A study of shoppers' motives and profiles

The retail scene in Singapore is getting more aggressively competitive since the beginning of 1990s and would be expected to be more so in the near future. Therefore, it is of utmost interest to study what the future holds for these retail establishments, namely the shopping centres in Singapore. This study attempts to discover shoppers' profile and shopping behaviour of local shoppers, both Singaporeans and expatriates. At the same time, the study also aims to evaluate the success factors of future shopping centres. Due to the wide array of shopping centres found in Singapore, two extreme ends, traditional shopping centres and fashion-oriented shopping centres were chosen for the purpose of study. To achieve the stated objectives, interviews via questionnaires were administered to shoppers of the two kinds of shopping centres mentioned above. All the 240 responses were gathered using the mall-intercept method. It was found that food and beverage is a "must" item in every shopping trip for shoppers from both kinds of shopping centres. Majority of the shoppers take shopping as a form of recreation and a way of keeping in touch with new trends. Local shoppers do not seek bargain when they go shopping. The study also revealed that the draw factors for the two kinds of shopping centres differ. For the traditional shopping centres, their strengths lie in the close proximity to similar shopping centres, and number and variety of shops. On the other hand, the availability of well-known and quality products, cleanliness, design, tenancy and promotion attract a different group of shoppers to the fashion-oriented shopping centres. It was discovered that there are significant differences in the consumers' profile in the two types of shopping centres in terms of gender, income level, nature of housing and lastly, occupation. With all these in mind, it would assist the shopping centres in creating the kind of image to attract the right customers so as to better survive in the competitive retail industry.BUSINES