Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 59th Annual Meeting - 2015 1127

THE SHOPPING MALL OF THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

FUTURE
Marc L. Resnick
Bentley University
mresnick@bentley.edu
@PerformSol

Shopping malls are experiencing a significant decline in both shoppers and transactions. The challenge is
that there are better options now available through big box stores and on-line shopping. Some mall
operators are experimenting with mall customer experience strategies to overcome these limitations.
Shopping malls are adding non-retail experiences such as live concerts and even roller coasters. Newer
innovations combine co-working spaces for startup companies with new ideas and complementary pop-up
store space for them to try out their new products and services in an ecologically valid environment with
real customers. This is most effective with experiential goods that include apps, apparel, and food
products. This talk will present a variety of ideas and cases outlining the critical importance of customer
experience for this model and for the future of shopping malls.

INTRODUCTION duration of the potential shopping experience to allow the

Shopping malls have experienced a significant decline in
recent years. Some have been abandoned, some have been
torn down, and many are being repurposed into other types of
facilities (Semuels, 2015) such as office parks or residential
developments. Peterson cites a report from Green Street
Advisors that 15% of malls will fail or be repurposed within
the next ten years and up to 50% within fifteen to twenty years
according to Howard Davidowitz.
Failing malls are disastrous for the local economy. They
usually do not close immediately and get replaced by other
tax-generating or job-supporting facilities. Many slowly
shrink over a decade or more, hurting the local population
through many direct and indirect pathways.
The problems are in part related to the changing nature of
Copyright 2015 Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. DOI 10.1177/1541931215591164
customer to frame it as a day-trip experience rather than a
shopping-trip experience.
But changes in the retail market and in the customer
requirements have significantly altered the options available.
Big box stores such as Target provide almost the same set of
options as many shopping malls, also with a single drive, also
with food available, and usually at a much lower price point.
When the customer required a wide variety, on-line shopping
opened up an exponential increase in the items available. As
on-line options, overnight delivery, and confidence in using
credit cards online increased, this option continuously
crowded out the need for shopping malls. The long walk
across the shopping mall lot (see Figure 1) and the generic
options at the Food Court compared to an increasing diverse
consumer palette (see Figure 2) created significant

the retail environment. In past years, malls satisfied a disincentives.

significant customer requirement. They allowed users to drive
once and obtain a wide variety of goods from a diverse set of
retailers. Anchor stores were a confident source of general and
frequently needed goods such as apparel. Anchor stores were
paired with boutique stores that provided great sources of
experimental shopping, exclusive services, impulse shopping,
and gift browsing. Food courts supplied the sustenance so that
shoppers could make trips to the mall a full day experience,
increasing their total spend.
The Customer Experience Challenge
For the human factors practitioner, this is an illustrative
example of the importance of viewing customer experience
from a wide view. The experience being satisfied by the
shopping mall was not about finding a specific product and
purchasing it without error. It was about reducing the
uncertainty of finding items for which the identity was not
clear. It was about reducing the need to get in and out of a car
to shop at distal locations or even in and outdoors at a strip
mall when the weather was bad. It was about browsing among
products that were new and exciting, even if not practical.
The food court was an important resource for extending the
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But the new sources of the retail experience also have
their flaws. Big box stores do not provide a satisfying
customer experience (see Figure 3). Online shopping is
insufficient for experiential goods that need to be touched,
tasted, or tried on to ensure the proper fit with the customer
needs. The prevalence of highly targeted ad networks that
collect extensive databases and profiles of each consumer and
are shared among huge networks of online vendors (and
snooped by law enforcement) make customers hesitant to
move all of their consumption online.
Shopping Mall Response
To compete, shopping malls have been refocusing some
of their space on improving the customer experience in ways
that big box stores and on-line retailers could not (Peterson,
2014). They are using open spaces to book live music
concerts. They increasingly use kiosk retail experiments in
the corridors to provide goods that are not offered online or at
big box stores. Some provide unconventional services such as
urgent care medical centers and roller coasters (see Figure 4).
They experiment with open air courtyards. Unfortunately,
these changes have only slowed the decline in shopping malls.
Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 59th Annual Meeting - 2015
They continue to close and vacancy rates within malls are still
higher than historical averages (Semuels, 2015). It seems that
they still have not found a use case that consumers value.
Innovation in the Shopping Mall Experience
Newer models of innovation are more likely to reverse
this decline. They are not gimmicks added to an existing
shopping mall experience that has not changed much from the
old model. They integrate newer types of retail strategy into a
shopping mall layout – providing an integration between the
new features and the established retail space. They maintain
the advantages of one stop shopping, experimental products
and services, and a day-trip experience rather than a shopping-
trip experience.
Integration with on-line retailers. One new service
provided by shopping malls is to integrate with on-line
retailers. Most retailers are joining extensive logistics
networks that enable a customer to order online and pick up
the item at a retailer for instant gratification. This option is
limited when the customer needs to go to a different retailer
for each purchase. It eliminates the benefit of the one-stop
shopping advantage of online shopping. But a mall can
provide this because of the diversity of establishments that can
be co-located. The mall operator can establish a consolidated
drive through pick-up location so customers can order from
any or all of the retailers and pick them up in a single drive-
through location (see Figure 5).
Co-working spaces. Some malls are repurposing the
vacated spaces into co-working spaces, which are a growing
need in the modern workplace. The traditional open office
(see Figure 6) is inadequate for many modern workplace needs
(Resnick, 2014). Today, there are 53 million Americans,
representing about one-third of the workforce who are
independent workers. About forty-one million are under 40,
representing a workforce that prefers an independent working
environment, flexible work schedules, and more creative job
requirements (Bentley PreparedU Project). Shopping malls
are an ideal venue for coworking because they are open during
evening hours, provide services that workers may need during
the day, and can be accessed easily after hours.
Perhaps more importantly, they provide access to an
ecologically valid testing environment and real customers
representing a diverse set of demographic and psychographic
profiles. This co-location facilitates the recruitment of mall
customers as participants in focus groups and other testing
environments. This reduces the cost of entrepreneurship and
effective user testing, which is a critical step that is often
skipped by new ventures because of time and cost.
New Product Zones. Another way that malls are
leveraging the presence of co-working spaces with the mall
environment is the creation of new product zones (McCue,
2015). These areas are designed for new ventures to showcase
their prototypes. They can have full-wall screens that can
show engaging demonstration videos. They can have runways
for models to exhibit new fashions or wearable electronics.
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Exhibit spaces also allow technical experts to demonstrate the
use of new products or for mall customers to try them out
interactively. These spaces are often modular so that evenings
can be used to combine multiple spaces for full fashion or
technical shows. More recently, they have been used to host
hackathons.
Pop-up retail. Many malls are experimenting with pop-
up retail spaces (Clifford, 2008). These can be located in
empty retail stores, in kiosks located in mall corridors, or in
the food court. They allow more extensive and ecological
testing environments to be created. New ventures create
temporary but realistic retail environments for true testing of
their new products and services (Gonzalez, 2014).
This is particularly important for experiential goods such
as apparel and restaurant concepts (McLaughlin, 2012) and for
seasonal goods that may not need space for more than a few
weeks (Gregory, 2009). Users can try on new forms of apparel
that may be too risky to purchase on-line. They can sample
new forms of food that may be hard to imagine based on
images or text descriptions. The benefit for malls is that as
each venture grows and has new products to test, different
areas of the mall can be used for pop-up space (see Figures 8
and 9). If there is a vacancy at the food court, a food venture
can be matched there for a pop-up test. Smaller products can
pop-up in kiosks within any mall corridor. More extensive
product and service launches can be tested in a vacant store
space.
Farmers Markets. Some malls are experimenting even
more far afield by incorporating farmer’s markets (see Figure
10). These leverage the local food trend as well as balance the
demand for space during times that the mall is typically less
crowded.
CONCLUSION
This case study presents a variety of initiatives and
innovations that shopping malls are trying in an attempt to
develop new customer experiences that better meet current
demand. They are experimenting with some models that may
be unexpected to consumers and provide engaging experiences
that surprise and delight.
In addition to specific examples, this case study is also
intended to present a broader definition of customer
experience. This approach requires UX practitioners to have
knowledge of business strategy, marketing, and other areas
that we often disregard.
REFERENCES
Bentley University PreparedU Project (2015) About the
PreparedU Project. Bentley University. Retrieved on
3/10/15 at www.bentley.edu/prepared/about-preparedu
Clifford S. (2008, October 30) Hanging out at the mall for the
holidays. New York Times, Retrieved on 3/10/15 at
www.nytimes.com/2008/10/30/business/media/
30adco.html.
Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 59th Annual Meeting - 2015 1129

Gonzalez M. (2014). The Pop-Up Paradigm: How Brands

Build Human Connections in a Digital Age. Lioncrest
Publishing: NSW, Australia.
Gregory S. (2009, November 6) Why pop-up shops are hot.
Time, Retrieved on 3/10/15 at http://content.time.com
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McLaughlin K. (2012, March 23) Pop-ups are taking over the
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www.wsj.com/articles/SB1000142405297020427630457
7263813654892788
McCue M. (2015) For giving the mall a high-tech makeover.
Fast Company, March. p116-118.
Peterson H. (2014, January 31) America’s shopping malls are
dying a slow, ugly death. Business Insider. Retrieved on
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going-extinct-2014-1.
Resnick M.L. (2014, November 12). Work-life balance: is that Figure 2, Shopping Mall Food Court Illustrating Generic
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Segran E. (2015) As coworking spaces scale, can they keep
their communal vibe. The Atlantic, March. Retrieved on
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Figure 3. Big Box Store Illustrating Poor Customer

Experience

Figure 1. Shopping Mall Parking Lot Illustrating Large

Parking Lots Often Requiring Long Walks

Figure 4. Shopping Mall Re-visioned as an experience rather

than a shopping trip
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Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 59th Annual Meeting - 2015 1130

Figure 5. Consolidated Drive Through Pick Figure 6: Open Office Layout - highlighting the possible
Up at a Shopping Mall interference of one employee’s work with another’s.

Figure 7: Co-working Space - highlighting the division of employees from different

organizations around the space with flexible co-working space in the center.

Figure 8. Outside Access for a pop-up restaurant at a shopping mall.

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Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 59th Annual Meeting - 2015 1131

Figure 9. Inside Access for a pop-up restaurant at a shopping mall.

Figure 10. Farmer’s Market located inside a shopping mall.

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