and health of retail sector and real estate tourist are one of the most important elements. Our experience proves that international destinations with more tourist traffic has enormous retail and real estate growth than the destinations depending upon the local customer traffic, unless you have huge populations like India.

Successful malls require a good combination of mall positioning, zoning, tenant mix, promotion and marketing support and facility/finance management. Quality and attractive locations in large metros is very expensive in Pakistan. Planning huge malls on such properties will ultimately increase cost of operations which later makes retailer operation more expensive. Power shortage has made mall operations more challenging and frustrating. One of the largest malls in Pakistan started facing problem after third year of its operation, in maintaining tenant with them as the retail brands not been able to make economic justification operating in this mall.

Shopping Malls has to be more proactive than they were in past. Only providing a facility, on a prime location with continuous services will not work in years to come. They have to build traffic, engage customers, communicate with customers and provide fun with convenience. They have to work as hard as the brands in their malls to maintain continuous business opportunities.