Consumer behavior toward shopping mall in the Dhaka City and Marketing Implications:
Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh. Dhaka is the most heavily populated city in the world. To meet up the needs, wants and demands of the city dwellers many luxurious shopping malls like (Bashundhara City, Jamuna Future Park, Estern Plaza, Rajdhani shopping complex and …. etc.) have been established since one decade. As more and more malls are coming up in the Dhaka City, competition in this domain has been intensifying and becoming fierce.
So it is becoming important to know about the customer behavior towards the shopping mall. To sustain in the competition as well as to ensure the better customer satisfaction analyzing the consumer behaviors toward the shopping mall and shaping the marketing strategy are act as a key to success. It is of utmost importance to mall management to understand the needs/desires of the targeted customers and deliver their offerings accordingly so that they can get not only the maximum wallet shares of the customers but also their mind shares.
Consumer Behaviors Regarding the Shopping mall in the Dhaka City:
The present consumer behaviors toward shopping malls in the Dhaka city are:
Consumers view shopping malls as a place for socializing and recreation (apart from shopping)
Now-a-days customers have set high expectations from the malls. They see malls as a one stop destination for various purposes like dining, watching movies, hanging out, meeting new/ old friends and shopping.
The customers seek wide variety of assortment in the shopping mall
The customers preferred one stop shopping, and a place for recreation with friends and acquaintances.
Aesthetics were valued high by the Dhaka City customers, items related to the aesthetics like interior design, décor and lightning of the malls were observed to have received high acceptance from the customers.
The current study also revealed that young customers of the Dhaka city were found to have favorably inclined towards the mall than their older counterparts.
Marketing Implications:
Marketers of the shopping malls have to take appropriate marketing strategy to cope up with the dynamic consumer behavior and provide superior value to the customers.
The mall Marketers and managers should understand that malls have become something more than a place to buy products and they should transform the malls that would offer energetic and vibrant stores with attractive product merchandises, scores of entertainment bundled with modern, more sophisticated atmospherics and facilities, necessary to lure the target customers.
Mall Marketers should bundle all the mentioned items (socialization, recreational and entertainment items, shopping, dining, Cineplex, place for recreation with friends and relatives, fantasy, as well as aesthetic items)while designing criteria which the mall has to offer to the customers, in order to lure them, make them to stay longer and spend more.
Managing atmospherics (like color, decoration, scent, temperature, lighting, etc.) is of great strategic importance, resulting in an appropriate differentiation and positioning.
For the young generation Marketers of the Mall should develop new strategies in order to attract more and more youth crowd by employing new technologies, vibrant color schemes and futuristic.
Whereas to attract the old generation (older crowd) marketers may take different strategies like offering complete family entertainment along with a great shopping experience.
The results of the current study have many implications to the managers and marketers for an efficient, effective and productive mall performance.
