South Africa's top malls - ROOTS 2010 Survey

From the survey the top malls tend to be in Gauteng, but according to John Bowles, joint MD of NAB, that could be as a result of the weighting in the sample that was very comprehensive in the measurement of Gauteng community areas. "For this reason we're supplying the top malls in a few categories from the survey. We're giving you the big traffic LSM 8-10 malls across the survey, then analysed key LSM 4-6 destinations and, finally, ring-fenced Gauteng."

Retail- and advertising-related questions

ROOTS 2010 surveyed over 100 pre-defined areas across urban South Africa between March and November, 2009, in a massive face-to-face survey that measured mall visits as well as many other retail- and advertising-related questions. Although the timeframe may be a little historic, the data is still very useful considering the slowdown in new mall development and static residential property growth. Bowles explained: "The data is giving our retail customers a unique view on their different customer profiles within the malls. So, on the one hand, ROOTS shows us the big-volume malls, but then it breaks down the demographics, buying habits and retail destinations of those visitors too.

Some clients are using the data to source new malls, analyse problem malls and examine their winning mall destinations and the formulas they hold. They're finding the data very useful indeed." Bowles stated that not enough planning is done in determining the right mall for retail. Often retailers can be lured by good rental deals without understanding the catchment area and the shopping patterns within it.

A view before commitment

"Once retailers are committed to the space, the success and destiny is determined by the immediate catchment areas and where they shop. The profile of that catchment area and their current shopping patterns are often shelved for later analysis. Then, a year down the line, retailers are scratching their heads on what to do with a poorly performing operation. The ROOTS data at least gives the retailer a view of the mall's catchment area before they commit, or at least helps them understand those areas and adjust their merchandising and marketing strategy accordingly," he said.

Although each mall's intrinsics should be analysed separately, for the purposes of summarising the release and keeping to a top line basis, the survey shows the big traffic pullers in the various key marketing segments as follows:

Conducted by TNS Research Surveys, the ROOTS 2010 data is available to retailers, marketers, media planners and strategists, and is accessible on many of the available cross-tabulation software systems. For more information, contact NAB on +27 (0)11 889 0610 or go to www.nab.co.za. The Newspaper Advertising Bureau (NAB) has activated its Twitter profiles and can be followed @NAB_SA or @ROOTS2010.