Why building mall identity is becoming increasingly crucial in Singapore

Shopping malls now have similar concepts and trade-mixes, creating a homogenous experience for consumers.

According to a Knight Frank report, Singapore continues to be a good location for international brands to set up shop and expand. Established international retailers who are new-to-Singapore brands have made their way into the domestic retail scene in the past few months. This included names such as Hunter, a British footwear retailer that opened its first store in Singapore at Plaza Singapura and Hoka, a French sportswear brand located in ION Orchard. 

Other new entrants include food and beverage (F&B) names, such as Ipoh Town, a traditional coffee shop from Malaysia at Jewel Changi Airport and Kebuke, a Taiwanese bubble tea chain at Taste Orchard.

Here’s more from Knight Frank:

However, operating conditions for retailers in Singapore have been and are becoming more challenging, to the point that many retailers and F&B establishments have been observed to be stifled by increasing rents and operating costs (i.e., labour, cost of supplies, etc.) that erode much of their profit margins. According to the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), there was a total of 2,502 retail and F&B businesses formed against 2,631 businesses that ceased in Q2 2024.

Compared to the previous quarter, the number of business cessations have now exceeded the number of businesses formed with a net decline of 129 entities. This was a turnaround from a position of growth in Q1 2024 where there was a net increase of 295 new retail and F&B enterprises. Even though new retailers continued to set up shop, the retail scene might be approaching an inflection point where the number of retailers winding up could start trending upwards, derailing the gains made by the sector in post pandemic recovery.

Shopping malls have developed and evolved in Singapore with many having similar concepts and trade-mixes. Perhaps the cookie-cutter resemblance has been due to a proliferation of typical retailers that have the strongest financial muscle being able to set up branches in multiple mall locations. This has created a homogeneous shopping experience for shoppers as malls are filled with the usual suspects of F&B and fast fashion names. 

However, with the steadily growing affluence of Singapore consumers who are increasingly well-travelled and frequently exposed to retail diversity around the world, landlords would increasingly need to create variety and a shopper experience that uniquely characterises their individual mall(s).

Sometimes, maximising financial returns might not be the highest-and-best-use for consumers, for entrepreneurial retailers, and for retail diversity in Singapore. Distinctive concepts such as the new One Holland Village benefit from having a differentiating identity as one of the few pet-friendly shopping malls in Singapore, sustainably designed to minimise energy usage. 

With a unique identity and tenant-mix, shopping malls can step beyond the ordinary and attract shoppers and footfall from a wider geographical radius than its own immediate catchment, especially if other competing nearby malls are almost indistinguishable from each other.