MALL DEVELOPMENTS
Accelerate banks on tactile shopping experiences
Local mall developer Accelerate is confident about consumers’ appetite for shopping, despite the seismic collapse of shopping malls in the US and the steady rise of online buying in SA. The e-commerce boom in the US has relegated mega-malls to ghost-town status. Leaving them in the dust are online retailers such as Amazon, which offer a one-stop shopping experience with quick delivery times. In SA, Takealot has enjoyed robust growth since its merger with Kalahari in 2014 and has a stable of businesses including Takealot.com, Superbalist.com, Mr D Food and Mr D Courier. But as techno-savvy as South African consumers are becoming, the online shopping market makes up less than 5% of total retail sales, so Accelerate is banking on the growing appetite for traditional malls. High data costs, limited access to credit and a general nostalgia about the act of physically feeling what you are buying remain forefront to the local consumer. The revamped Fourways Mall — under construction since ...
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