AFTER a thorough observation of the Philippines’ retail-market culture, the founder of a New York-based research and consulting company suggested that retailers craft new ideas from places where the money is “young,” such as in Moscow, Dublin, Sao Paolo, Mexico City, Shanghai, Mumbai and Dubai, instead of borrowing concepts from the West.

Speaking about global trends in retail and consumer-shopping behavior recently at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel, Paco Underhill, founder and chief executive officer of research and consulting company Envirosell, underscored factors for the country which underpin his thesis that it is “not timely to be West-[oriented].”

“The Philippines has a very different labor market. Its access to materials and creativity is radically different,” he explained. “It has the advantage [of being able] to access educated and motivated people at low labor cost.”

Underhill explained why owning malls is not just about real estate and collecting rents, while enumerating examples of young markets to effectively entice people to visit malls beyond the reasons of shopping.

For instance: “A South Africa mall displays Audi cars in all colors to gain more attraction.”

He also advised mall-management representatives to invest on training sales people and security guards because the two have the most number of encounters among shoppers.

“Security guards in Brazil and in the United Arab Emirates [UAE] are not only dressed in suits. They are empowered and know where to offer specific shopping stores or restaurants,” cited Underhill.

The forum attendees were asked to watch a video clip taken from a South Korean store where salespeople are double-teaming customers starting from their entry.

Underhill exclaimed, “Definitely, they will blow customers away! Customers need privacy in choosing.”

“Through training, they [salespeople and security guards] can act like the mall is theirs and control any situation. Train these people and they will make the investment later,” he added.

Furthermore, the shopping guru gave tips to redefine mall operations at the shoppers’ safety and convenience.

“Malls should not be too focused on design but operations. There should be better management training of stores and better information display people can use,” Underhill said

“Malls can be experimental, too, in driving traffic by exposing revenue streams like signage, in-mall view or integrating aesthetics like dental clinics and beauty centers,” he added.

Meanwhile, after the success of Underhill’s two previous books Call of the Mall and Why We Buy, his third book, entitled The Worship of Goddess, will be out soon.                               

In the book, the author explains how the changing status of women in society changes the state of how people live.

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AFTER a thorough observation of the Philippines’ retail-market culture, the founder of a New York-based research and consulting company suggested that retailers craft new ideas from places where the money is “young,” such as in Moscow, Dublin, Sao Paolo, Mexico City, Shanghai, Mumbai and Dubai, instead of borrowing concepts from the West.

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