If you’re planning on building a shopping mall or department store, there is an important question you need to ask yourself. You need to ask yourself whether you know what the community wants. If you can’t answer this extensively in detail, you won’t be able to build something that caters to the needs of the people. Here are some crucial points that you should consider when preparing to start on the project.
Location
First and foremost, if you haven’t already selected the land, make sure that you go for a big enough area to facilitate plenty of vehicles and bicycle parking racks. Also see that the land is easy to access, preferably on a main road in a city area. Make sure that you won’t be causing serious traffic congestion when the customers flock to the centre.
Customer Segment
To whom will you be catering? The upper echelons of society have different tastes, needs, and wants, and you can’t mix and match. Will the centre or store be catering to youth exclusively? It is best to target a particular group, provided it is a large enough community to be a significant source of revenue. Depending on whom you are catering to, you will need to tailor themes, facilities and features to match. For example, if your customers are middle class, you will need to have a parking lot as well as bicycle parking racks for schools so that you do not exclude any customers.
USPs
USP stands for Unique Selling Point. You need to have something that sets this mall or centre apart from others. You can ensure this by sticking to a particular theme, to name one way. For example, if you’re catering to the wealthy, the centre can be exclusively dedicated to fashion, housing all the best brands. An additional USP for this same centre could be a special food court that does not have the usual shopping mall food court menus. Instead of pizza or deli sandwiches, have sushi and other exotic cuisine. Also, a play area for children will be a good idea for any customer base you might cater to.
Technology
Nowadays, just about everything is automated and high-tech. Are you going to be investing in computerised systems such as self-service checkout systems and extensive high-tech security monitoring? You need to decide what kind of point-of-sales systems you will have in place, and consider the costs of all options before committing. A combination of manual services and technological systems would be best. The larger the facilities, however, the better it would be to have automated systems. Look at this page if you are seeking for public park seats.
Accessibility
One of the best USPs is accessibility. If you have elevators and ramps that enable wheelchair access, for example, you are significantly expanding your customer base. You will also be getting on the inclusion bandwagon, something that more and more organizations are striving to do. This is not only good for your revenue, but it is great for social and community improvement.
Take all this into consideration when making your plans for this building project. The most important thing is that you cater to the right people and meet an actual demand. These crucial points will help you to do just that.