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FEDERAL STATE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION

NATIONAL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY

HIGHER SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

Saint Petersburg School of Economics and Management

Department of Management

Bachelor's thesis

Anchor tenant's influence on consumer shopping mall choice

Mozharova Alina, Gulyarenko Ksenia

Saint Petersburg

2020

Abstract

The commercial real estate market and its main directions including shopping centers have already been studied before. The market of shopping centers in Saint-Petersburg develops every year. The research is the contribution to the existing literature that studies the shopping centers. Yet, few studies have considered the aspect of mall's anchor stores and their effect on consumers. Different attributes of the mall can affect the consumers' perception towards this center, in particular, anchor stores. Understanding the effects of these stores on the customer's choice of the shopping centers is crucial for many businesses, both malls and stores. It will enable managers to effectively develop their marketing strategies and build a perfect tenant mix. The purpose of this study is to analyze whether the customers' perception of the specific anchor store is somehow affected by their demographic profile. The study focused on ten main anchor types including different spheres such as entertainment, clothing, restaurants and etc. The survey was used as the main data collection method, further, the data obtained was analyzed through different tools of statistical analysis with the help of SPSS.

Keywords: shopping mall, anchor store, consumers' choice

Table of contents

Introduction

Nowadays shopping centers are one of the most developing directions in the field of commercial real estate. The extent to which the shopping center will be attractive to visitors is determined by a number of factors, including a successfully selected tenant pool. In turn, the tenant-mix is created based on the anchors of the shopping center. Anchor is the main tenant in the mall, a large network retailer that attracts the flow of visitors to the shopping center (Agrawal and Cockburn, 2003). Anchor may be a store of any specification and profile.

A concept of an anchor store first appears in the middle of the 20th century in the USA. In the late 60s shopping centers with big department stores were gaining their popularity. After shopping centers began to develop and spread around the world, the concept of “anchor” became wider. Anchor tenants began to become home goods stores, building materials stores, home appliance hypermarkets, discounters, etc. Such tenants are mainly located in shopping centers, which are built in the countryside next to major highways.

As a rule, the concept of urban and suburban centers is divided. So, suburban shopping centers - retail parks, which are freestanding buildings that share a common parking. Each such building is occupied by one tenant. Sometimes a retail gallery is also built on the territory of the retail park, where small shops, mainly clothing, are located. In such cases, strong anchors are necessary, since the objects are far from the city and the presence of several large shops allows you to increase the flow of customers.

Undoubtedly, visitors to the shopping center are also attracted by the entertainment component of shopping centers. A big part of visitors to the entertainment area do not make purchases in the gallery of the shopping center. However, the organization of an entertainment zone in a shopping center allows tenants to significantly increase turnover. Over the past ten years, the role of the entertainment component has increased dramatically. Due to the economic downturn, some large retail operators went bankrupt, while others had to cut networks and close stores in malls. As a result, large areas were freed up in the centers that needed to be filled. They solved the problem with the help of entertainment operators.

A food court can also act as an anchor tenant, whose popularity in Russian shopping centers is quite high. At the same time, the specific of the food court as part of the shopping center is that it does not fulfill the function of attracting visitors, but contributes to their longer stay in the complex, thereby increasing the likelihood of making purchases in the trading part.

For the success of a modern shopping center, a flexible approach is a necessity. Today, a standard department store, a supermarket, a large bookstore, cinema and even a youth entertainment zone can become an anchor tenant. Anchor tenant not only sets the mood of the shopping center as a whole, but also determines its position in the market.

As a rule, anchor tenant owns a large area of the shopping complex (not less than 15% of the total space). The number of anchor tenants for the successful functioning of the shopping center in general cannot be less than two, but it can vary depending on the size of the area occupied by them. However, as a last resort, an owner can replace them with smaller, but no less well-known retailers.

Undoubtedly, it is the anchor tenant who has the duty to attract the largest number of buyers. Today, the term anchor tenant is actively used in retail real estate. Anchor tenants are called the “face” of the shopping center, which is why their choice is treated carefully. At the moment, the scheme of building a shopping center using anchor tenants is the most popular throughout the world.

Anchor tenant is distinguished by two main features:

1. Independence, that is the ability of the tenant to attract a sufficient flow of buyers to himself, wherever such a tenant is. Anchor tenant is known to a large number of buyers due to the popular brand. A familiar brand is a guideline and at the same time an anchor for future customers. It stimulates a visit to an unfamiliar shopping center.

2. Size, that is, the opportunity on a rented large retail space to offer the client a wide range of goods. A rich offer of goods gives customers the opportunity to choose. It is also beneficial for anchor tenants themselves. On larger trading space, they sell more, offsetting the relatively high rents with increased revenue.

Anchor tenants play the role of the main source of attraction for the shopping center. Most often, they act as organizers of large-scale events inside the shopping center, conduct advertising campaigns and holidays that attract new potential buyers and contribute to an increase in the flow of visitors. The department of the trade center also often holds joint actions with anchor tenants, since the general budget makes such events better and more productive, thus bringing a positive result for all participants. As a rule, advertising campaigns of this scale always have prizes and gifts from sponsors - anchor tenants and large sales representatives present in the shopping center. A lot depends on the marketing strategy of the owner of the shopping center, which is intended for further development, and on qualified managers who are able or not able to attract the majority of tenants in the program of promotion and advertising of the shopping center.

Many studies have shown that key tenant has a significant power of attracting customer flows and therefore this tenant (or tenants) can be the source of a positive spillover effect which in turn brings in new benefits for non-anchor stores of the mall. Considering this fact, even giving concessions to anchor tenants, the developer receives a larger total rental income. The more there are anchors in a shopping center the bigger is increase in the sales, and consequently in the rents of non-anchor tenants in a mall (Damian et al., 2011). The choice of anchor tenant is related to whether he can increase the profitability of the work of smaller operators. In this case, an effective anchor operator, first of all, must meet the following requirements:

· be popular among the population of the shopping center shopping center;

· ensure the stable operation of the shopping center over a long period of time;

· offer goods and services appropriate to the positioning of the shopping center.

An anchor can be either one big store or a several stores with different profiles. In Russia recently there is a trend of increasing popularity of entertainment-oriented anchors such as cinemas and youth activity centers.

In Russia, the most popular anchor tenants operate in the following spheres: FMCG (fast moving consumer goods), house ware and electronic goods, cinema. The popularity are gaining shopping centers with huge department shops outside of the city or in the suburban areas. The first retailer on the Russian market who introduced the concept of huge anchor-oriented shopping center was MEGA with its big IKEA stores. Great representation of anchors are Stockmann or big food court in such shopping centers as City Mall or Galerea. The Russian market is also characterized by the fact that most often anchors are large food chain stores such as Lenta or O'key. In recent years, there has also been a trend towards an increase in the number of children-oriented anchors such as theme parks and playrooms, studios and entertainment centers.

The variety of anchors is constantly increasing, new types are appearing, and the attractiveness of a shopping center depends on the quality of these draw tenants and the total pool of tenants in the center. In turn, large retail chains should be interested in high-quality areas and the opportunity to focus on the core business, without delving into the intricacies of development and property management. The calculation of the area occupied by anchor tenants is related to the estimation of the area of shopping centers. In Russia estimates of the total rented area of ??shopping centers vary in the range from 480-500 thousand square meters up to 800 thousand - 1 million square meters. A significant part of the total anchor area accounts for food retailers - supermarkets and hypermarkets.

Submarket trends mainly relate to the market of shopping centers - with new trends in it, new opportunities in offering quality space and new needs of anchor tenants. The main trends include the enlargement of the format of professional shopping centers. On the one hand, the niche of large objects is still not completely filled, financial opportunities for developers are growing and economies of scale when creating high-quality objects are often not justified; on the other hand, the size of an object sometimes helps redirect consumer flows, create a kind of magnet.

St. Petersburg is the second largest and largest city after the capital with a population of 5 million 300 thousand people, and a significant part of its commercial real estate market is represented in shopping centers. And the city which ranks third in terms of population, Novosibirsk, lags significantly behind St. Petersburg, having a little more than 1.6 million people (about 3 times less than in St. Petersburg). In the St. Petersburg city, there are more than 65 shopping center with over 4,4 million GLA (gross leasable area) square meters. Based on this, it is logical that St. Petersburg ranks second in terms of the number of shopping centers within the city due to the need to meet the demand of the population for retail and entertainment areas. These factors make the research on shopping malls and particularly about its main tenants relevant.

Undoubtedly, anchor tenants significantly affect the way shopping mall operates. Taking into consideration this fact, it is also crucial to also discuss it from the customer's point of view. Consumer behavior depends on many factors including shopping mall atmosphere, layout, prices and choice of goods. This study focuses on how customers make their choice of the particular shopping mall based on mall's anchor stores.

Many papers in the field have been published, resulting in a big theoretical background on the topic, but, most of them were studying the influence of anchors on the growth of rates per meter in the shopping center and also building mathematical models to calculate the optimal location of the anchor tenant in the retail space and considering other economic factors. In this study, however, an attempt will be made to discuss a topic that has not yet been considered, namely, the relationship between the main anchors and the choice of buyers of the shopping center using the data collected from a survey concerning St. Petersburg shopping center market.

The research question is a generalization of this problem and is as follows: “Do specific anchor tenants influence consumers' particular shopping mall choices?” The study is mainly descriptive, since all the information that is subjected to quantitative analysis obtained from a sample of the population, which will then be analyzed using statistical tools. For data analysis, independent samples t-test, one-way ANOVA and multiple comparisons (Tukey post hoc test) are used. The main method chosen to collect information about the preferences of visitors to the shopping center is a survey with a scale of importance, since it is the most popular tool for analyzing consumer behavior. In addition, the survey contains questions about the demographic characteristics of the respondent, his gender, age and average income.

The study is structured the following way: first there will be theoretical part with the overview of key works in each field that our study has relation to, namely such topics as tenant mix, anchor tenants, shopping centers in general, attractiveness factors of the shopping mall and it image. After that the main research question will be discussed and proposed, based on the literature and research gap discussed before. Then methodological part will be described in detail as well as results obtained with the chosen analytical statistical methods. The study ends with the conclusion and discussion section, where the work is being summarized, results are discussed.

This study can be applied in practice and used for practical purposes since developers, management and shopping center owners have to come up with the important decisions and this is when they have to seriously consider what image does the shopping center have, how it is received by the customers and visitors. Any developer sets himself the main task of attracting the attention of as many visitors as possible and turning as many of them into buyers as possible. Anchor tenants are used to achieve exactly this goal, so it is of a paramount of importance to understand the influence they have on consumer behavior. In terms of scientific contribution, it will contribute to the existing literature on anchor tenants as well as to the studies on consumer preferences.

Literature review

Literature review is part of the research, which contains information that gives an idea of the theoretical works that we take as the basis of this study. This work focuses on the relationship between anchor shops in malls and consumer behavior. Therefore, it is necessary to define such terms as a combination and mix of tenants, the image of a shopping center, factors of attractiveness of a shopping center and give them all a theoretical basis. There is a wide range of literature on consumer behavior in shopping malls or retail stores, but most of the articles focus on influential factors such as location, rates, price, and atmosphere, and are not enough to investigate the relationship between anchor tenants and consumer preferences for a particular shopping center. The same applies to the literature on anchor tenants - it usually is focused on the economic and financial impact that anchor has on the shopping center and not on the consumer perception.

First, the concepts of shopping center, anchor tenants and tenant mix will be provided and, secondly, concepts concerning consumer behavior, classification of visitors of the shopping center and factors which makes shopping centers attractive to them will be considered.

Shopping centers

Fahmy et al. (2014) mentioned a general classification of shopping centers in terms of its layout. More detailed categorization provides the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC). It is an American classification widely used in the United States. According to ICSC shopping malls are classified in following categories:

· Regional Center. It has mixed assortment, usually fashionable goods. In terms of space it usually covers an area of 37-75 thousand sq meters. There are 2 or more anchor stores in the center, such as department stores with a full range of goods, a store with low prices and discounts, and fashion stores.

· Super-regional center. Like the previous one, it has a large choice of goods. The area is more than 75 thousand sq meters and the center has 3 or more anchors such as department store with the profiles of fashion or full range of goods.

· Neighborhood center. It usually sells everyday goods and covers an area of 3-14 thousand sq meters, has 1 or more anchor tenants (usually it is a supermarket).

· Community center. It usually sells different goods and as well as fast moving consumer goods with an area of average 30 thousand sq meters, has 2 or more anchors such as discount store, supermarket, pharmacy, electronics department, large specialized fashion clothes and jewelry store (including at reduced prices as well).

· Lifestyle center. In this shopping center chain stores are most often represented, there is a hypermarket but there is no anchor tenant as such. As a rule it has an area of 15-45 thousand sq meters.

· Power center. Anchor tenants in this center are usually brands popular in the particular category. The area is 24-56 thousand sq meters. The center has 3 or more anchors such as main category store, hardware store, discounted goods department store.

· Theme/Festival center. It is a tourist and leisure-oriented center which offers retail sales and domestic services. It covers an area of 8-24 thousand sq meters and has a lot of restaurants and entertainment facilities which are a key of attraction.

· Outlet center retail. This center is an agglomeration of a lot of retail outlets from the manufacturer, and they themselves are anchors and draw tenants. The area is 4-5 thousand sq meters. The center usually doesn't feature a lot of catering or entertainment facilities.

US Bureau of Research Classification (NRB) adds several other classifications:

· Airport retail chain. It is an agglomeration of retail stores on the territory of a commercial airport.

· Auto mall. This is the place where all the shops and service centers for motorists are concentrated. As a rule, related products for cars, spare parts are sold here, there are also salons that provide services for the replacement of parts, oil filling, etc.

· Reduced price goods center. The main tenant of this center is shop which offers products at a reduced price. It has additional retail space occupied by small retail stores and a supermarket. Considering its main tenants, centers of this type usually attract buyers with lower income.

· All-for-home shopping center. A center in which a household goods retail store is the main tenant or exists in a group of specialized retail sellers of household goods and appliances.

· Multifunctional complexes. Multifunctional shopping centers are currently one of the most common types of shopping centers in the city in which the key principle for securing large areas is the choice of functions designed for the widest possible range of visitors. Similar centers are located in the largest and largest cities, as well as in their suburbs, on highways. Such shopping centers include a standard set of fashion tenants, a cinema and entertainment zone, a supermarket, as well as an administrative zone where office premises and conference rooms can be located.

As seen from above, the classification for shopping centers is vast and it is mainly rooted in the tenant set that a particular shopping center possesses. That is why it is now important to consider the concept of tenant mix.

Tenant mix in the shopping mall

Tenant mix is the relationship between the percentage of shop areas occupation by various store types in a shopping center (The Institute of Real Estate Management, 1990). Thus, the mix of tenants is a certain set combination of stores that are collectively aimed at maximally satisfying the entire spectrum of consumer needs. That is why a properly selected mix of tenants is the key to the proper functioning of the shopping center and greater profits.

Kaylin (1973), named the main features of the ideal pool of tenants:

· a balanced variety of shops in the center which are offering a wide range of goods and services;

· unique image of the mall;

· maximum sales potential in the trading area;

· communication and mutual complementarity of tenants;

· effective plan and layout;

· shopping-encouraging atmosphere;

· enough variety for the center to be most attractive to its targeted audience;

· maximum return on investment.

The main guideline in the formation of tenants is, of course, the commercial concept of the shopping center, which is developed by professional consultants based on large-scale research of the shopping area. These studies are necessary for the correct determination of the target audience of the complex, the structure of income and expenses, consumer habits and preferences of the population of the shopping area, unmet demand, price level and assortment matrix of the future center, existing and prospective competition, etc. When selecting tenants, it is necessary to clearly understand which buyers the shopping complex is oriented to, what is their solvency and what goods will be in greatest demand among them.

According to Bruwer (1997), the main goal of the owner of the shopping center, who intends to build a new commercial outlet, is to open as many shops as possible. Also, the main objective should be to achieve the full synergy and complementarity of tenants of the shopping center. The synergy and complementarity of the retailers is very important first of all because if they do not form a single complex, an internal confrontation appears that causes losses to both tenants and the entire shopping center, which may ultimately result in tenants simply leaving the shopping mall. However, practical considerations should always be more important than prescribed ideal ones. Therefore, if it is not possible to find a suitable tenant, as indicated in an ideal combination, the landlord must obviously fill his place with the next most suitable tenant, and not leave a vacant apartment without making profit from it.

The tenant pool is paramount when considering the attractiveness of a shopping center, the value of which has long been considered in the scientific literature. It is mainly created on the basis of preferences and customer behavior, and a thoughtful combination can significantly enhance the image of the shopping center and, therefore, distinguish the center from its competitors. (Borgers et al., 2009).

Effective tenant mix in the mall is the rooted in the synergy of operators. A high-quality tenant mix is characterized by the presence of the synergistic effect, which consists in the fact that the functioning of tenants as an integrated system improves the performance of each individual tenant. The process of forming a balanced mix of tenants begins at the very first stage of developing the concept of a retail facility, but in fact, the tenant-mix is ??a live process that never stops. Shopping centers require constant updating: this way they become interesting for buyers. New retail operators come to the area occupied by not very successful and even unsuccessful stores, capable of attracting a large consumer audience in the shopping center, being a more solvent or interesting object at the moment, based on center's concept. The balance is of a paramount of importance: on the one hand, a fairly regular update is required, on the other hand, a frequent change of tenants is also a disadvantage, as it shows that there are some inner problems in this shopping center. When deciding on the rotation of tenants, professional market players and developers who own shopping centers adhere to a strategy based on medium-term forecasts. They rotate tenants, anticipating the situation on the market: they monitor the development of trade, electronic commerce, and the dynamics of the level of paying capacity in the country. And based on forecasts of new trends in the retail segment, they plan to change tenant-mix, add new operators or reduce the area of ??those that may become unpopular. Minimum rotation is usually observed in the most high-quality, successful shopping centers with a strong and stable composition of anchor tenants - such as, for example, MEGA shopping mall.

When the selection of tenants takes place, the owners of the shopping center are always interested in attracting well-known retail chains, which are the guarantee that consumer flows will be provided even in the early stages of the center's development. Such tenants already have their own customer base and brand that works in conjunction with the general marketing campaign of the shopping center and therefore helps to promote it to a wider circle of consumers.

The positions of anchor tenants that generate the main traffic in the shopping center vary depending on competition, the emergence of new trends, changes in the market as a whole and the internal features of the development of a particular network. Each change means a deeper transformation of the entire tenant-mix. Replacing of the anchor store usually automatically entails a review of the existing tenant pool of the entire shopping mall.

It is stated that sizes and physical locations of tenants determine center's financial operation (Bean et al, 1988). However, specific tenant's operation features and unique selling prepositions should also be taken into consideration. When talking about balanced pool of tenants, a large number of operators whose goods propositions do not overlap in the shopping center are considered.

Brueckner (1993) considered the issue of distribution of space in shopping centers. He came to the conclusion that the improper distribution of the area between key operators can lead to a drop in sales in the shopping center. Accordingly, he created a model for optimal distribution. In the model, sales of a particular store depend on its own space, as well as on the space allocated for other operators in the center. The store's own sales grow if other stores increase in size because the mall becomes more attractive to customers. Taking into account this fact, the owner of the center distributes the area in such a way as to maximize sales. Obviously, one of the principles of forming a quality pool of tenants is the right distribution of powerful stream-forming operators within the center. Due to the flows generated by these operators, less powerful tenants also can operate effectively. The main principles of forming a pool of tenants are compliance of the presented product range with the needs and expectations of the target audience, submission to the general idea, theme, format of the shopping center, zoning, competent filling of the dead zones, attraction of anchor tenants at the stage of concept approval. Borgers et al. (2009) mentions that stores are also located based on the principles of customer flows: stores who sell compliable goods are near each other, anchors are usually far away from each other to make customers walk through the whole center. These are considered general principles of tenant mix creation.

Yiu and Xu (2012) in their research studied several shopping centers of various sizes in Hong Kong, and came to the conclusion that there is a positive logarithmic relationship between the total area of ??the shopping center and the number of types of tenants in the shopping center. In addition, they learned that different operators of shopping centers follow the same ratios of types and areas, although they can apply very different strategies for mixing operators in different circumstances. The results, in accordance with most studies in this area, indicate that the attractiveness of a shopping center largely depends on the tenant pool creation scheme, which, in turn, depends on the total area of ??the shopping mall.

According to Kirkup and Rafiq (1994), in a market that is saturated and highly competitive, shopping malls need more competent advertising and marketing campaigns that target both retailers and visitors. The essence of success lies in a competent and unique commercial offer, and as active as possible avoidance design or location flaws. In particular, building a creative, consistent and working tenant set is crucial to success, and after reaching the high level of occupancy, some centers face difficulties in further developing a unique offer. Tenant pooling strategies should be based on a thorough study of local consumer preferences and the need for competitive positioning. The marketing campaign must be clear and precise in order to reach exactly those customers who need it. There is a growing need for the use of temporary tenants, more practical and resourceful use of temporarily vacant premises and attractiveness for small and medium retailers, but strict control is needed to ensure constant synergy of the working mix and positioning in accordance with the concept of the center. To manage the tenant pool in the current environment, investments in effective analysis, planning and control are crucial.

In Russia the standard minimum set of tenants for large-size shopping and entertainment centers consists of grocery hypermarket, cinema, bowling, electronics store, food court area, cafe, restaurant, several flow-forming department stores (women's/men's clothing, children's goods, sporting goods), other tenants (fashion, shoes, accessories, cosmetics, household goods, books/media, etc.). There are also service tenants (bank, pharmacy, dry cleaning, gift wrapping, flowers, etc.) who do not bring significant Also in some centers there are present DIY supermarkets, furniture and home goods stores.

Anchor tenants

However, the pool of tenants is not the only thing that makes shopping malls attractive to customers (Teller, Reuttener, 2008). They stated that in addition, shops' size, their profile, and concentration should also be considered. Sirmans and Guidry (1993) also found that the rates that tenants have to pay depend on the shopping mall characteristics including its layout and concept, years of operation, financial situation.

In general, all tenants are divided into three types in terms of space they obtain:

· Ordinary tenant. In most cases, it rents a small area and has an average profit.

· Subtenant. Sometimes the leased area is too much for one shop. Therefore, excess space retake to smaller stores. It often happens that tenants get more profit on sublease than on their shop located on the remaining territory.

· Anchor tenant. A large store that attracts most buyers to the shopping center.

Damian et al. (2011) stated that an anchor is such a store that can be of any profile but solves the paramount task of attracting people to a shopping center. They found that how the shopping center operates and specifically the volume of sales and revenue depends on the number of anchor tenants, and that the developer or owner should reasonably consider the allocation of space for such tenants in order to most efficiently distribute human flows and create an additional profit for themselves.

Key features of anchor tenants:

· On average, they occupy from 5 to 15 percent of the total area. The maximum amount of the territory they rent is no more than 50%.

· They attract the majority of customers to the shopping center, so their advertising can be found everywhere in the mall.

· Often anchor tenant in the mall is located on the second, third floor (or in other less attractive places). This is done so that, reaching them, a potential buyer can get acquainted with the products of lesser-known stores. For such a kind of advertising, the landlord or owner usually makes the agreed discount to the tenant or provides him with other benefits.

· Most often anchor tenants of shopping centers are various supermarkets. Their most common specialization is products, chemicals or household appliances. Sometimes there may be several at once: for example, on the ground floor there is a grocery supermarket, and on the third floor there is a household appliance. The second floor and empty spaces on the other two are distributed between small narrowly specialized shops and offices.

The loss of a large anchor store in a shopping center reduces sales and revenue of stores located in close proximity to a closed anchor tenant. Gatzlaff et al. (1994) calculated that the rent of non-anchor tenants decreases by an average of a quarter when the main anchor tenant closes. Eppley and Schilling (1993) also studied rental rates in a shopping center and came to the already well-known conclusion that rates of non-anchor tenants are proportionally higher depending on the anchor located in the same shopping center. Yuo et al. (2003) also found that larger retailers pay less, while smaller stores are forced to pay more in terms of the cost of rent as a payment for the positive dynamics created by the anchor in the shopping center, however, there is insufficient research on the relationship between the characteristics of the anchor and attractiveness of the mall for the consumer.

Considering the classification, anchors can often be split into groups, taking into account the goods they sell, as well as how well their brand is known, and both factors affect the willingness of customers to pay brand premiums for their products. In these categories, there are upper class anchors that sell expensive goods (Michael Kors, Massimo Dutti, etc.), middle class anchors (Zara, Bershka, etc.) and low affordable priced anchors, which usually take advantage of the turnover and not the price (H & M, Primark). It is important to note that despite the fact that other retailers in the mall may also have different price ranges, brand categories, it is the class and category of price of the anchor tenant itself that matters the most.

Shops are zoned not only by price segment, but also by profile: sports shops, children's goods and men's clothing are usually concentrated in certain places. Shops of the same profile, located next to each other, attract additional traffic for each other and slow down the buyer, who, leaving one store, is likely to go into the second.

To conclude, anchors attract customers, providing other stores of the shopping center with consumer flows. The landlord spends less on advertising, since the anchor tenant independently conducts his own marketing campaign. Sometimes anchor tenant is paying for the design of the facade of the building. Such a tenant brings more profit than small retail outlets. The presence of a particularly successful anchor allows the landlord to increase rents for smaller tenants, whose consumer flow increases at anchor's expense.

Another factor which should be considered when talking about the shopping centers and customer attraction is the image that they have.

Image and attractiveness of shopping mall

Martineau (1958) considered image of a store as a specific way it is portrayed in the consumer's mind.

An image is often defined as the totality of all representations, knowledge, experience, desires, feelings associated with a particular subject. The image is constructed and introduced into the mind to achieve certain goals. Moreover, for its formation, consumers need constant comparisons of enterprises with each other. Image can be classified as:

· tangible image (first impression of the store);

· intangible image (customer response to the service and attitude of the company's employees to it) (Mamalis et al., 2005);

· internal image (atmosphere within the store, attitude of employees to management policies);

· external image (the impact of the first three elements plus public opinion about the store).

It should also be mentioned that in the formation of the image it is necessary to take into account consumers' emotional, sensory perception. The image of a store consists of two intersecting components - from the general functional advantages of a type of store (specialized, universal, discount, warehouse store, etc.) and the specifics of a particular store belonging to one or another type. This means that customers select a place to make a purchase based on two groups of factors: their own preferences (evaluation criteria) and specific characteristics of the store. In each market segment, customers form the image of the store for themselves, being guided by indicators that they themselves seem most significant.

Finn and Louviere (1996) implied that the generalization of the whole shopping center image is not right. The landlord and management should analyze and form the connection between one particular attribute and the characteristics of the whole mall. They believe it is not effective to create and manage the image of the shopping mall through tenant pool or the size of a shopping center itself. The management should take into consideration of service, communication and rents updates. LeHew et al. (2002) considered customer loyalty in terms of shopping center image and came to the conclusion that they have a direct correlation.

Attractiveness factors

Attractiveness factors are connected to the concept of image and can be divided into several categories.

Aesthetic factors are music, smell, lights and they are considered the most effective when considering customer manipulation (Ezeh and Harris, 2007). Based on the neuromarketing science that the shopping center creates an atmosphere inside. Lindstrom (2005) proved that sensory factors (meaning what is the lightning, smell, visual appeal of the outlet) influence buying decisions by more than 50%. Neuromarketing is a sphere in academic research that includes psychology, human behavior studies, neuroscience and marketing to classify analyze and predict how consumers will behave in response to certain stimuli (Lee et al., 2007). It is a process of researching an unconscious person's reactions to marketing incentives using special equipment and technologies that study heartbeat, breathing, pressure, perspective, eye movement, facial expressions, voice, body odor, handwriting, brain wave dynamics - the biochemistry of emotional reactions. A qualitative interpretation of neuromarketing research data should take into account psychographic segmentation. Neuromarketing packs psychographics into a large amount of data, and then neurophysiological research becomes a tool of neuromarketing, but data science. The analysis of big data of psychographic segmentation allows you to configure the exact targeting of communications by psychotype. The concept of neuromarketing is tightly connected to the analysis and consideration of how human brain reacts to different signals, making the whole marketing campaign more efficient (Horska et al., 2016).

Each outlet works independently to create a comfortable atmosphere, using design elements, light, aroma marketing. For example, Zara Home has a corporate fragrance that is distributed in all stores of the chain. The design of the shopping center is aimed on stimulating buying activity. Lighting and colors are important: color is a visual stimulus that is accountable for subconscious images and processes in the brain. In addition, certain colors and other aesthetic elements can create for the customer certain feelings and intentions depending on what they are associated with (Aslam, 2006). Thus, yellow, orange, red colors in the shopping mall increase appetite, beige shades inspire confidence and calm, that is why the majority of centers are built in this color scheme. Calm and safety are actually crucial factors that impact consumers attitudes, they feel good thanks to the general pace of movement in the mall is much calmer than in the city. The knowledge that everyone around came here for the same purpose allows to feel confident: this uniformity of intentions creates a sense of security. Most often, stores use music, the rhythm of which is slower than the heartbeat: this relaxes and sets the visitor up for shopping. Color, being the key element when considering sense of sight, directly creates certain visual and physiological responses in human brain (Lee et al., 2018). Koc et al. (2018) found that color and light in retail had an impact on consumer's waiting time perceptions and moods, meaning shopping center makes people more patient. Consumers agree to wait some time if necessary, therefore in shopping centers, the completion rate is higher. The mall is always noisy and bright, and the special smooth coating on the floor perfectly reflects light and sound. This is done so that visitors often go to stores where the light is calmer, the music is quieter and the floor coverings are softer. Typically, stores have white walls because the goods are better visible on a white background. There are always chrome racks and built-in ceiling lights. A spacious, brightly lit trading room with the usual standard equipment seems more affordable to the average buyer. The function of creating the mood takes on not the external design, but the musical one.

Next, accessibility should be considered. Accessibility can be both local and global. The first one means access to the center by transport and how far the center is located from the place of residence of the consumer. In this regard several factors are considered by the developer: geographical location of the site, its physical characteristics, the region's infrastructure, the total passenger traffic in the adjacent area (public transport and pedestrians), transport accessibility of the facility by public transport, a road network, parking placement options, visual accessibility of the object. In contrast, micro level means how easy it is to orientate in the center and how well it is structured. Anselmsson (2006) showed in his study that convenience (working hours) plays an important role for a certain part of consumers. However, this cannot be generalized and stated when all customers are considered. In his work it also turned out that customers most often choose centers based on their working hours, anchor shops and pricing policy. In terms of internal layout, Fahmy et al. (2014) raised the issue of shopping center internal planning and discussed the best location of stores inside the building. They created a model whose goal was to create such a shopping center that would ensure even distribution of human flows within the premises and ensure the proper distribution of key stores. The model was built on the high attractiveness of some stores to attract large flows to other stores with a lower proportion of attraction located in the same territory or nearby.

Another factor is variety of brands. Shopping centers usually have a big variety of brands and different stores since effective tenant mix is a key to successful operation. The variety of brands is tight to center's ability to satisfy the whole range of customers' needs (El-Hedhli et al., 2013). As for the brand image, Dennis et al. (2002) found out that it affects customer satisfaction generally influences revenue streams in shopping center. Boatwright and Nunes (2001) stated that variety of brands affects consumer behavior in the shopping center. Customers prefer to visit stores that offer the widest choice of products, which emphasizes the importance of product diversity. The time spent by the buyer on the purchase of the necessary goods largely depends on the stability and completeness of the assortment. How regularly the product catalog is updated and how diverse it is, affects the store's popularity, sales growth, gross profit and revenue. Merrilees et al. (2016) examined the behavior of a customer in a mall by examining how they relate to a particular brand and what they associate with. They deduced that the atmosphere of the shopping center and the products of the shopping center are the main determining reasons for customer satisfaction. At the same time, customer satisfaction and products in the mall are the main factors determining the attitude of consumers to the brand. Shopping center branding is based on two important associations of shopping centers, emanating from the atmosphere of the shopping center and the goods of the shopping center. The satisfactory experience of the brand of the shopping center also contributes to the development of the shopping center the importance of the brand as an intermediary between shopping centers and the atmosphere of the shopping center. The results show that customer satisfaction is a key factor in determining customer attitudes towards shopping malls with a satisfaction indicator of shopping center experience. According to their study, the atmosphere is the main factor that affects consumers and brand choice.

Another important category is entertainment. A significant part of visitors in the shopping center perceives it not only as a place to shop, but also as the main provider of entertainment services such as cinema, bowling, attractions, etc. (Bloch et al, 1994). Now mall visitors consider leisure outlets, cinema parks and entertainment centers way more important than consumers did fifty years ago (Nicholls et al., 2002). Now developers tend to have an entire floor of tenants who provide entertainment. Frasquest et al. (2001) stated that various events within the shopping mall and local fests also contribute to the entertainment part of the center. Sit et al. (2003) stated that entertainment is crucial for the mall since it gives customers the atmosphere of cheer which in turn may result in more sales and customer loyalty.

The last factor is service quality, which has a big influence on buying behaviour. Parasuraman et al. (1988) found out that there is a connection between how consumers rate the quality of service they receive and their willingness to make purchases. Also, Taylor et al. (1994) confirmed that service directly affects how ready the customer is to buy something. And Boulding et al. (1993) also provided the evidence for the positive effect that food service has on consumers' perception. The service as a whole can be described as, firstly, how customer service complies with the established standards of documents and licenses, etc. The main important points that should be fulfilled are the following: timely acceptance of products, careful preparation for sale, rationality of the placement of goods on the trading floor in accordance with product characteristics, replenishment of products in accordance with the demand of customers, compliance with storage and sale of goods, organization of the entire process of delivery of goods to the buyer. Laroche et al. (2005) conducted a study aimed to analyze how service quality affects customer perception. To reach the result and come to some conclusions they conducted three step analysis between groups. They came to an idea that consumer attitude caused by their perception of their surroundings, products quality directly affect their buying behavior through service. And secondly, active sales of goods, how professionally the goods are sold by store employees, their awareness of the product, its usefulness, knowledge of the rules for operating the product and its consumption methods, understanding of customer behavior and motivation, the art of presenting and offering products; ability to advertise a product and offer related and interchangeable products, speed of service, politeness and respect for the buyer.

Another factor that should be mentioned but which does not fall into separate category is food. Similar to entertainment, it plays a significant role in customer experience within the shopping center. The availability and format of catering facilities in a shopping center depends on a number of factors, in some centers a food court acts as a necessary infrastructure, for example, in MEGA complexes, where visitors spend a considerable amount of time, and they need the opportunity to relax and have something to eat. Some shopping centers focus on food court zones and they are the main centers of attraction. However, such a concept should always be identified at a very early stage of development in order to correctly position the food court zone away from other tenants to maximize the positive effect of spillover of consumer flows.

Types of visitors to shopping centers

A study of shopping centers and their factors for attracting customers revealed several consumer types (Dennis et al., 2002). Such a separation was based on various factors, in particular consumer satisfaction and personal consumer perception.

According to the study, separation is done in two ways. In one study group, basic pre-separation was used using demographic characteristics such as gender or age (Dennis et al., 2002; Anselmsson, 2006). However, there were doubts about the effectiveness of such a separation, and many works came to other divisions, which led to the second type, separation after certain actions. Such a separation is aimed at classifying customers based on what they do at the mall, for example, which purchases they make and how (Bloch et al., 2004). Such a classification divides visitors into minimalists, grazing ones, traditionalists and enthusiasts, based on consumer behavior. On the other hand, some studies emphasize the characteristics of the shopping center itself (Sit et al., 2003), which form the model of consumer behavior.