India’s mall story began in the early 2000s, when there were just

three shopping centres in the country. Our mall culture started

developing when Indian shoppers began to realise the advantages

that a clean, air-conditioned, organised mall had over an unorganised

street. Today, malls are literally mushrooming across the Indian

subcontinent.

Malls have survived it all – the recession of 2007-2008 and the

advent of e-commerce. They’ve grown bigger, brighter. They’ve

evolved the way Indians view traditional brick-and-mortar retail,

selling experiences, wooing shoppers in, making them stay and

spend and converting them into loyalists. With over 600 operational

malls across the country, it’s safe to say that malls are here to stay.

For a mall to achieve scalable success today, the management

needs to be skillful in understanding, forecasting and adapting to

changing consumer needs and expectations. Malls need to keep up

with the constantly evolving ecosystem, stay up to date on trends and

deliver new experiences to increase footfalls and sales.

The cover story of IMAGES Retail’s September issue brings you a

lowdown on some of the best malls in India, the unparalleled retail

experiences they provide and how they are becoming more than just

shopping destinations. The issue includes a research report by JLL

as well as thorough coverage on everything these social hubs have

to off er including brands, customer experiences, experiential retail,

superior technology and more.

The issue also brings a futuristic feature titled ‘Robots in Retail’,

which talks about how as technology advances, a new generation

of robots is graduating from back-end operations and becoming a

reality in retail stores, interacting with humans at store fronts.

As always, I hope you fi nd the issue informative and benefi cial. Do

log on to our website, www.indiaretailing.com to read great features

and analyses on the stage of the global retail industry with an

emphasis on India.