Rate a Mall survey results reveal Asia's top shopping facilities
Facility Media and RFP Magazine have released results of the Rate a Mall Survey, which has discovered that IFC and Festival Walk are the two most popular malls in Hong Kong, according to survey participants.

The survey was held in conjuction with Facility Media's Retail Space Asia Conference Series, where the preliminary results were announced. The survey asked people to rate their favourite shopping centre based on four criteria: location, design and feel, range of shops and public amenities. Through online and in-person survey, participants comprise of the general public as well as managers from the retail and shopping centre industries.



Space is topmost concern
Space is the general public's topmost concern. ‘Too crowded' and ‘too noisy' are the comments people gave when asked to name characteristics of the worst malls. The industry agrees, a speaker at the Retail Space Asia Conference, Michael MacMillan, Managing Director and Founder of Vizualize, which creates a people counting software said, “Higher the number of passer-by does not equal to higher sales in all cases either”. He said analyzing shopper behavious found that often people traveling quickly through a mall were “in transit”. IFC and Fetical walk both had very positive comments mde about space and light within these centres.

Another speaker, Terry Waterhouse, Director of RED Retail noted that, “In Hong Kong where flat sizes are small, with the trend towards five-working days, people need places to hang out”. One survey participant said, “Malls are not incorporated as being a place where people gather and relax. They should have more benches, wider corridors, and more children play areas”. Lack of seats, ladies toilets and directorial signs in shopping malls caused the three biggest areas of most inconvenience to shoppers.

Simple and easy
Regarding designs, survey shows people prefer simplicity. They found the placement of escalators confusing and unwisely planned. “Often, you have to walk across the whole mall to reach an escalator to another floor”, said survey participant. Results show Festival Walk and Langham Place had most complaints about escalator positioning. Nevertheless, Festival Walk is still rated as people's most overall favourite mall in this area. In order to satisfy both the shopping mall's tenants and shoppers, Keith Griffiths, Chairman of Aedas said from design experience that, “90 m was the optimum distance that shoppers would walk [between escalators] before complaining it is too far”.

Blight of sameness
While many show satisfaction to the range of shops in HK's shopping centers, some pointed out that HK malls are getting mono-toned and lack unique store offerings. “Malls need to have some brands or shops that are exclusive in them”, according to a Hong Kong survey participant. This was also a common response from Singaporean respondents. At the Conference panelists referred to the lack of variety of shops between shopping centers as the “blight of sameness”.

Moreover, people consider a wide range of restaurants and entertainments such as cinema, ice rink, and bookstore as attractions to them to go to that malls to shop, which earned Festival Walk the top position in the category of public amenities.

The results is as below:

For more info about the Survey:
Claire Saeki
+852 2851 9923
+852 6053 7170

About Facility Media
About Facility Media: Facility Media provides marketing, public relations and events services for clients across the globe, who have or would like, a presence in Asia . Publisher of the regions leading magazine on real estate, facilities and projects in Asia , RFP Magazine, we specialise exclusively in providing solutions for companies operating in the industries that make up our built environment: any company that is involved in the lifecycle of a building or development, from the land acquisition to suppliers of interior finishes. Facility Media Conferences organises conferences on topics as diverse as Retail Space to Building Technology and the Office Environment.

About Retail Space Asia
Retail Space Asia is a landmark event held yearly by Facility Media that attracts developers, retailers, shopping center owners, mall operators and everyone else involved in the design, construction and management of retail spaces in Asia . Topics range from measuring traffic flow within shopping centres to positioning your brand in travel retail environments.

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