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How can the situation of shoppers staying at home and being unable to experience malls prepare retailers for the new marketplace? The COVID-19 lockdown provides a unique opportunity to examine the value of mall experiences to shoppers. This study aims to suggest a new mall experiences loss (MEXLOSS) model for assessing the importance of mall experiences as the foundation of any future strategy for attracting shoppers back to the mall.

A total of 498 British shoppers completed an online survey during the May 2020 COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

When the exchanges of resources manifested in mall experiences are absent, the perceived difficulty of substituting an experience increases shoppers’ longing for the experience, which in turn increases both willingness to pay and mall loyalty but decreases well-being. Using a conceptualization of four types of mall experiences, i.e. functional, seductive, recreational and social, the functional and recreational experiences are shown to be the most valuable.

In the new more careful service marketplace, shoppers’ preferences are increasingly oriented toward health, safety, sustainability, collaboration and digitalization. To improve their resilience and attractiveness, malls need to adjust their layout, retail mix, digitalization, activities and connectivity according to these trends and to the characteristics of each mall experience.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to place a financial value on mall experiences and to use the absence of those experiences to assess their general and relative importance. The findings challenge previous assumptions about the superiority of online shopping and the decreasing attractiveness of malls.

The present exploratory study aims to link various fields of inquiry dealing with the consumer experience so as to conceptualise the mall experience and delineate its components.

A total of 119 informants wrote narratives about their mall experience. Of these stories, 100 underwent narrative and content analysis in order to identify key components of the mall experience.

The findings show that the mall experience can be conceptualised as a holistic subjective phenomenon, encompassing a behavioural core accompanied by cognitive and emotional reactions. Four different mall experiences were identified: seductive, interactive museum, social arena, and functional.

This exploratory study offers a theoretical conceptualisation of the mall experience.

The paper offers a new conceptualisation of the mall experience, based on a behavioural core with associated cognitive and emotional reactions. The paper identifies four types of mall experience. It redefines the impact of the physical environment on customers' reactions; expands the theory regarding hedonic and utilitarian consumption; and stresses the social role of the mall.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of a shopping companion on mall brand experience.

The quantitative multi-group structural equation model study contrasts three shopper types: those shopping alone; those shopping with friends; and those shopping with family. Two categories are shoppers in a group. Nine hypotheses evaluate the impact of shopping with a companion.

The results show that companions enhance the emotional brand experience. Further, shoppers with family companions are most able to enhance brand evaluation from mall brand experience. Shopping companions help co-create the shopping brand experience.

The findings are limited to Australian shoppers and contrast with Canadian studies, emphasizing friends. Alone shoppers place priority on price and only the alone shoppers are price-sensitive. The findings help address the gap in the literature, namely, understanding focal retail consumers in a group situation.

Retailers and mall managers in planned shopping centers could consider developing different retail strategies and brand experiences, which address the specific types of customer groups or alone shoppers.

The paper is explicitly about social influences.

This original research contributes new perspectives to understanding the role of companion shoppers as co-creators of the focal shopper’s mall brand experience.

In a consumer-driven world, captivating experiences are increasingly vital and retailers prioritise them for consumers. This study aims to develop a comprehensive theoretical framework that explores the impact of a consumer's multi-sensory and atmospheric experiences on their intention and commitment to a mall, with perceived value acting as a mediating factor.

The study employed a descriptive quantitative research approach and utilised a self-administered mall-intercept survey. A total of 380 shoppers participated in and responded to the survey administered at the mall. The collected responses are analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

Study findings show that experiences significantly influence consumers' intentions to patronise shopping malls, leading to their commitment. The study reveals a strong impact of atmospheric experience on multi-sensory experiences. Furthermore, perceived value mediates the relationship between consumers' experiences and their mall patronage intention.

The research sheds light on the significance of atmospheric elements in creating sensory experiences for consumers. Additionally, the study introduces the concept of “props” as essential components of the atmospheric experiences in retail stores and malls. Furthermore, the study advances inference theory by exploring the effects of these sensory and atmospheric experiences within the shopping mall environment.

This research aims to conceptualize and validate the mall service design as a multidimensional construct and then test a conceptual framework by investigating the impact of mall service design on customer mall experience and its subsequent outcomes, that is, intention to revisit and desire to stay in mega shopping malls.

The survey data of 455 shopping visitors in Pakistan were collected using a mall intercept technique and tested through structural equation modeling in AMOS.

The study reveals that service design significantly impacts customer experience and subsequent outcomes. Customer mall experience mediates the relationships between mall service design and the intention to revisit and desire to stay at malls.

Data from a collectivist culture country (Pakistan) were collected. To explore the impact of service design on customer mall experience, researchers should conduct similar studies in individualistic societies like Europe and North America. Additionally, the authors recommend assessing the effect of each dimension of service design on customer experience separately.

The research provides policy guidelines for the owners and operators of mega shopping malls in developing experience-oriented retailing strategies based on service design.

The research conceptualizes and validates the mall service design as a multidimensional construct using the service theater model and empirically tests its relationship with the customer mall experience.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the dimensions of mall attractiveness for Indian shoppers from the metro cities of New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai; and subsequently investigate the effect of these dimensions on shoppers’ mall experience.

A shopper intercept survey was conducted in the aforementioned cities and 400 responses were obtained which were analysed with exploratory factor analysis and stepwise regression.

The results indicate that tenant management, facilities management, atmospherics and entertainment potential are the factors which attract shoppers to malls. Tenant management, facilities management and atmospherics also emerge as significant predictors of mall shopping experience.

Due to limited resources, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the derived factors and hypothesized relationships further.

Contemporary retail settings have transited to offer holistic experiences, generated out of tenant mix, facilities and atmospherics. Managers of shopping malls can enhance their mall attractiveness by identifying an optimal mix of factors such as crowd management, tenant variety, parking, etc. as seen in the results of this study. Entertainment emerges as a mall attractiveness dimension but not as a significant predictor of shopping experience which shows that Indian shoppers’ inclination towards hedonism is still in elementary stages and economic pursuit continues to be a dominant motivator for visiting a mall.

This paper attempts to provide a holistic overview of mall attractiveness dimensions in India and its implications for shopping experiences.

The transition from multichannel to omnichannel retailing requires a better conceptualisation, especially for customer experience in smart shopping malls. Therefore, this study aims to propose a theoretical model that captures customers’ omnichannel experiences in smart shopping malls in terms of personal interaction, physical environment and virtual environment encounters. It examines the mediating role of flow experience on the relationship between the three types of encounters and customers’ intention to revisit smart shopping malls.

The study draws on four key theories: the service encounter model, trust-commitment theory, flow theory and experiential value theory. A total of 553 completed questionnaires were collected from customers (millennials) in the United Kingdom (UK). The data was analysed using partial least squares-structural equation modelling.

The findings show that physical environment encounters and personal interaction encounters play a significant role in customers’ omnichannel experiences in smart malls. Also, of significance are the following aspects of virtual environment encounters: interface design, personalisation, trust, privacy, consumer–peer interaction and relationship commitment. The findings highlight the significant mediating role of flow on the relationships between these three types of encounters and intention, and the effect of flow on omnichannel service usage in smart shopping malls.

The research contributes to the existing literature by proposing a conceptual model: the smart shopping mall omnichannel customer experience (SSMCE) model. The findings offer practical guidance to shopping malls and retailers who wish to enhance the customer omnichannel experience.

The paper aims to explore the contributing factors impacting on shopping experiences of customers in Mauritius. It also seeks to investigate the relative significance of these factors in predicting the willingness of customers to visit shopping malls of Mauritius.

The paper applies the data reduction technique using exploratory factor analysis on a sample of 600 respondents drawn from 23 shopping malls and shopping centres across Mauritius and condenses a set of 33 mall attributes into a list of six comprehensible dimensions about shopping experience. The multiple regression analysis was also conducted to investigate the importance of the six shopping experience dimensions in influencing the behavioural intentions of customers to visit shopping malls of Mauritius in future.

The factor analysis identified that customers visualise shopping experience as a combination of six factors: “provision of childcare facilities”, “health and wellness events”, “entertaining events”, “sports and games facilities”, “value‐added restaurant facilities” and “shopping events”. The results of the regression analysis have also suggested that the willingness of customers to visit the shopping malls is primarily derived from one significant factor related to “entertainment facilities and events”.

Shopping mall managers should cater for more entertainment facilities and events. Mall developers should also focus on improving restaurant facilities by maximizing regular renovation of food courts, integrating international coffee shops and fast food outlets in various shopping malls of Mauritius.

The study is still a pioneer work on the factors impacting on shopping experiences in the context of Mauritius which is still a developing nation. Yet, it would serve as a roadmap for mall managers and designers to enhance shopping experience in similar contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to identify specific cognitive and affective responses in mall experience, as well as their antecedents, moderators and behavioural outcomes.

The paper is based on content analysis technique. Data were obtained through in-depth interviews conducted from February 2013 to January 2014.

The study reports the identification of efficiency and confusion as cognitive responses, as well as frustration, stress, peacefulness and excitement as affective responses experienced during the shopping trip. These responses lead to behavioural outcomes that are time spent, buying intentions and repatronage intentions. Furthermore, the paper identifies the main antecedents of these responses and the moderators of their relationships.

The findings provide insights into the study of psychological responses in retailing and avenues for further research.

This research offers practical implications for managers, related to the manipulation of mall characteristics in order to encourage positive cognitive and affective responses and avoid negative ones.

Based on content analysis technique, the present paper proposes a theoretical framework to conceptualize mall experience, detecting specific cognitive and affective responses and their specific behavioural outcomes as well as moderators.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether experiential offerings from two types of retailers play a significant role in consumer responses toward Indian malls. Specifically, this study examined the relationships between consumer perceptions of experience economy 4E constructs (i.e. educational, entertainment, escapist, and esthetic experiences) and experiential value associated with merchandise retailers and service retailers in Indian shopping malls, and between perceived experiential value and mall patronage intention.

A mall intercept survey conducted in two shopping malls in India resulted in 552 useable responses. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized relationships.

Experience economy constructs (i.e. entertainment, escapist, and esthetic experiences) contributed to the experiential value associated with merchandise retailers and/or service retailers in the mall. Experiential value associated with both merchandise retailers and service retailers in the mall positively influenced mall patronage intention.

The results have practical implications for mall retailers, mall managers, and mall developers; particular experiential strategies for both merchandise retailers and service retailers may improve patronage intentions toward the mall, which includes a measure of purchase intentions.

Although academic articles support the idea that retailers can obtain benefits by offering experiences to consumers, this is the first study to empirically validate the role of specific consumer experiences, the 4Es, resulting from both merchandise retailers and service retailers, in a non-Western mall context on value creation for shoppers and the consequent influence on patronage intentions.