Shopping malls play an important role in Indonesia, in particular Jakarta, but their use is shifting.
Millennials are one demographic that are currently under a lot of scrutiny. Partly as there are various misconceptions about how they go about their everyday lives, what their ambitions and life goals are, but also as it is important to understand this segment of society for businesses to plan in order to drive forward.
Despite the common myth that millennials are carefree, data collected from CBRE who surveyed over 5,000 individuals in this bracket, revealed that they spend two-thirds of their income on leisure, and a fifth of their income is saved. A quarter of their spending constitutes social shopping and is used to spend time with family and friends. There is still a passion to go out and socialise even though there are increasing number of social media platforms that enable numerous ways to chat with friends without having to having to physically chat to one another face-to-face.
Millennials spend 4.7 days every month shopping online. Having said that, shopping malls still provide an environment for millennials to socialise, eat out and conduct services such as banking. Visiting them approximately three days every month despite shopping online being a big hit, they certainly still play an important role in society and the footfall of those in Jakarta are not expected to get any less.
Dr Henry Chin, head of research at CBRE Asia Pacific commented, “In order to leverage on millennials’ spending habits, retailers are recommended to increase the experience-based element of their offering and focus on providing an environment for visitors to socialize and relax. In addition to increasing F&B, cinema and entertainment elements in their shopping malls, retail landlords should consider organizing more live events to attract millennials. However, they should also carefully manage their tenant mix to ensure they still cater to other generations”
