Chadstone in Melbourne and Westfield Parramatta in Sydney have come out on top as Australia’s most popular shopping centres, according to data from Roy Morgan Research.
In the financial year to June 2015, Roy Morgan found 16.5 million Australians over the age of 14 (85 percent) shopped at one or more shopping centres in an average four week period.
Chadstone was the top destination, with 396,000 visitors a month, just ahead of Westfield Parramatta with 385,000.
Also making the top five shopping centres by average four week customer volume were Melbourne Central with 307,000 visitors; Westfield Chermside in Brisbane, 303,000; and just 15km north of Chadstone, Westfield Doncaster at 290,000 visitors a month.
Melbourne is home to eight of the top 20 shopping centres overall, with Highpoint, Northland, Bourke St Mall, Fountain Gate and Knox City each hosting over a quarter of a million shoppers a month.
Another five of the top 20 are in Sydney and four are in Brisbane, with Rundle Mall in Adelaide, Westfield Carousel in Perth and Robina Town Centre on the Gold Coast rounding out the list.
Nearly half of all Australians agree they’ll go out of their way in search of a bargain at 48 percent, but some shopping centres seem to attract a more discount hungry clientele, with the top three all in Queensland – 69 percent of those who shop at Australia Fair or Queen St Mall agree, as do 65 percent of Brisbane’s Myer Centre shoppers.
Just 22 percent of Australians agree they will buy products because of the label, but shoppers at Westfield Bondi Junction in Sydney’s eastern suburbs have a distinct weakness for premium brands, at a rate nearly twice the norm – 43 percent.
Shoppers at Melbourne Central are the most likely to agree they enjoy clothes shopping at 65 percent, compared with the norm of 40 percent, while more prolonged browsing at the racks takes place at Emporium, 62 percent and Westfield Parramatta, 60 percent.
Four in 10 shoppers at Westfield Parramatta, Westfield Woden, or Cairns Central agree that credit enables them to buy the things they want, compared with 31 percent of Australians.
Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan Research, said department stores, large retail chains and supermarkets have outlets in many, if not all, of the country’s main shopping centres, and yet each location might cater to a very different set of customers.
“You can expect vastly different sales results unless you pick the right spot or adjust the stock, ambience, offers and advertising to suit the area,” said Ms Levine.
“Using our Helix Personas segmentation tool, we can drill down to a really specific type of customer. For instance, David Jones and Myer each have stores in both Westfield Warringah Mall and Castle Towers in Sydney’s north, but at Warringah, over one in five shoppers are Bluechip (one of the few personas more likely to shop at David Jones than Myer), while shoppers in Castle Hill are disproportionately Status Matters (who are almost four times more likely to buy from Myer than David Jones).
“This sort of profiling can also help expanding chains and international entrants like H&M and Uniqlo pinpoint optimal sites for future outlets, by matching current (or ideal) customers with the shopping centres those people already shop at regularly,” she said.
