New Delhi, July 9, 2017:
"People are always going to go shopping. A lot of our effort is just: 'How do we make the retail experience a great one?" -Philip Green
Needless to say, the urban lifestyle that we follow- 'Shopping' has become a therapy for some, and a necessity for others! Howsoever one may categorize shopping as one will not disagree with the conviction that it is almost indispensable. Sometimes you like shopping, sometimes you need to, but whatever the case be, you do it anyway!
You always know when would you like to or when would you need to go shopping, but where are you gonna shop from, can be a tricky question. Most people, subconsciously, tend to choose a place that's reliable and will satisfy their needs, but for people who are brand conscious, that happens to be a shopping mall.
There are a lot of reasons why people have started to get inclined towards shopping malls. In fact, shopping at malls has become a status symbol. People have become so brand conscious that they always need to have an answer to the question- "Which brand is this from?"
Brand image, precisely, is an addition to the list of things that people can be judged for. This suggests that we live in a society where the quality of the clothes we are wearing have become less of a clothing and more of a status symbol.
Better marketing tactics adopted by big brands are the primary reason for their huge scale business, some of which the street markets cannot even think of implementing in their businesses. Comfort could be considered as another reason for people choosing shopping malls over street markets, since malls are fully air conditioned and one doesn't need to sweat under the sun to buy his/her favorite shoes.
Street markets are often looked upon as "Girl markets" because wandering from one shop to another, bargaining, or maybe eating chaat or momo in between, is generally considered to be a girl thing.
In fact, most of the popular street markets have a bulk of women stuff and neutral stuff, but men usually don't have too many options, therefore, men hesitate to go for street shopping and find shopping at malls as a more convenient option. Quality and customization are also the strength of malls and, simultaneously, the weakness of street markets.
Apparently, several reasons can be given as to why street markets have seen such a fall in their customer base. However, one may not disagree that in the world of shopping, street markets have a place of their own, and can not be substituted.
– prepared by Samiksha Goel. Twitter: @goel_samiksha