Indian shopping malls are not dying but reinventing, writes Shriram PM Monga, Co-founder at SRED
It was a long, drawn-out process. Amazon and Flipkart, along with other online shopping sites, slowly began to draw shoppers out of stores, and the old-school retail format began to show the first signs of stress, widening voids, declining and disinterested retail traffic, and a gradual shrinkage of weak malls across the country. As long as there was a path, it was in no one’s interest, not even retail’s.
But then something changed.
In India, malls are more than just shopping destinations now. Shopping goes beyond the four walls of the mall. The new mall is a place to spend quality time, make memories, and be a destination in itself. Welcome to Malls 2.0. Experience brands: these malls are focused on moments, not transactions.
The Numbers Tell a Confident Story
You can’t really argue with the fundamentals of the retail market. There were deals totalling over 6.5 million sq. ft. of retail space in 2024, and demand continued to outstrip supply for a third consecutive year. Occupancy levels rose, and the national vacancy rate dropped to 7.8%, an obvious sign of good health from the retailing and development side.
In the future, India will require about 55 million sq. ft. of Grade-A shopping centre space by 2027, as disposable incomes grow, urbanisation accelerates, and a tipping point in consumer behaviour toward high-end and experiential retail is reached. Where indecision precedes decision in the past, movement has led.
From Shopping Trip to All-Day Outing
One noticeable change in shopping behaviour is evident in people’s visits to malls and the reasons for their visits.
Mainstream Indian malls now attract around 25,000 to 26,000 visitors each day, but retail growth is no longer the primary motivation for these visitors. Many people come to malls to browse without intending to make purchases, to relax by water features, to attend live performances, to meet friends over a leisurely lunch, or simply to spend time in gaming areas. They have effectively removed the shopping aspect from their visits.
This subtle shift has transformed the experience of going to a mall; it has become less of a quick stop and more of an all-day outing.
The Destination Mall: Three Pillars
1. Entertainment as the Anchor
Top malls such as Inorbit Mall and Forum Mall have redefined their spaces to revolve around ‘experience’ literally! Multiplex cinemas such as PVR INOX have been drawing regional audiences to premieres. Gaming zones and VR arenas keep the not-so-young entertained for hours! Bowling alleys, trampoline parks, and kids’ zones have established malls as default family outing destinations.
You can see the impact. Nexus Select Citywalk, Saket, Delhi, enjoys 15-20% higher footfall during periods of experiential programming. It becomes a destination in itself. For visitors from neighbouring cities, it becomes an air-conditioned consolidated destination with a complete entertainment package.
2. Food & Drink: The New Reason to Travel
The food court as a utilitarian canteen is history. Food halls at destinations such as DLF Promenade and High Street Phoenix offer curated dining, international cuisines, independent restaurants, specialist cafes and a live nightlife scene.
The food halls make it their business to accommodate visitors from out of town, offering an array of cuisines without the need to navigate anxious, unfamiliar streets. For regular city visitors, the food hall has, sub rosa, become the principal appeal: a place of social gathering where hanging around has replaced shopping as the primary motive for coming.
3. Retailtainment: Shopping as Performance
Shopping itself has become an experience at malls like UB City and Phoenix Marketcity. Images of global brands such as Nike and Adidas walk off the display shelves of their flagship stores and unfold as stimuli across space through movement activations, immersive soundscapes, and trial experiences.
For those arriving from beyond the city limits, they aren’t just stores. It’s a unique retail experience that really does make the trip worthwhile.
Malls as Tourist Infrastructure
Maybe the most amazing achievement so far is that tourists now visit some Indian malls in the same way as forts, temples and scenic places.
Jio World Plaza in Mumbai is an attraction unto itself for the dedicated luxury shopper, aiming to be on a par with the world’s great shopping arcades. Lulu Mall in Kochi and Lucknow has become a destination in its own right; shoppers commute from neighbouring districts, drawn by its scale and variety. In Delhi-NCR, Nexus Select Citywalk and DLF Mall of India also appear consistently in tourist guides and personal travel tips.
This positioning makes particular sense in the Indian context:
Climate refuge: Heatwaves in hot cities can make a well-designed mall the perfect refuge from the sweltering city streets, letting shoppers linger and browse longer.
One-stop shopping: For new visitors, a mall that combines places to eat, play and buy creates a frictionless destination.
Safety and accessibility: Family-friendly amenities and a secure, comfortable environment attract both families and first-time visitors to malls.
Cultural programming: Flea markets, art galleries, yoga classes, seasonal celebrations… These are all attractions that give the malls a reason to come that don’t stop at shopping.
The Tier 2 and 3 Opportunity
Across the city, the destination mall type is no longer a metro’s only phenomenon. Lulu Mall in Lucknow and Elante Mall in Chandigarh have proved that organised, experience-driven retail is entering smaller urban centres and is being met with excitement.
The effect is even stronger in these places. Family crowds from the small towns outside the metro come in. Openings are occasions. The in-city mall experience is now genuinely new, and the destination effect kicked in. For experience-first brands, the formula is obvious: if you build a place that draws an entire family, they will come.
Not Every Mall Will Make It
The change between the two is uneven, and the line separating the two extremes is tightening.
In around 30 Indian cities, there are approximately 20 malls termed ‘ghost malls’, characterised by high vacancy, low footfall, and an unsuitable tenant mix. The majority of distressed malls have been located in West & South India.
The pattern is instructive: traditional malls that were conceived solely as retail, with a lack of identity, a lack of layers of experience, and no reason to linger, are closing (or closing down), while those that evolved into destinations are doing fine. Companies that own underperforming properties know all the reasons for this: the margins are impossible to maintain with high rental and operators’ cost structure, the relentless threats from digital commerce and quick commerce, and the relentless pressure to reinvent.
The Mall as a Place to Be
Tired no longer, energised. Indian shopping malls are not dying but reinventing.
Those moments added to an experience that screens can’t provide-a connection to each other and to a physical place-and the realisation that a premier shopping centre needn’t exist entirely to compete with its virtual counterpart adds up to something bigger. Those malls (think of DLF Mall of India, Phoenix Marketcity, and Lulu Mall) will thrive.
In a world fueled by digital convenience, the spaces that provide a reason to show up will stand the test of time. India’s Malls 2.0 are no longer places to shop. They are places to be.
