The fiscal year began with a bang for Inorbit Malls. The arrival of new fashion stores has kept our team busy. This year Inorbit witnessed the arrival of some of the most popular brands. H&M launched its first store in the city of Hyderabad at Inorbit; Project Eve – the first experiential store for women in the country was inaugurated at Inorbit mall, Malad; and Reliance Trends introduced a unique new format store at Inorbit Whitefield.
In 2017, Inorbit Malad witnessed an unprecedented facelift. With a view to create a joyous shopping experience the mall not only redefined itself categorically but also underwent a structural transformation. With the arrival of new tenant mix, the ground floor of the mall has been rezoned. The atrium is converted into a cosmetic zone with the arrival of brands like MAC, NYX, Bobbi Brown, 3ina. Some of the other premium brands that the mall houses in the ground floor include Forever New, Steve Madden, Hunkemoller, DC Shoes and Cover Story. The other additional highlights included a swanky new façade and provision for a complete new circulation for ease of connectivity from parking to food court. The mall has also doubled the number of dining options and currently houses 9 restaurants, 2 café’s and 14 popular food joints.
In terms of growth, this year has been quite encouraging as we witnessed a steady growth in terms of footfall and consumption. However, an early commencement of the sale this year impacted consumption in the latter half of Q2. In addition to this, since the logistics and processes post GST are clearer, brands are bringing in entire ranges of merchandise and are also planning a series of exciting promotions and offers during the festive season.
Recently malls have seen a shift in buying trends. Along with traditional wear, fusion wear is also picking up. Apart from fashion, consumers are seen spending more on jewellery, watches, perfumes, cosmetics and footwear.
On the marketing front, our malls across 5 locations have effectively managed to stay connected with our consumers. This year we hosted some exciting events that have garnered tremendous response. We started off with The Hot Wheels EPIC Race in summer that involved a unique installation of 3,500 mini cars on a 40ft race track.
InTrend, Inorbit’s fashion extravaganza cum model hunt was a great success with over 2,000 participants registering across Malad, Vashi and Hyderabad. The InTrend event was one of the most talked about events and helped us in recording a 15-20 per cent sales growth from participating brands. Our Facebook post garnered a million plus engagements for this event. And finally, the most dynamic social initiative of Inorbit, Pink Power – a platform to encourage women entrepreneurs, concluded its third season. The campaign was covered more than 100 times in leading publications across 5 cities and has won us a Gold at Asia Pacific Shopping Centre Awards amongst other accomplishments.
It is very crucial to offer better services to consumers and give them memorable experiences that they share with their loved ones. Hence, it’s important to stay connected with them and keep them up-to-speed with what’s happening at Inorbit. We have leveraged digital with new features on our website www.inorbit.in and mobile app. We have made Inorbit Malad and Vashi malls e-commerce enabled which gives consumer the benefit to reserve the product online and either pick it up from our partner stores at the mall or receive same day delivery of the product at their door step. This feature helps our retailers to stay connected with consumers. Soon this feature will be extended in our other malls.
Indian retail is still in its nascent stages. There are not more than 8-9 good performing malls in Mumbai where there is potential for 20. There is even lesser penetration in other metro cities. We believe there is potential for more malls to open in the country.
In terms of growth, this year has been quite encouraging as the mall witnessed a steady growth in terms of footfall and consumption
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