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Traditional sets of attributes characterizing shopping centres need to be updated to relate to new specific consumers' needs and choices, to ensure the survival of shopping centres. To this end, this chapter revisits shopping centres’ attributes in the light of consumers' choices of actual centres, taking into account the recent increasing role of technologies, leisure activities and changes in consumer behaviour. In doing so, we aim to improve perceptions of modernity and help to regenerate (or at least mitigate the decline of) shopping centres. Specifically, the new set of attributes include appearance (external appearance), convenience, entertainment and leisure activities, memorable experiences, green place and policy, image (modern image), price, service, size and technology.

Inner city centers not only provide opportunities for shopping, dining, and entertainment, but with their lively atmosphere and other vital attributes, also create attractive destinations for residents and tourists alike. However, inner city retailing, potentially the most important reason to visit an inner city, is facing serious competition from e-commerce and out-of-town shopping malls. Dying inner city centers have become a severe issue in recent years, worldwide. To counteract this devastating trend and ensure the vitality and viability of inner city centers, stakeholders from the public and private sectors regularly join their forces in initiatives to strengthen urban structures. However, academic insights into the contribution of retailing on perceived city attractiveness remain sparse. Relying on an extensive data set that combines survey and observational data, the authors are able to quantify a variety of inner city characteristics, ranging from its store and service provider portfolio to its ambience and accessibility, and measure their association with its perceived attractiveness. They show that a city's portfolio of retail stores is not only related to people's perceptions of the city's overall attractiveness but also perceptions of its ambience. However, not all retail categories contribute the same way; while the presence of clothing stores or booksellers is strongly associated with cities' ambience as well as attractiveness, other retail categories such as optometrists or electronics stores are negatively associated with consumers' inner city perceptions. Importantly, these relationships also depend on the size of the focal city. Based on their results, the authors provide important managerial and societal implications on how to leverage the local retailing environment to improve inner city attractiveness. For example, the results may inform (local) governments on which sectors to subsidize in order to attract those store and service provider categories that benefit inner city attractiveness.

China represents around 20% of the world's population, and her economy is still performing well under economic crisis. Historical events have shaped different parts of China with different economic developments and cultural encounters. The most prominent difference is between Hong Kong and the Mainland. This chapter would like to examine the development and issues of fashion retailing in China. For better understanding, this chapter starts with a brief discussion on apparel industry development and fashion culture in Hong Kong and the Mainland, follows by historical development and then presents systems of fashion retailing in both Hong Kong and the Mainland. Desktop research and exploratory research techniques were employed. Stores of international fashion luxury brands in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing were visited. Comparison of branding issues, particularly for luxury market in Hong Kong and the Mainland are discussed, so are future directions of fashion retailing in these places.

• Retail agglomerations are predestined to capitalise on the combination of the strengths of traditional retailing and digital service innovations.

• Digital touchpoints can enhance the visitor experience throughout the whole customer journey, that is not only on-site but also before reaching as well as after having left the agglomeration.

• Digital service innovations can provide additional value to visitors of a retail agglomeration through four elements of the digital marketing mix: Information, orientation, communication and atmosphere.

• Technologies like augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) can create unique and memorable customer experiences, ensuring that retailers and service providers as well as the retail agglomeration as a whole continue to thrive.

• Key success factors for the implementation of digital services in the context of retail agglomerations include participative innovation processes, cooperation and the communication of clear benefits to stakeholders.

Retail agglomerations are predestined to capitalise on the combination of the strengths of traditional retailing and digital service innovations.

Digital touchpoints can enhance the visitor experience throughout the whole customer journey, that is not only on-site but also before reaching as well as after having left the agglomeration.

Digital service innovations can provide additional value to visitors of a retail agglomeration through four elements of the digital marketing mix: Information, orientation, communication and atmosphere.

Technologies like augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) can create unique and memorable customer experiences, ensuring that retailers and service providers as well as the retail agglomeration as a whole continue to thrive.

Key success factors for the implementation of digital services in the context of retail agglomerations include participative innovation processes, cooperation and the communication of clear benefits to stakeholders.

The aim of the chapter is to analyze the attitudes of young city inhabitants toward the traditional urban space (city center, neighborhood) and commercial space (the mall). When they spend their time, where are the places important for their individual activity and group identities? What role is played in their lives by the urban center and what by the mall? I searched for the answers to these questions using studies carried out on teenagers from two Polish cities: Krakow and Katowice (qualitative research: expert interviews and observations; followed by questionnaires on two samples: the first comprised 838 teenagers aged 13–16 attending secondary schools from the cities). The empirical research indicates two models of the urban spaces of young city inhabitants: the first one with strong meaning of the city center (which does not correlate with the everyday practices) and the second with “absent” traditional center and relatively strong neighborhoods. The neighborhood has the biggest potential for socializing young people as the citizens; the city center and the mall are – for teenagers – rather the spaces for “consuming.” It is vital to understand the developing typical relations of young people with urban spaces to see what the “city is becoming.”