With many Brisbane consumers just as likely to browse the virtual shelves of Saks Fifth Avenue New York as their local fashion store, bricks and mortar shopping centres are moving towards "empowering" their customers.
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Kay McMahon, lecturer and member of the Australian Fashion Council, said consumer empowerment, spawned from the online shopping revolution, signalled an 'end-of-days' scenario for some fashion malls.
Ms McMahon said local centres most at-risk include those that failed to accommodate a customer base that was more knowledgeable about fashion styles and product offerings.
She said fashion marketing had become a "conversation in fashion”, rather than a barrage of messaging.
“It's so much more powerful. Gone are the days when Westfield would be one telling us what's on offer, or we'd impulse buy based on a trip to the mall and a look in the windows," Ms McMahon said.
"Today, we're informing our fashion buying decisions based off what we research online or fashion bloggers, who have even usurped fashion magazines to some degree.
“That's why your Westfields, your Broadways are looking at employing bloggers.”
The Australian National Retailers Association last month estimated three quarters of Australians had used the internet to help out with their shopping since December, with 65 per cent of those shopping online making some of their purchases from overseas websites.
ANRA chief executive Margy Osmond said Australian consumers post-global financial crisis continued to "confound” the sector.
“Online shopping on overseas sites remains a challenge for the retail sector and reflects general changes in consumer behaviour post-GFC where bargain hunting has been rife,” she said.
“These changing trends emphasise the need for the Productivity Commission inquiry to examine a variety of aspects of the retail industry as a whole in order to set the sector up for a return to recovery in coming years.”
That challenge is being met head-on by Brisbane retailers.
A spokeswoman for one of Brisbane's leading CBD fashion malls, who did not want to be identified, said the times were changing.
“Thirty years ago, all you needed to advertise was your address,” she said.
“Now, there's also almost the need to advertise why coming to a mall to shop is a worthwhile exercise.”
Emma Chettleburgh, marketing manager fashion-focused CBD mall QueensPlaza, said the days of sales-oriented promotions has passed.
“Our relationship with our customer has to be richer than that,” she said.
“We need a presence on Facebook and to find ways of interacting directly with consumers – they want fashion information today, they don't just want to be fed specials.”
To this end, Broadway on the Mall, Westfield Chermside, QueensPlaza and Wintergarden are among the Brisbane centres with marketing campaigns aimed at social media.
Embracing the digital media revolution
Skewed towards fashion retail, each centre's approach is slightly different.
Broadway is hunting for the city's top fashion blogger while Westfield Chermside ran a 'fashion entourage' competition aimed at involving budding local stylists and photographers directly in their marketing.
Meanwhile, QueensPlaza is hosting a student design competition and in-store exhibition and Wintergarden is set to host a special high-tea event with premier Australian designer Lisa Ho.
These local, inclusive campaigns follow a major national competition campaign instigated last year by shopping mall giant Westfield to find Australia's 'top consumerist'.
The 23-year-old winner, Alyce Cowell, is today employed by Westfield to “blog and inform the online community about 'on trend, on budget' buys”, according to a media statement issued by the company.
Broadway on the Mall marketing manager Teresa Gomez said the centre's own blogger-hunt reflected the need to “compete in the social space” of online fashion shopping.
Ms Gomez said shopping centres had to find ways of entering the web world without undermining their core business.
In the case of Broadway, Ms Gomez said this inclusive repositioning was particularly important given that the young, tech-savvy shoppers targeted by its retailers where among the most likely to buy online than in-store.
“Whether they're shopping online or turning to bloggers for inspiration or information, the point is that our customers are now as likely to 'browse' online as they are in-store,” she said.
“We think that creating a vocal community around the fashion we stock is the first step to remaining competitive online and keeping customers coming to our retailers and ensuring our mall is an attractive place for retailers to do business.”
Effectively managing this balance is becoming increasingly important in the current economic climate, with last week's Reserve Bank of Australia's half yearly Financial Stability Review revising down earnings expectations for the retail sector.
According to the review, high petrol and food prices will keep a lid on discretionary spending in coming months as Australian shoppers adopt a “squirrel-like” mentality not seen as strongly since the mid-80s.
The ARNA's latest survey revealed 42 per cent of shoppers planned to reduce their spending in 2011 – a figure that was “even more of a worry” than the number who intended to spend the same.
