The retail sector is continuing to provide the amusement industry with solid growth opportunities, as InterGame discovers

Whether the market is developed or emerging, the retail sector is proving to be a hot spot for entertainment and leisure opportunities. While entertainment has always had a close link with retail, in more recent years there has been a ‘mushrooming’ of shopping centres with the main objective to differentiate themselves from other malls in the vicinity.

According to Timezone Group’s CEO Sonaal Chopra, interactive entertainment has become a key component in the mix to help generate foot traffic and help customers spend more time within the mall.

“Shopping malls are now keen to look at destination entertainment models that provide customers with a variety of concepts and attractions and position themselves as a destination visit for a family,” he says. “For an ordinary concept, shopping malls are not willing to compromise on rentals.”

Timezone operates in over 200 shopping malls across seven countries, leasing over one million square feet of space. It opened 27 new stores within shopping malls in 2011 and plans to open another 15 to 20 during 2012. For Chopra, the biggest advantage of operating within shopping malls is that it provides an opportunity to eat into the captive high mall traffic.

“Unless you operate a large format destination store, the FEC model needs provision for a ready made traffic flow which the shopping mall is best suited to provide,” he says. “It also provides FECs an opportunity to locate in an ideal set-up next to the cinemas and food offering.”

With this captive audience focused on the family, it will come as no surprise that attractions including family rides, redemption and prize vending games perform well and are a key strategy in shopping malls. Bowling also has a strong place within the entertainment set-up.

For amusement giant Sega Amusements Europe, shopping malls provide unique opportunities for the coin-op amusement industry and they are “massively important to the industry, providing strong levels of business,” says the company’s Justin Burke. “Arcade environments in shopping malls are expanding into all sorts of product types from video to redemption, as there is such a wide audience to target. The locations themselves will tend to be bigger so you will also get your bigger centrepieces and simulators.”

Photo booths also work extremely well in shopping malls and centres. For Allen Weisberg of US-based photo booth manufacturer Apple Industries, a grouping of shops indoor or outdoors is a primary location for a photo booth. With this in mind it has launched an outdoor booth, suitable for all weather locations, a Face Place version, which will complete all of the functions of its indoor cousin but also ‘face’ up to whatever the elements throw at it.

This feature can be read in full in the April 2012 issue of InterGame magazine.