Bracing for the safer tomorrow: The Galleria Mall in Bengaluru is benchmarking how retail store businesses can grow in post lockdown era

As the Silicon Valley of India resumes to normalcy post the lockdown era, malls are now ready to open their door for public to relive the old shopping experience.

While pandemic caused by COVID-19 has impacted business across industry, shopping Malls were affected worst as they were the first to be shut and last to re-open. Given this precarious business condition, owner of the outlets within the malls have endured an admirable resilience.

As people are fast adapting to the new normal, they are still longing for the old physical shopping experience. The Galleria Mall, owned by Brookfield Properties, has successfully restored the diminishing hope of visiting malls by ensuring additional safety to all visitors, especially families, kids and young moms.

The Galleria Mall has ensured that it is a safe destination for people to hang out, shop, take part in various interesting activities, where families and kids can reunite offline without worrying about the viral outbreak.

Safety is the key: How the Galleria Mall is operating profitably with safety measures in place.

From temperature checks at the entryways to cleng and stization of the commonly used areas and compliance with the social distancing norms, from periodic fumigation to regular health checkup of staff, the mall has been taking every safety precaution to make people safe outside their homes, once again. It has a dedicated task force 24x7 to oversee the same.

On the retailer front, The Galleria Mall provided retailers with a huge rental cut and other offerings like a larger credit period to encourage them to reopen their doors in the mall and get the business running. For consumer safety, the orgzation hosted a special campaign for retailers on offering a safe shopping environment to consumers. For instance, retailers in the apparel segment are making sure that every merchandise used for trial goes into quarantine for the next 48 hours and put back on the shelf after proper stization.

"This is the mall we met for the first time, and we both are engaged now. We have pleasant memories with the mall, and that's why we keep coming back again and again. We are happy to know that this is one of the safest malls in Bangalore and the safety precautions taken right from the parking to every store is just amazing" - Ram and Sahana.

"This is our 100th visit, and we have observed a lot of discipline in the mall from Day 1. Very clean, we have seen the stization process happening everyone hour in the mall, and that gives us enough confidence to come back to this mall" - Vivek and Supriya Povaiah.

All these measures underline Brookfield's commitment to keeping customers safe and happy through appealing offerings like big giveaways of laptops, smartphones, gold and diamond jewelry on the back of robust safety regimes. The mall recorded a recovery of 55-60 per cent footfall and 90 per cent revenue as against pre COVID numbers with significant growth of categories like jewelry, electronics, toys, and dining.

Activities to Attract

To enable customers to enjoy as they used to in the pre-COVID days, the mall has continued to host special events for each season, be it Diwali, Christmas, New Year, or Republic Day, in the safest possible manner. Santa Parade, Clown Festival, End of Season sale, musical performances, international clown & magic performances and more have attracted customers in large volumes during October to January.

The Galleria Mall has collaborated with multiple leading influencers across various domains and artists of fame such as Gotra Menon, Monalisa Panda, sh Vidyashankar, Namita Gupta, Husna Sait, Pooja Bajaj, Anuja Pandey, Rida Tharana and more, from domains like fitness, food, fashion, lifestyle, comedy, beauty etc., to make all these events successful, and give people the best time of their lives even during a pressing situation like this.

The successful reopening of the Galleria Mall amidst the pandemic demonstrates how any business can bounce back from tough times like the on-going pandemic and continue to operate more seamlessly than ever. It shows the increasing relevance of safety precautions and how their effective implementation can help compes address numerous challenges and pull customers back to the stores. Currently, the Galleria Mall is one of India's safest places for people to indulge in activities that they have been craving throughout the lockdowns.

"Thanks to the partner brands who believed in us and restarted their operations with safety protocols in place, and customers who relied on our services and came back for a fulfilling experience after a long break. At The Galleria Mall, we believe in putting constant efforts to achieve our vision and add value to customers and partners at every point possible. Since the lockdowns were announced, safety has remained the biggest concern for everyone, and we strive to normalize that by keeping safety at the forefront of all our operations," said the spokesperson of the Galleria Mall.

"Agility and innovation are keys to tackle the unexpected odds that life throws on us. By adapting to the evolving customer demands and innovating business operations, we can ensure continuity even in the toughest of times," he added.

As we advance in 2021, The Galleria Mall's commitment and persistence stands as an inspiration for every orgzation in the industry to fight hard and get back to their businesses in the new normal.

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( With inputs from ANI )