Designing the Future Shopping Centre: How a Consumer-Driven Approach to Business Model Innovation Can Increase Visitation

Sammanfattning: Background: In today’s changing retail landscape, traditional business models are becoming rapidly outdated, signalling the end of traditional retail. Shopping centre owners need to remain agile and willing to re-evaluate their business models, as emerging technologies and changing consumer behaviours are reshaping the retail industry. Only those who have taken notice of these changes and challenges can fathom new opportunities and secure future growth. Purpose: To explore (in relation to the Swedish market) how shopping centre owners can adapt their business model to attract consumers to the shopping centre in the future. Method: This paper applied a qualitative research approach with a pragmatic stance. A single case study is used with Ingka Centres as the main unit of analysis. For the data collection, the principle of triangulation was followed. Here, a combination of primary (employee interviews and focus groups) and secondary data (company and industry reports) was used. The aggregated data was analysed through a nine-operational process to allow the development of themes. Findings: The findings showed that how shopping centres are designed in Sweden today is unappealing. For shopping centres to be successful in the future, modifications to the business model need to be made; shifting the focus to an outside-in perspective. In particular, centre formats and atmospherics needs to be changed. Further, the findings highlight the relevance of experience, entertainment, inspiration, communities and sense of belonging as key visitation drivers for the future shopping centre in the Swedish market. There is a need to move away from seeing the shopping centre as a transactional entity to a place where consumers can create experiences that leave them more informed and with a better sense of self. Research Implications: The study adds to the outdated research on shopping centre attractiveness: it widens the understanding of how convenience is currently referred to in shopping centre literature. Convenience should not be limited to geographic location, parking and centre layout, but should include the importance of omnichannel and its role in the creation of a seamless experience. Also, this research is unique in that it is the first to bridge the gap between the shopping centre and business model innovation literature. The practical implications are that the study provides useful insights for shopping centre owners. The findings suggest that shopping centre owners should incorporate various attraction factors to re-attract and patronise Swedish consumers. For example, the findings suggest that the ‘big box’ layout needs to be dramatically reconsidered to attract consumers in the future. The findings also have interesting implications for shopping centres’ leasing models. Lastly, the findings of this research indicate that the use of consumers in the business model innovation process is of value.